Using forms to link records

[gabriel]

Hello,

I want to use forms to let people outside my organization link records among my existing tables. I don’t want to let them create new records. Just let them link one field to another.

Is there a way to achieve this through forms?

I’m having trouble with the primary field being just a string of text.
Ideally, someone could select the primary field from a dropdown, and then link whatever they want to to that specific primary field, without creating a new record.

Use case example
I have a list of companies as my primary field.
I want someone to use forms to pick a company and associate it to a topic (currently linked to a Topics table, it basically acts as a multiple select).

[Mohamed_Swella1]

Hi @gabriel,

A form main purpose is to create a new record. There is no way to do so directly from Airtable.

However, what you are looking for is to update a record from a form. You can use 3rd party extensions to do so. Check this out https://miniextensions.com/airtable-edit-form/

BR,
Mo

[andywingrave · Accepted solution]

Hey there! Just chiming in - Whilst @Mohamed_Swellam is correct here.

There’s nothing to stop you having a form that is a table which just links two records.

Here’s the form - so you can test it out

[gabriel]

hey Mo @Mohamed_Swellam

thanks for the fast reply!
I literally just watched a video on that extension - really cool!

the problem with it is that I don’t want people to be able to edit the existing record, I just want them to add links/associations to it – based on my current database design.

[Mohamed_Swella1]

Well, then you can use @andywingrave solution. Make a table that is only linking to the other tables. This will create new records in this particular table but not in the other tables.

BR,
Mo

[gabriel]

thanks @andywingrave
this is a nice way around it. would be nice if Airtable came up with a robust solution :slightly_smiling_face: