Thanks! Somehow I’m not able to update with plain text, but updating with the object works so I have a workaround for now. I may have a clue about the creating bug that might be helpful. I noticed that in the API creation code (https://github.com/concord-consortium/codap/blob/master/apps/dg/components/data_interactive/data_interactive_phone_handler.js#L1821-L1823), the text property gets remapped to apiText, but in https://github.com/concord-consortium/codap/blob/master/apps/dg/components/text/text_controller.js#L121, the text property is referred to, which console.log says is undefined.
Jason