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"Call" relevant data from database

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Matej_Faganel
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

Hi,

Is this possible with Airtable:

  1. Is there a way that I publish a form and user can enter certain value (eg. Name) and “form” shows them values for that value (eg. Last names related to the Name)?
  2. User starts typing a eg. Last name in a field in the form and during the typing the possible values (of course the ones in database) starts to show?
2 Replies 2

Hello!

The only way that I’ve been able to achieve something similar to what you’re describing is by inserting a linked record field into the form.

K3mQ7lGfmC

Depending on your use case, the limitation you’ll run into is that you will be unable to create records in Table B using the linked record field.

This is in contrast to being able to create new records in Table B using the linked record field found in Table A in the table.

I’ve looked for an alternative solution for a long time, however, this is the closest that I’ve been able to get.

Once again @Ben.Young is on the right track. Here’s a bit more info on what’s happening behind the scenes:

Almost nothing.

While a form is technically called a “form view”, the form that you see outside of Airtable has almost no connection to the actual Airtable data. As Ben demonstrated, you can see the contents of linked records (to a certain extent), but even there it’s not a live look at the data. If someone were to add a record while that form was open, it wouldn’t appear in the list of linked records because that list was collected at the point when the form was opened. In short, the few things that you can see within a form view are effectively a snapshot of the data from the time that the form was opened.

In a similar vein, data that you enter in a form has no effect on what’s happening in the table until you submit the form. The form is effectively isolated from the table. This is good because it provides a simple level of security so that changes in the form don’t immediately do things like trigger automations, but that isolation can have its downsides as well, as mentioned above. If you want a more robust form for your users, you’ll need to look into third-party form solutions and/or tools that do more than just present a data snapshot to users.