Using forms to link records

[gabriel]

Hello,

I want to use forms to let people outside my organization link records among my existing tables. I don’t want to let them create new records. Just let them link one field to another.

Is there a way to achieve this through forms?

I’m having trouble with the primary field being just a string of text.
Ideally, someone could select the primary field from a dropdown, and then link whatever they want to to that specific primary field, without creating a new record.

Use case example
I have a list of companies as my primary field.
I want someone to use forms to pick a company and associate it to a topic (currently linked to a Topics table, it basically acts as a multiple select).

[Mohamed_Swella1]

Hi @gabriel,

A form main purpose is to create a new record. There is no way to do so directly from Airtable.

However, what you are looking for is to update a record from a form. You can use 3rd party extensions to do so. Check this out https://miniextensions.com/airtable-edit-form/

BR,
Mo

[andywingrave · Accepted solution]

Hey there! Just chiming in - Whilst @Mohamed_Swellam is correct here.

There’s nothing to stop you having a form that is a table which just links two records.

Here’s the form - so you can test it out

[gabriel]

hey Mo @Mohamed_Swellam

thanks for the fast reply!
I literally just watched a video on that extension - really cool!

the problem with it is that I don’t want people to be able to edit the existing record, I just want them to add links/associations to it – based on my current database design.

[Mohamed_Swella1]

Well, then you can use @andywingrave solution. Make a table that is only linking to the other tables. This will create new records in this particular table but not in the other tables.

BR,
Mo

[gabriel]

thanks @andywingrave
this is a nice way around it. would be nice if Airtable came up with a robust solution :slightly_smiling_face:

[HannesK-ME]

Hey @gabriel ! Sorry to revive an old thread, but perhaps somebody will come across this in the future and find it useful!

As Mo had mentioned, the miniExtensions Form can open up existing records. I just wanted to add that our form can also be set up in a way that will prevent existing data from being altered, while still being able to add further linked records to a record, which appears to be exactly what you wanted to do! We call this feature "add-only" mode. It basically hides existing linked records in a field, but allows a user to add new ones. All other fields on the form (if there are any) could be set to read-only to prevent editing entirely.