Hello,

Data relation between workspaces depends on the software. Many tools allow it via linked workspaces, APIs, integrations, or export/import, but it's not always automatic and depends on the specific platform's features.

Best Regard,

Helen

Hmm, what’re you trying to do?  You can sync tables between bases in different workspaces if that helps, and so if you have a Tasks table in Base 1 in Workspace A, you could sync that into Base 2 in Workspace B?

Hey ​@cecilia zhang would you mind sharing some more detail on your current use case?

Please find some initial insights below.

1. You can sync tables
2. You cannot link records from different bases.
3. You cannot reference different bases (regardless of the workspace) on Aritable native automations.
4. You can use Zapier, Make, n8n, or other automation tool to achieve item 3 above. More on this tools here.

With additional info we can probably find a workaround (if needed) for your need.

Mike, Consultant @ Automatic Nation

for example, if i have 4 business units, and I want to share the contact base among this 4 units. do you recommend me putting all in one workspace?

Yeah, generally people just put all their bases into a single workspace.  That said, if your needs require you to keep each business unit’s data separate from each other, then separate workspaces would be the way to go

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For the Contacts base thing, if you’ve got access to the Data Library this might be a good use case for it.  If not, just make it a shared view and sync it to each business unit’s base and you should be fine

Hey ​@cecilia zhang,

Some additional info below! 

If the 4 business units still correspond to the same “business” I would also assess having all of your data (for all of your business units) under one unique base -unless you have good reasons not to.

Good reasons not to:
- Data security/access
- Record count

Feel free to follow up with additional questions/info and we can find the best solution for you!

Mike, Consultant @ Automatic Nation

Thank you so much, Mike!

I have a follow-up question: I’m planning to build a meta contact base that consolidates all contacts from our different business operations. However, there’s some overlap between contacts across these operations.

The current workflow I’m thinking about is:
    1    Create a contact table in each business operation base with consistent column structure (exactly the same columns).
    2    Create a new base called Contact, where we sync all contact tables into one table.

Since, as you mentioned, records can’t be linked across bases, how would you recommend handling duplicate or overlapping contacts in the meta contact base?

Best,
Cecilia

You won’t need to create a new table in each base, you’ll just need to sync that view into each of the bases and it will create the table and all of the columns in that view for you

By default, synced views aren’t editable, so you shouldn’t end up with duplicate or overlapping contacts.  If you’re on a Business / Enterprise plan you can turn on two way sync to let people modify synced view, and any changes will sync over to all the other bases, but given that you’re worried about data integrity it might be a good idea to not turn that on and create a workflow where people submit new contacts to someone in your org to approve, and that person adds in the contact manually, does that make sense?

Thank you! 

The senario: I’m planning to build a meta contact base that consolidates all contacts from our different business operations. However, there’s many overlaps between contacts across these operations.

How to make sure one person only has one record in the meta contact base and also in every other base, I can refer to the person?

e: How to make sure one person only has one record in the meta contact base
Try using the Dedupe extension: https://support.airtable.com/docs/dedupe-extension

If there are too many records to do this manually, try to identify a unique ID for each contact (e.g. their email), and then:

1. Duplicate that field
2. Convert that field to a linked field to a new table
3. In that new table, create a Count field on the linked field 
4. Create a lookup in the original table to pull the Count field over

You can now use that lookup field to easily see which contacts are duplicated

I’ve set it up here for you to check out

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re: in every other base, I can refer to the person?

Yeap try a synced view: https://support.airtable.com/docs/getting-started-with-airtable-sync