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How to set up a table were there will be an unknown number of different questions?

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5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Any tips on how to set up a database to do QA (Quality Assurance)?

The main issue is that every project has different requirements and questions, so using one table seems like a no go.

What is constant

The only constants in the whole database are three:

  • Customer, by this I mean that a Customer is the owner of one or several projects,
  • Platform (example “Desktop”, or “Mobile”), and
  • Type of questions*

*(But, content of questions changes from project to project)

What changes from project to project

Everything else requires a unique ID

  • Testers’ IDs (they are anonymous)
  • Questions
    • Number of questions
    • Content of questions
    • Its attachments, if any
    • Type of attachments, if any

Should I create a different table for each new project?

Thanks

1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
Bot
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

I was approaching this the wrong way, as the solution is to use rows.

See Solution in Thread

4 Replies 4
Bot
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Or should I create a “Questions” table, and somehow use it for all questions? And link/relate everything back to its Customer.
Even if each one is different?

Welcome to the Airtable community!

A key piece of information for knowing how to structure your base is knowing how people will be entering data in the base. Will people be filling out native Airtable forms without access to the base? Will users be collaborators on the base interacting with a grid view? Will you have a 3rd party form system or a 3rd party portal system?

If you need to gather data using native Airtable forms, each unique question needs to be its own field. One record would have a set of questions and answers.

On the other hand, collaborators on a base could have a table of questions and answers, with one field for the question, and one field for the answer. Each record would represent a single question and answer.

Bot
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Yes, the idea is for people doing the Quality Assurance, the anonymous users, to fill a native Airtable form.

Initially thought about creating a native Airtable form for each Project, but I can see this approach will quickly get out of hand as the number of projects grows.

  • Should I handle Forms at its own separate “base”? or
  • Should I use a 3rd party form/portal system?

Want to avoid depending of 3rd party services like Zapier and would prefer to keep everything in one place (Airtable), or 2 places. Open to suggestions about any existing solutions that integrate well with Airtable either using its API or Webhooks.
Will check Jotform from this Airtable blog. Also Wordpress seems like another popular platform.

Thanks, as a new user I can see this will be useful, to handle entries per Record in the same table called “Questions”.
Even though each Project will be different, from my previous experience doing previous QAs, the number of rows hopefully will reach a certain point at which I will be able to reuse the same rows (example a “type of question”) for different Customers.

Thanks

Bot
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

I was approaching this the wrong way, as the solution is to use rows.