This is not possible with Airtable's forms.
Your best bet for this is to use Fillout’s advanced forms for Airtable, because not only would it let you scan a barcode (or QR code) into a linked record field, but you can set it up so that you can add new linked records directly from the form itself.
Check out my thread at this link for more details on how to set this up.
Fillout is 100% free and offers hundreds of features that Airtable’s native forms don’t offer, including the ability to update Airtable records from a form, display Airtable lookup fields & Airtable rollup fields & Airtable attachments & formulas on forms, dynamically & conditionally filter linked record fields by any values that you would like, perform math or other live calculations on your forms, accept payments on forms, create multi-page forms with conditional paths, create new linked records on a form, and so much more.
So everything would be done from one simple form in Fillout.
Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld
This is not possible with Airtable's forms.
Your best bet for this is to use Fillout’s advanced forms for Airtable, because not only would it let you scan a barcode (or QR code) into a linked record field, but you can set it up so that you can add new linked records directly from the form itself.
Check out my thread at this link for more details on how to set this up.
Fillout is 100% free and offers hundreds of features that Airtable’s native forms don’t offer, including the ability to update Airtable records from a form, display Airtable lookup fields & Airtable rollup fields & Airtable attachments & formulas on forms, dynamically & conditionally filter linked record fields by any values that you would like, perform math or other live calculations on your forms, accept payments on forms, create multi-page forms with conditional paths, create new linked records on a form, and so much more.
So everything would be done from one simple form in Fillout.
Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld
@ScottWorldWoah that's cool! How do we make a form that lets the user scan a QR code into a linked record field? I couldn't seem to find anything in the Fillout documentation about it and must have missed it, could you provide a link to some docs?
In order to scan barcodes, you would need to have a special barcode scanner that recognizes the QR code and then can translate the QR code into normal text which it would type into the field where your cursor is blinking.
But since Fillout allows adding new linked records, the user could just keep scanning new QR codes into the linked record field.
I talk a little bit about it in this thread, which is a slightly more complex use case than what the author above posted: https://community.airtable.com/t5/automations/automation-to-update-a-field-based-on-a-barcode-scanned/td-p/181635
Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld
After looking into it, I do think Fillout, like Scott suggested, is the best option, but I set it up differently. I'll write out my solution in case others encounter something similar. TL;DR: I used Fillout to make a form that updates attendee records. QR code links to to the form and autoselects the correct attendee record, so staff only have to select the class they're managing and it links that record to the attendee record.
What didn't work
The functionality of scanning a barcode/QR code and having it attach a linked record doesn't exist directly in Fillout, at least not without a barcode scanner. I wanted people to be able to use their phones. I tried Jotform, which has a QR code scanner in-app, but you could only scan one at a time, and of course, you lose Fillout's major feature - it doesn't link records. So you'd have to create an automation in Airtable/Zapier/Make to link by name to an attendees table. I also tried Clappia, which might work, but seemed like major overkill and not worth the time investment.
I also played around with Android QR code apps that do allow you to scan QR codes over and over, without having to go to the link, and add their info to a table you can export as a CSV. The user experience with this is great, except for having to download a sketchy app. But it was less automated on the backend.
What I did
Fillout allows users to not just create new records, but update existing ones. The QR codes represent a link to the update survey. A URL parameter (in this case, automatically generated by Fillout - you can just copy the formula they provide for update forms) passes the record ID of the attendee. they update the attendee record by selecting the class from a linked field question. It's not perfect - they have to go back and forth between their camera and the surveys, they have to click to add the class, then submit, then go to the end page... but it's pretty good. People are happy.
Bonus ease of use
I also added another parameter to the URL formula to pass the attendee's name. Then on the end page, it says "Jane Doe was successfully added", that way the staff can tell it's working.
Also, I've seen a lot of struggle with creating and using QR codes effectively in Airtable. If you're printing them out for each attendee, you might be using Word Mail Merge or something similar. Microsoft Word actually can just create the QR code for you in a QR code field, using your URLs in your table. That ended up being a lot easier than figuring out how to export the QR code images and dealing with the lack of image hosting at Airtable.
Hey there, our miniExtensions form can do this natively! Our record finder allows for quick scanning of barcodes or QR codes to search for, and add, linked records! You can keep scanning uninterrupted until you have everybody added in the linked record field. To set this up is just one toggle!
