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Issue Linking Between Records

  • May 17, 2018
  • 4 replies
  • 39 views
G

I’m a new user and running into what is probably a very basic issue, but one I cannot figure out. I have linked records between two tables through a list of multi-select variables. Each variable (areas of expertise) links to one or more people (faculty in the school I work at).

However, on the anonymous view of the variables, while the names are properly associated, they are not linked back to the respective records. Here is that view: https://airtable.com/shrazrwwOCp4Pjgdx/tbltGutmGMhR5QDbV. The goal is to be able to learn more about the person representing each topic by clicking through to his/her profile.

I cannot see a permission or setting that will allow this. I followed the steps in the video to create the new table from the multi-select listings, but the video does not cover this specific issue. (https://support.airtable.com/hc/en-us/articles/206452848-Linking-to-Another-Record)

Maybe there is a better or different way to handle this objective. Appreciate any assistance on this issue.

    4 replies

    J
    Forum|alt.badge.img+18

    If I understand correctly, it sounds like you are running into an issue with the way permissions work.

    It sounds like you want:
    An anonymous viewer of your shared view link to be able to click on an “Area of Expertise” card, and then click on the name of a faculty member listed under that “Area of Expertise” to see information from the faculty table about that faculty member.

    If that is correct, then the reason this does not work is because of the way permissions work on shared view links. When you share only that view, Airtable assumes that you are doing so because you do not want anonymous viewers to be able to see anything else in your base besides what is contained in that view. Information about faculty members beyond their name exists in a table outside of the one you are sharing - thus Airtable assumes you do not want anonymous viewers to have access to any data from that table. In other words, Airtable cuts off anonymous viewers of the shared view from expanding the faculty record you have linked because doing so would give them access to areas of your base that you have not shared.

    This is a (seemingly) necessary security and permissions feature, not a bug or an issue with the way you have it set up. Unfortunately, the next step up in permissions is to created a shared link to the entire base - there is nothing in-between; and this is seemingly due to technical reasons with the way the software is set up. Alternatively, you could try to find a creative way to pull the data you want out of the Faculty table and into the table you are sharing by using Lookups and Rollups - it may not be easy, and may take some careful thought, but it may be possible.

    G
    • Geoff_LoCicero
    • Author
    • New Participant
    • May 17, 2018

    If I understand correctly, it sounds like you are running into an issue with the way permissions work.

    It sounds like you want:
    An anonymous viewer of your shared view link to be able to click on an “Area of Expertise” card, and then click on the name of a faculty member listed under that “Area of Expertise” to see information from the faculty table about that faculty member.

    If that is correct, then the reason this does not work is because of the way permissions work on shared view links. When you share only that view, Airtable assumes that you are doing so because you do not want anonymous viewers to be able to see anything else in your base besides what is contained in that view. Information about faculty members beyond their name exists in a table outside of the one you are sharing - thus Airtable assumes you do not want anonymous viewers to have access to any data from that table. In other words, Airtable cuts off anonymous viewers of the shared view from expanding the faculty record you have linked because doing so would give them access to areas of your base that you have not shared.

    This is a (seemingly) necessary security and permissions feature, not a bug or an issue with the way you have it set up. Unfortunately, the next step up in permissions is to created a shared link to the entire base - there is nothing in-between; and this is seemingly due to technical reasons with the way the software is set up. Alternatively, you could try to find a creative way to pull the data you want out of the Faculty table and into the table you are sharing by using Lookups and Rollups - it may not be easy, and may take some careful thought, but it may be possible.


    Hi, Jeremy - Thanks for the quick response. You have diagnosed my issue correctly.

    I did share the base and wound up with a clickable card view of the faculty assigned to each topic - https://airtable.com/shrW8fuh7Ave5pQt5/tbltGutmGMhR5QDbV/viw312w9kdT8F2110. This solved my original issue but introduced another - now anonymous users can click over to my main table and expose hidden fields, etc. I’m guessing there is not a way to turn that off, either? Ha, I’m just chasing my tail here.

    I may be out of my depth on the Lookups and Rollups, but may poke around with that or spend some more time trying to map out some type of different setup here.

    Even if I have to go with what I have and some imperfections, it’s still a reasonable solution.

    Thanks again!

    J
    Forum|alt.badge.img+18

    Hi, Jeremy - Thanks for the quick response. You have diagnosed my issue correctly.

    I did share the base and wound up with a clickable card view of the faculty assigned to each topic - https://airtable.com/shrW8fuh7Ave5pQt5/tbltGutmGMhR5QDbV/viw312w9kdT8F2110. This solved my original issue but introduced another - now anonymous users can click over to my main table and expose hidden fields, etc. I’m guessing there is not a way to turn that off, either? Ha, I’m just chasing my tail here.

    I may be out of my depth on the Lookups and Rollups, but may poke around with that or spend some more time trying to map out some type of different setup here.

    Even if I have to go with what I have and some imperfections, it’s still a reasonable solution.

    Thanks again!


    Ya, there’s no way around anonymous viewers being able to see your entire base (even fields you’ve hidden) if you share the entire base. That’s why I said that unfortunately, there is no in-between ground. You can’t share part of two different tables, or share just one view and allow click-through to only see certain fields of linked records, etc.

    I think that Airtable is probably trying to figure out solutions related to this stuff, because there are so many other permissions issues users are bringing up in the forums - but I’m sure it’s a pretty heavy technical challenge from Airtable’s perspective.

    G
    • Geoff_LoCicero
    • Author
    • New Participant
    • May 17, 2018

    Ya, there’s no way around anonymous viewers being able to see your entire base (even fields you’ve hidden) if you share the entire base. That’s why I said that unfortunately, there is no in-between ground. You can’t share part of two different tables, or share just one view and allow click-through to only see certain fields of linked records, etc.

    I think that Airtable is probably trying to figure out solutions related to this stuff, because there are so many other permissions issues users are bringing up in the forums - but I’m sure it’s a pretty heavy technical challenge from Airtable’s perspective.


    Yeah, that makes sense. I’m sure it is quite a dev challenge to turn complex functionality into relatively simple GUIs. I’ve been impressed with what it can do so far, particularly for free. Hopefully it just keeps improving.

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