Formula to Create Waitlist for Registrations

[Patrick_Miles]

We are using a form to accept and manage participant registrations for various groups (we call them Circles) we are offering (and managing through Airtable). The participant registration feeds a Participant table to collect all registrants. Each registrant can select multiple groups. The groups are provided on and linked to another table on the base. Each group has a different maximum number of people that they can accept in their group.

I’d like to create a formula to use that when the maximum number of registrants for that group has been met, it will automatically move the participant record from the accepted participant record type (column) in the Circles table (our group table) to a waitlist record type (column) for that group.

Here’s the form --> https://airtable.com/shrVhQh9RC40kuqhj

[Justin_Barrett]

Welcome to the community, @Patrick_Miles! :grinning_face_with_big_eyes: Airtable formulas can only affect their own output. They can’t change the contents of other fields.

The only solution that I can think of would involve the use of the new scripting action beta. With that, you could set up a trigger based on new records coming in to your table (i.e. from the form). That trigger would run a script, which would count the existing records and mark the new one appropriately.

[ScottWorld]

@Patrick_Miles When a participant signs up for a group through your form, are they considered “registered” in the group at that moment? (Assuming that there are still spaces available in that group.)

If so, you could actually have your form automatically reflect which groups are still available to be registered for, and which groups have a waitlist — and then have the participant self-select which groups they want to register for or be on the waitlist for.

This would require adding one more field onto your form, which would be the linked record field for waitlisted groups.

Groups that are still open would appear in an “available to register for” field (i.e. the same exact field that you currently have on your form), and groups that are already full would appear in a brand new “add yourself to the waitlist” field.

Back in your grid view, for both of these linked record fields (registered groups and waitlist groups), you would simply add a condition where it would only show you certain groups for each field, based on whether or not the group has been filled.

Alternatively, if you’d like to do the automated scripting route that @Justin_Barrett suggested, you could also do this sort of an automation with Integromat or Zapier.

[Patrick_Miles]

Thanks @ScottWorld. This is a new process, so we can make it how we like. The form was intended to show participant interest and automatically register for the group. How might we set up the group table to reflect “Available to Register” and “Add to Waitlist” options?

Here is how I currently have the group (Circles) table set up so far…

The yellow “Group Capacity #” indicates the maximum total # of people who can join that group, the green “Participants” field is a linked field to the Participant Table, and the blue “Waitlist” field is a placeholder to figure out how to add or transfer people to the waitlist option.

How would I go about setting the form up to only show which groups have not reached their maximum? Perhaps I can create another field (check box) to mark groups that are “closed”. Is there a way to set it up that when checked, the linked participant record would transfer to the “Add to Waitlist” field instead of the Participant field?