Save the date! Join us on October 16 for our Product Ops launch event. Register here.
May 02, 2020 09:47 PM
Hello everyone.
I have a link field with a one-to-many relationship.
The linked records have over 100 fields. I need to customize the 3 visible fields in the preview
Captured with Lightshot
Thanks for your help!
May 02, 2020 09:53 PM - edited Mar 22, 2024 04:59 AM
Airtable has very strange behavior in regards to this, because only the first 3 fields in your linked table are the ones that will show up there. Reorder your fields to make the right ones show up there.
For much more control over this, you could to turn to Fillout’s advanced forms for Airtable, which is a free product that allows you to create new Airtable records from a form or update existing Airtable records from a form.
Fillout offers hundreds of advanced Airtable features that don’t exist natively in Airtable, including the ability to display whatever fields you’d like to see in the linked record picker in whatever order you’d like — including attachment fields! And you can display as many fields are you’d like to see! Its a pretty amazing product.
p.s. If your company has a budget for your project and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with any of this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consulting — ScottWorld
May 02, 2020 10:08 PM
Hey Scott,
thanks for the quick reply.
I have 12s of views. Which view should I update?
May 02, 2020 10:18 PM
That’s a fantastic question. It only pulls from the very first view in your linked table. You can reorder your views to put the one that you want first.
(What this also means is that no matter how many tables/views of yours link to that “other table”, you will always see the SAME 3 FIELDS from that “other table” across your entire system. Which is kind of strange, because when setting up linked tables, Airtable even gives you the option to limit the record selection to a specific view. But when it comes to displaying those first 3 fields, it’s always the same 3 fields: first 3 fields from the very first view.)
May 02, 2020 10:20 PM
The first view I ever created?
I have no clue…is it there a way to see when a view was created?
Or should I simply guess based on the fields sorting?
Thanks again
May 02, 2020 10:29 PM
Like I said above — you can reorder your views to put the one that you want first. Click on the down arrow to the left of the views.
Feb 07, 2023 08:32 AM - edited Feb 07, 2023 08:45 AM
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work that way anymore. Here are some observations:
Gonna have to take that back 😄
Airtable actually does use the first fields, but it also uses the view configured in Limit record selection to a view parameter now.
Edit: also hiding a field does hide it in the selection view of the other linked table later.
Feb 16, 2024 09:24 AM - edited Mar 22, 2024 05:08 AM
It sounds like Airtable has made some minor improvements in these regards, but it’s still very fragile and very limited.
You may want to explore Fillout’s advanced forms for Airtable, which lets you specifically select what you display in each linked record picker — you can even display attachment fields!
It also lets you update existing Airtable records from a form.