Drag and Copy linked records. Should be simple!

[Tristan-ARG]

Hi everyone!, first question here. :blush:
I have been checking this community frecuently and found lots of solutions to problems I have been encountering. :thumbs_up:

My problem Its quite simple, I guess I am missing something obvious otherwise it would be a big limitation which would already be addressed…

The situation: I have a base with many products, each product is linked to some clients. Example
Product 1: Client A, B and C
Product 2: Client B
Pruduct 3: Client A and D

Like this I have at the moment 200 products, but soon this will grow quite a lot.

The problem is that when I have a new client, lets call it “Client E” and I want to link it with 50 records, I have to write his name in each record, I cannot just click on the small square and drag it all the way around. If I do so, it will just copy the value of the inital record (with all the initial linked values) in all the ones that have been draged.

At the moment I am doing it manually, but I guess it shuold be possible to do it automatically, or at list faster.

The desired outcome, How can I add the linked record “Client E” fast to the records so that they would look like:
Product 1: Client A, B, C and E
Product 2: Client B and E
Pruduct 3: Client A, D and E

Thanks all for the support! :wave:

[ScottWorld]

There’s no direct way to do this, but you could do it with an automation that uses the action to “Update Record”.

You can append a new linked record to an already-existing linked record field by: (a) inserting the existing field, (b) adding a comma, and then (c) typing in the new value.

It would look something like this:

The only thing that you would need to figure out is what would trigger your automation to run.

Alternatively, you can also do what you’d like to do with a custom Javascript, a custom API call, or using an external automation platform like Integromat.

[Tristan-ARG]

Thanks Scott, I was hopping it to be a bit easier, but you definitely shed some light on how to solve it.

I am thinking about this.

1. I create a new column (“NEW CLIENT”) with the client name I want to add
2. I create a new column that concatenates the original column with the new clients column
3. I make a new view that is only filtered in those cases where new client is not empty.
4. I made an automation, where every time I a new record enters that view, the content of the original linked records is updated with the the content of the concatenated column, therefore adding the new clients record to the previous ones.

:heart_eyes: :heart_eyes:

[ScottWorld]

Yes, that will work too! :slightly_smiling_face:

[kuovonne]

Tristan-ARG:

How can I add the linked record “Client E” fast to the records

You can create linked records from either side of the link. Instead of adding “Client E” to all 50 products, you can add all 50 products to the single “Client E” linked record field. If product names are simple (no commas or quotes) you should be able to paste in a text with the comma separated list. If the product names are more complex, it gets a little trickier, but is still doable.

[Tristan-ARG]

Hi everyone, just in case someone faces the same problem as me, I applied the solution that I described previously

Tristan-ARG:

I am thinking about this.

1. I create a new column (“NEW CLIENT”) with the client name I want to add
2. I create a new column that concatenates the original column with the new clients column
3. I make a new view that is only filtered in those cases where new client is not empty.
4. I made an automation, where every time I a new record enters that view, the content of the original linked records is updated with the the content of the concatenated column, therefore adding the new clients record to the previous ones.

And here is the result, it works quite smooth.

Now I can just simply drag to create new linked records! :heart_eyes: :star_struck:

[Elias_Gomez_Sai]

It’s a good trick, I use similar ones sometimes to update an entire column :muscle: