At the moment, I’m doing something via a complicated workaround that I hope I can do much more simply.
I’m using Airtable as a submissions database. As each submission comes in, I assign each one to multiple readers. The readers submit forms when they respond to the submissions. I want to create a view filtered by reader where I can see the submissions assigned to that specific reader, and whether or not they have submitted a form responding to it. (Then I can share that view with each reader and they can see what they’ve done and what they have yet to do.)
Right now I’ve got a table with a list of all submissions, a table for of readers, and a table called “reading history” where the readers submit individual forms that contain their responses. So each submission, and each reader, have multiple entries in the “reading history” table, in which the primary field is a simple autonumbered field.
Right now, in the main submissions table, there’s a field for “Assigned Reader” that can pull multiple values from the Reader table. I’ve also created a rollup field called “Previous Reader” that pulls the “reader” field from the “Reading History” table and aggregates those values with the ARRAYJOIN function.
I can run a comparison between the “Assigned Reader” and “Previous Reader” fields and see if they’re the same, but what I want to know is if one individual reader name appears in both fields.
So at the moment, I’m creating an individual field in my main submissions table for EVERY SINGLE READER – titled things like “Did Eric Read It?” containing the formula IF(SEARCH(“Eric”,{Previous Reader}), “Read”, “Unread”). So basically I’m asking of every sumbission whether or not every reader read it. Then when I create a view that filters the table by “Assigned Reader” for Eric, I can sort by the field “Did Eric Read it?” and see a list of submissions assigned to him sorted by read/unread.
WHEW. This is getting a bit unmanageable as I get upwards of 20 readers. Is there a simpler way to do this?
Many thanks in advance. I think Airtable makes an AMAZING tool as a submissions database, and I want to push it out to others in my field for this use, but I’d like to have it working more simply first.
Best,
Danielle
