Multiple Records with Page designer block?

[Dustyn_Gobler]

Is it possible to display data from multiple records on a single page in this block?

[Roland_Baker]

Confirming that this feature does not work as most (including myself) probably intended. We had the same goal as @Dustyn_Gobler and it does not seem to be achievable with Page Designer. The block would have been better named “Record Designer”, @Justin_Barrett 's explanation helped and we realized it would not serve our purpose. Too bad :frowning:

[Bill_French]

Observation (mostly intended for the Airtable folks)…

It seems that the term “page” is at the core many of the misunderstandings that users seem to have about the Page Designer feature (me included).

To the vast web-centric populace, a page is an abstract idea that contains content. And content is a little less abstract but refers to data (in the Airtable context anyway). And data is a little less abstract and typically refers to records. Ergo, a page designer should support records, not [JUST] the fields of a given record.

In any case, this also demonstrates the need in the Airtable environment for user-definable enumerations of data [records] or even fields (ergo, enumerable schema data). This is a fancy way of saying a page designer should be able to loop through records and display each and desired fields from each, thus rendering a table, or a report, or whatever.

This is an expected behavior because it exists in almost every “page design” tool ever conceived for the web. As such, it is a surprise when Page Designer users encounter this cul-de-sac.

I think the answer is to consider a limited scripting model integral with the Page Designer block; a way to loop through records like a for…next, while…true, etc. Supporting these simple scripting elements would transform the current “Record Designer” into a fully functional Page Designer complete with report-writing capabilities.

And then take it to a higher level allowing users to expose pages as framed objects in other sites. Now you’ve solve a serious number of limitations reported across this forum.

Just sayin’ …

[Philip_Bakelaar]

so it does work to set the record size different than the page size, this is not intuitive at all but it appears to be the answer.

[Claudia_Leduc]

Ho, how? I tried and it still prints only one page even though my record is longer.

[Justin_Barrett]

Could you please describe your setup in greater detail? What was the page size for your Page Designer layout? What print size and other options did you use?

[Philip_Bakelaar]

so my problem was that each record was short and it was printing one small record on each page
I found a way to print multiple small records on each page

It sounds like you have a different problem, with one record needing more than one page to print?

[Claudia_Leduc]

Yes exactly.
I’m trying to find a workaround what seems to be a huge flaw in Airtable’ Page Designer block. I need to print an inventory list. I can’t tell in advance what will be the max size for a record or list of records.

Right now, I tried to tweek the table so that all the elements are gathered in one long record and try to print that record on multiple page but it didn’t work

I also tried the other way around, which is having the table list many records and have that run thru multiple page by stretching it across the page border but it didn’t work either.

So nothging seems to work now with this. Unless, I make short custom record pages and print multiple ones on a page, but this will result in a lot of paper waste and we sure do not want that!

Thanks for your help!

[Bill_French]

Claudia_Leduc:

I need to print an inventory list. I can’t tell in advance what will be the max size for a record or list of records.

Indeed, it would seem obvious and not unreasonable to expect some degree of reporting functionality in Airtable since many business use database to do – wait for it – reporting. :slightly_smiling_face:

Unfortunately content in Page Designer tends to stay in Page Designer unless you physically (and manually) use the features provided in the block to create a process with its content. There is no automation of printing, or queuing into another process for distribution as documents consumable by third parties. And there is no API into the content created by Page Designer. Lastly, there are no capabilities to modify Blocks (like Page Designer) to create much-needed support for these requirements.

Think of Page Designer as a very friendly cul-de-sac.

This is where we come to realise that there are rigid limitations to the rendering capabilities of Airtable. I’m all for workarounds, but there are cases where the requirements - no matter how much you bend and twist them - eventually require taking on the responsibility of building a custom solution. This is why APIs exist - for those times where point (A) and point (B) are actually more like Point (A) and point (D) or beyond.

Here’s good example - this is Point (A) -> Point (Z) and quite impossible to do without using the Airtable API.

[Ethan_Rosch1]

Is there any way to get a header on this new “Page” of repeating blocks?

[Justin_Barrett]

Not currently, unless your system print dialog somehow allows you to add a header on top of the primary printed content.