Can I create new record using lookup values only - to create an independant (editable) table

[hauwi]

Hi 😊

I have a student 'onboarding' table which, when completed, triggers an automation to create a new record in a 'live students' table. So, each field in each new record is linked to one of my 'onboarding' fields. Some of the linked fields are formula fields and some are single line text fields.

What I would like to do is copy only the values of the data in each of those linked fields, so that they become unlinked, enabling me to then edit the data in the 'live students' table, whilst leaving my 'onboarding' table unchanged. However, I would like my primary field (student ID) to remain linked.

Is this possible please?

Many thanks - as usual! Howard.

[MalachizzBots]

Hi @hauwi, I am with zzBots. I am not 100% familiar with the Airtable syncs, but what it sounds like is you need a 1-Way sync between your tables. This is possible using our Airtable to Airtable 1-Way Sync. zzBots requires the Airtable record to include a "Last Modified Time" this way zzBots can tell when the record is updated. You can make so the "Last Modified Time" is only updated once the 'onboarding' is completed thus triggering the zzBots bot to sync that record to your other table.

1-Way Sync: https://www.zzbots.com/store/airtable-airtable-1-way-sync

[Dan_Montoya]

@hauwi , I usually recommend against copying data from one table to another to represent a "state" of the record.   However, if you want to use 2 tables, you just need an automation that copies the linked data to your new text fields when the record is created in the 2nd table.

A workflow that doesn't require a 2nd table:

In your case, you have a list of students of which some turn "active".  If you have 2 states: Active and Not Active, you could use a yes no field, otherwise use a single select field.  Create an automation that when a student state is changed from not active to active, it copies the data from field A to Field B.  Then you can edit Field B as you need to.

[TheTimeSavingCo]

Could you provide screenshots of your current tables and the automation?  For most use cases having a single linked field between two tables suffices and so I'm curious as to why you have multiple linked fields

[hauwi]

Thank you for the replies. I may not have been very clear, sorry.  ...

My onboarding table is effectively a process of data gathering. Once the data is collected, only approx 20% of that data is needed, ongoing. However, I need to keep the original onboarding data to see exactly what was collected at that time. So, my onboarding table records need to become a sort of 'archive' - and my new students table (let's call it the 'master students' table) has far fewer fields - but needs to contain the raw data that was entered into my onboarding table, in order to be editable.

For example, a record in my 'master students' table will have been propagated from the onboarding table to show the course and university the student was attending when they were onboarded. They may then choose to change course and university a year later. So, I would want to edit the data to reflect these changes - whilst retaining the original course and university data in my 'onboarding' table.

Does this help?