Forms and Lookup Fields

[Santa_Bill_Gros]

I want to use a form to request entertainers. In the base, I have a lookup field for Event Contact (looking up in the Event Contact table). My problem is that when I put the Event Contact field on the Form, the requester can see all of the current contacts. I would like them to be able to enter their name without seeing other contact names.
Is this possible??

[Rebecca_Glaser]

I have the same question - I want to add a lookup field to a form. Is there any information on this anywhere?

[Nathalie_Collin]

Hi @Rebecca_Glaser and welcome to Airtable Community :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

@Santa_Bill_Gross - I’m terribly sorry to see that your question went unanswered.

There’s only two solutions that I can think of.

The first being that you create a regular field and link that one to the form and allow the users to enter their name there. After they submit the form, you would then go in and update your original field with the correct name. It’s manual, but it will keep things confidential.

The other option would be to integrate Airtable with another form building application such as Google Forms.

Airtable’s forms are simple and basic and don’t always provide the solution that some people require.

I’m sure this wasn’t the answer you were hoping for. :sleepy:

[Rebecca_Glaser]

When you say create a regular field - can you please expound - where do I create regular field - I am not sure I understand this what you are saying

[W_Vann_Hall]

The issue involves the way Airtable handles form views versus grid views.

• In a grid view, records are created and updated in real-time: You add a row to the base, Airtable creates a new record and assigns it a RECORD_ID(); you enter a value into {Name}, and the {Name} field in rec1234NewRECORD5678 is updated.
• In a form view, values are held in the browser until you click ‘Submit form’. At that point, Airtable checks to make sure all required fields have data; if so, it then creates a record and enters all of the provided values.

This latter all-at-once mode allows form users — who are more likely to be casual or one-off users — to change their minds ('I’m not going to give this ^%$#! my phone number!), return later with information they were lacking ('Did Mom want the extra-large or the jumbo?), or abandon an entry ('How did I get here?) without cluttering your base with partially or invalidly filled records.

Unfortunately, it also obviates any Airtable action based on the current value of a field — such as directing linked-record lookups to a view filtered according to the value of another field in the record being created, as is possible with grid views.¹

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1. I’ve not tried it, but conceivably one might be able to do something using a two-form solution through a clever system of redirects. I rarely use forms, though, but perhaps someone with more experience in that area can chime in…

[Tony_Rogers]

Huge :thumbs_up: for this.

We also use forms to allow people to submit events for us to host.

Currently, we have just 1 table which tracks an Event Request, but also includesthe columns for the Name of the submitter, the Contact Person, and the Event Facilitator in plain text.

Since we have a mix of submissions from repeat-customers as well as one-off customers, it would really be awesome to allow customers to make a submission that tracks the people separately from all of the event minutiae.

[Moe]

Santa_Bill_Gross:

My problem is that when I put the Event Contact field on the Form, the requester can see all of the current contacts. I would like them to be able to enter their name without seeing other contact names.

We’ve built a tool that allows you to hide linked records while still letting users to create a new linked record in the form.

[Moe]

We built an advanced form for Airtable. One of its features is the ability to add lookup fields to your form.

miniExtensions for Airtable

Lookup Fields in miniExtensions Form

Show lookup fields inside your form. When a user select a linked record, you can automatically show them lookup fields that are related to it.