Using a form to select a record and edit fields within that record

[Craig_Rooney1]

I am trying to create a form to simplify uploading files to a “Lookup” style attachments field.

The table we work out of (Table W) consists mostly of lookup fields pulled from another table (Table S), including the attachments field in question. Multiple records are generated on Table W from Table S and we do not want to upload project files separately to every single related record on Table W.

The primary field on Table S is a formula field derived from entries within that record. There are no other unique fields that can be used in a form to select a specific record to allow an upload to the desired field.

Any ideas on how to make this work? I can’t show any examples of the tables, but I can try to fill in anything I may have missed in my description.

This is where I am stuck, we have a few users who are unable to navigate through the linked fields to add the files to the correct place. Asking these users to switch to Table S and then find the correct field for upload may be equally fruitless.

My only other option would be to create a view with only 2 visible fields.

[kuovonne]

Welcome to the Airtable community!

It isn’t clear if you want to create a new record in table S that is linked to table W, or if you want to upload a file to an existing record in table S.

It also is not clear if the people uploading the files are collaborators for the base or not.

Airtable forms can only create new records, not update existing records (at least not directly). You can use a form to create a new linked record. The easiest way is to create a button field with in table W to the form for table S, with the linked record field prefilled. The app Ready-Made Formulas makes creating the formula for the button easy.

[HannesK-ME]

Hey there, Hannes from the miniExtensions team here!

Our form extension supports this feature natively. You can either open the existing linked record directly with a form (in the S table) and upload the attachment there, or open the existing record in table W and show the users the linked records from table S in that form. They can then expand those linked records straight from the form and make edits as needed (e.g. upload an attachment).  

If you go the first route you could generate a formula/button in the W table that opens the appropriate record in table S. Going with the second option you'd still have a formula/button in the W table, but that formula would be for a form in the W table itself, i.e. to open a specific record in that table.

Feel free to try this out now with a free account and let us know if you have any questions on how to set this up!