Add new linked record when entering data in a form

I’ve been using Cognito Forms as my front end form which then passes the data into AirTable via Zapier. I really like the power of cognito forms and the nice custom field layouts you can do with it. You can even have the form perform complex calculations and dump the result into AirTable if all you care about is the result. Zapier connects the two and allows you to specify what action you want to take when a new form entry is submitted; one of which is create new record.

thanks for the info. Sounds overly complex and I’d rather Airtable add this
natively…

Aaron,

Is it possible to use the repeatable section in Cognito form & zapier to populate a linked table? I have a request table and would like to populate a linked environment table. Each request could have multiple environments.

Thanks,

Erik

From what I remember, the repeatable section in Cognito exports via Zapier
in sort of a strange way. I believe it’s in a comma separated single field.
I think running a test would be the best way to find out if it’ll do what
you’re wanting.

Aaron Owen

2440 Mariposa St. 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94110
415-671-6588 x700 (o)
415-571-6979 ©

Thanks Aaron. Yeah testing doesn’t seem to give me much success, I’ve tried
including the column names, ;, and commas.

Erik Johnson

Systems Analyst
Virtual Infrastructure & Release Team

D: 802.654.0000
F: 802.654.9699

Retail Business Intelligence Software, Point of Sale Merchandising

Mi9 Retail is the fastest growing provider of enterprise software for retailers, wholesalers, and brands, from corporate retail systems to point of purchase systems.

I agree - this could be a real game changer.

Being able to search and pull records from tables on the forms is awesome. It just needs to be taken one step further and allow the ability to create a new record from that form submission (that fills that table since it did not exist)…

We have a workaround that is working well, but again this would benefit a lot of people I believe.

Thanks!

Keith

+1 for the possibility of adding records from the form view

I’ve run into this same problem several times, it would be great to have some kind of “Sub Form” option, or some way to add a record into one table, while in the middle of adding a record into another table. For example:

I have a table of clients, and a table of groups that the client is a part of. When adding a new client from the form view, I can select from existing groups to associate the client with, but not create a new group. I’m hoping my base will be adopted by my team, but this problem makes the process more time consuming, which means people will be less likely to use it. :worried:

Would be a game changer for my team!

I need this too. Without it I have to have a user add themselves to a “People” table in order that they can then “choose” themselves in the form. When they go on to choose themselves their search “shows” existing “people” records to form users so I compromise the privacy of those already in the database. I would love a way to have a blank field that BOTH adds the record to the linked table AND accepts it as an input without showing other records in the table.

Make sense?

What is your work around? I’d love to have one too :slightly_smiling_face:

I need this, too.
+1

Ditto. This would definitely be a helpful addition. No replies from Airtable Admin yet though…

+1 here! Would be helpful

• 1 I need this too! Thank you :slightly_smiling_face:

I need this feature as well, thanks

I’ve just read this thread through and would like to share a blog post I wrote in November about using Cognito Forms and Zapier to populate multiple sub records (from repeating fields in Cognito) in a database (Airtable is used as an example):

http://software.kirknessassociates.com/blog_files/9c91c7ada28c024f95a26f1ac8a8d620-25.html

I hope this is useful…

I also need this. Any feedback from the Airtable team?

I need this too please!

+1 it’s the one thing holding my back from using it for a large, collaborative data collection project.

One of my fields is linked to another record in the same base. In the form view, is there a way that someone can add a new record, instead of selecting one that already exists? I see this capability for normal fields, but it doesn’t appear when the field is linked to another record.

Hi Justine! Currently it’s only possible to select a record that already exists in shared forms, not to add a new linked record.

We plan on making feature improvements to form view in the coming months. If you can tell us more about how you’d like to use forms, that would be helpful for our planning process!

@Matt_Bush
Could it be that Airtable fixed this issue of selecting a record in a linked field by using a form? I remember that I wasn’t able to do so! If that is fixed, that would be awesome.

Any update on whether this may be coming as a feature? I’m still building my first base and this would be incredibly helpful.

+1 Only having the option to choose from existing records is a let down.

This missing feature is keeping me from really using Airtable for a project.
Use Case:
Hierarchical grids ( or Nested grids, or Parent/Child grids ),
Ex. Location grid, Container grid, Object grid
Objects are in Containers, Containers are in Locations
On Location Form I would like to select a Container that belongs to that Location or add a new Container that becomes linked to that location, In that Container I would like to add Objects that are available to that Location by being linked to the Location and I would like to be able to add new Objects that would become linked to that Container and Location.

Maybe allow selected fields from a child grid to be a form input in a parent from, dropdown of child name allows children of current parent to be selected or fill the fields to create a new child that is linked to the parent.

Is there currently a way to do this that I am missing?