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Linking records seems to me to be the least exploited, most powerful feature on Airtable.

I love the feature, but it seems to lack some continuity, IMO. Almost a head-scratcher to neglect. If I can say so respectfully. 😕


I’m looking for three very closely related things:




  1. If you can set a record link column to ‘single select’, why can you not arrange Kanban views by that column?

    This would make things amazingly easy in several of my boards.

    (For example, I have an phylogeny studies board where I group animals into a separate table of families; currently, I have to have a separate single-select list, and frequently update them to match so I can view and organize in Kanban view.)




  2. It makes a lot of sense to be able to group by self-joins in a sort of hierarchical or nested view. This is basically the number one feature I’m feeling the need for. Similar to here.

    Hierarchical views?

    If this needs to be a dedicated ‘parent’ type of link for that to work, or if it requires single-select, I can see either working.




  3. I would love a mind-map view of records; really, just something like a ‘node-edge’ sort of view, edges being linked records, drawn as a line between them, ‘defining’ the relationship by the column’s name. For example, as above with the ‘parent’ self-join; or a ‘smells like’ or whatnot. Or, “Bilbo Baggins” (node/record) is “Uncle To…” (edge/link) “Frodo Baggins” (node) and “Companion of…” (edge) “Galdalf the Grey” (node).

    If it could see across tables, or ‘auto-organize’ into common formats that would be awesome.But really I’m just hoping for basic self-joins only; showing the checked types of eligible relationships, and expanding records when clicked, changing attributes/links as dragged, etc. similar to the Kanban view.

    (Look at ‘Tiddlymaps’ for ‘Tiddlywiki’ for an idea of what that might look like. Super simple, not a ton of features, but really robust because of the underlying wiki ‘pages’ and tagging structure. I can see this working wonders with how records already work.)

    …I realize this last one is a lot bigger of an undertaking. But even a similar ‘group by’ view with a little more intelligent node-edge type relationships would go a long way.




Thank you for your awesome work!!

This literally has changed my life.

…please notice me, senpai.

Here be pictures for number 3, in case it’s not clear.


This:


(assuming uncle/nephew is linked somehow.)

Would become this:

I have another use case that would benefit from mind map and network views. Searching the forum to see what others have done led me here.


I’m prototyping a task management system for myself. I’m using junction tables to represent the hierarchy of tasks (parent, child) and the dependencies among tasks (predecessors, successors) rather than self-links, but the principle is the same. I’ve found the following kludges useful to see the hierarchy and somewhat useful to edit it:



  • Grouping by link to junction in grid views

  • Using formulas to name the junction records

  • Using look-up and roll-up fields


Those kludges help, but they are not nearly so handy as your proposed features would be.

Completely agree on items (1) and (3).


Enabling kanban views of single-select linked records would make Airtable beat Trello for many of my use cases. A particular use case involves brainstorming with a large group. This sort of goes as follows:



  • In advance set up one table for each focus question and a form view that prompts for answers

  • Spend 3-5 minutes having everyone type their answers (they don’t have to authenticate!..this makes it a killer app for this).

  • Moderator rearranges the table as the group discusses the responses, and the group decides on names for categories answers – which are single-select links to another table. Doing this in a kanban view or mindmap view would be hugely beneficial.

  • The categories table is linked to another table that is pre-configured with a form view that lets people vote on the three most important categories (also not requiring authentication!)

  • Results of the votes are instantly tabulated and the group can get on with discussing the most important topics.

Completely agree on items (1) and (3).


Enabling kanban views of single-select linked records would make Airtable beat Trello for many of my use cases. A particular use case involves brainstorming with a large group. This sort of goes as follows:



  • In advance set up one table for each focus question and a form view that prompts for answers

  • Spend 3-5 minutes having everyone type their answers (they don’t have to authenticate!..this makes it a killer app for this).

  • Moderator rearranges the table as the group discusses the responses, and the group decides on names for categories answers – which are single-select links to another table. Doing this in a kanban view or mindmap view would be hugely beneficial.

  • The categories table is linked to another table that is pre-configured with a form view that lets people vote on the three most important categories (also not requiring authentication!)

  • Results of the votes are instantly tabulated and the group can get on with discussing the most important topics.


I would also like to see a mindmap option in airtables,

Yes please! I would like to be able to use all these feature selections!

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