Displaying multiple detail records on a form?

[JeffJohnVol]

I have 3 records:

• Members
• Skills
• Member Skills Xref (a linked table that joins members to skills

I have seen the tutorial on how I can edit a member record and add skills to the member using fillout.com, but is there a way to display the skills associated with a member when editing a member record?  In other words, I want to have the parent record and show all the detail records (skills).

Thanks.

[TheTimeSavingCo]

Hmm, perhaps add a lookup field to "Members" that displays all of their linked Skills, and then reference that in the Fillout form via "@"?  https://www.fillout.com/help/fetch-dynamic-data

[ScottWorld]

@JeffJohnVol 

Yes, in Fillout , if you already have an update form where you are updating the members through a form, you can normally just add the linked record field for the skills field to your form, and it will show you all the linked skills.

However, in your situation, because of your junction table, the problem is that by adding that to the form, you can’t make it read-only, and you don’t want them adding records directly to that linked table.

So, to make the list of skills read-only, you would want to add a lookup or rollup field to your members table back in Airtable to display whatever you want to see from the skills table.

Then, Fillout will allow you to add lookup and rollup fields to your form.

Be sure to refresh your fields in Fillout after adding the lookup & rollup fields to your Airtable base.

Then, add a paragraph block (or any other text block, such as the alerts/banners) to your Fillout form, then type the @ symbol, and then when the little pop-up window appears next to your @ symbol, click on the last icon in the left margin which will give you a list of field choices for the “updating record”, and choose your lookup or rollup field.

Hope this helps!

— ScottWorld, Expert Airtable Consultant

[JeffJohnVol]

Thanks again Scott (and others). I'll experiment with that. My approach was probably faulty based on my experience with the ERP system I use at my dayjob that has this kind of structure.

I did get a partial thing working, but I wasn't able to edit it or see anything other than the primary field,  but let me try to re-read and absorb your answer to see if I can get it working.  The end goal is I want a profile to be able to add and update their skills, but right now, it just works on add.

[JeffJohnVol]

@ScottWorld, If you're suggesting to do it without a junction table, I'm having a hard time grasping how to maintain a list of skills per member that can support what I'm trying to do.  The skills table is needed because it has a title, icon and description, and we want to be able to add more skills.

TBH, this junction table is confusing to me, as I'm used to doing something like this with relational databases where the xref table would have 2 primary keys (member and skill) , not just one.  I'm trying though.

I watched the linked video, but it didn't have the detail record additions.  I found some youtube tuts talking about inventory, I'll watch those and see if I can figure it out.

Thanks.

[ScottWorld]

I give a brief overview of junction tables and many-to-many relationships in this Airtable podcast episode.

[JeffJohnVol]

Thanks@ScottWorld . I'll check out the link. I believe I understand airtable's version of many to many with junction tables. It's different than what I've done for the past 30 years, but I know no-code is different. My comment was more of a frustration of my old school ways of doing things.

My biggest issue is how do I use junction table on a fillout form that allows me to add and edit the junction table records. I've seen several tutorials on building orders and associated junction table items on the order that link to the products etc.  I'm trying to figure out how to put something like that on a form that can be updated later to change the order items.

I've seen THIS video that does a great job of showing the basics of adding linked records, but there's no edit, and it's not a junction table. However, it does do a good job of showing the url parameters which I was wondering about.

I know you suggested lookup/rollup, and I have that in the back of my mind, but I haven't made that mental connection yet in my understanding.

My next attempt will be to get my junction table and create a dedicated form for it that allows selection of the skills table, which pulls in the skill title and it's icon.  I'll take this form and add a field as a url link to it as a button. That will be my add/edit form. Then I'll create my profile form with a record picker element to display the link to the junction able as a "skill" label and the junction table button.  I'll see if this does what I need.  Thanks again.

FWIW, I'm trying to do this with fillout form because with 100 members, I can't afford to give them all an airtable account.

[ScottWorld]

At this time, Fillout doesn’t let you edit linked records after they’ve been added. It lets you add but not edit. Be sure to contact them through the chat bubble on their website to request this feature! I thought that you just wanted to see the linked records in a read-only state, in which case you can use the lookup field or a rollup field. 

[JeffJohnVol]

Yes, I'm starting to realize and accept this. I have another form I built that allows a member to edit the member-skill individually, which includes fields such as skill level, interest level, okay to email me on topic, etc.  I think a solution that may work for me is to have a checkbox on the member profile form that says "Email me the form links to edit my skills" and then create an automation that sends an email with all the form links for each skill.