One of my fields is a link to another table. I’d like end-users who are using the Form to add data to be able to create new records in the linked table but from the primary table data entry form.
Add new linked record when entering data in a form
+1 for this feature, I’d like to use Airtable as an emergency phone call logging system if our CRM goes down and being able to link to a table rather than having free text for customer fields would mean typos wouldn’t be an issue!
+2Hi 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!
4 years have passed and no changes… :frowning_face:
+1 This would be a game-changer that would streamline so many hours of maintenance work for the main airtable organizer / owner. Please give us some updates Airtable - at least an ETA or if it’s even on the list of considerations.
For those facing this problem (since 4 years ago I see), any workarounds to share for now?
+6Sorry I haven’t visited this thread in over a year. The work around I use is to include hyperlinks to forms of the linked datapoint that is missing.
In this example when entering data and I arrive to the customer portion I can select a list of customers or if this is a first time customer I will select the hyperlink to the secondary form to add the information then go back and select the new record. This link is added to the description portion.
+14I am also needing this feature,
I use the form so that employees send payment approval requests for different proyects.
Many times the employees are starting a new project so they cannot select it from the list, they will need to add it. It would be great if this feature is added.
+21I just wrote a show-and-tell post that might help in this situation. See method #2 in the post:
+15+1 from me. I ran into a roadblock when working on a table because I need this feature. Seeing how far the requests go back for this----- yikes :confused:
I’m going to add my name to the list of people that want tjhis feature but, given how long people have been asking for this (with no response), I’m not hopeful that anyone at Airtable is listening, which is really sad.
@Airtable Unbelievable that this feature is 1) not included out of the box and 2) that Airtable has not heard their customer base and added the feature. It makes me question my subscription. How can you tell people they can build a relational database via linked table fields and then not support creation of child records in a form? This seems ridiculous to me, seeing all these requests and the obvious dismissal of them.
#disenchanted.
Thought I would share my workaround for adding records to a (simple) related child table when submitting the form of the parent record. It’s not ideal, but it works.
In my example, I created a form so people could sign up to donate items for resettling refugees. But, we want to cross reference the item(s) donated by one person to the need(s) requested by another person so we can plan pickups and deliveries more efficiently. To skip the admin process of entering a row for each item on the side of the donation as well as the side of the needs request so they can be matched, I added a multi-select “Items” field to each “header” table and form, which requires the user to select the items they need or are donating and that gets saved to the header record. My automation script is triggered on insert of the header record, takes the selected “items” from the multi-select field, loops through them and creates a row in our “Item Donations Detail” table and relates it to the parent “Item Donation” or “Item Needs” header record. I had to create a separate automation script for each header table insert event. Attaching a screenshot of the Item Donation automation script.
Here is the text of the script if you want to copy/paste/refactor.
let inputConfig = input.config();
let table = base.getTable(“Item Donations Detail”);
let donation_id = inputConfig.donation_id;
let items = inputConfig.donation_items;
let linkField = “DonatedItem”;
let itemLinkField = “Item”;
let i=0;
if (items.length > 0) {
for (i=0;i<items.length;i++) {
await table.createRecordAsync({
[linkField]: [{“id”: donation_id}],
[itemLinkField]: [{“id”: items[i]}]
});
}
}
this would be an incredibly useful feature, that will give much ease of use to the airtable forms, hence making airtable a helpful database.
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