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[Rob_Warner]

I have a table with multiple tabs that delineate project categories (I’m in Marketing so eblasts, social, blogs, etc.) and each of the items has an “owner” field with a collaborator assigned. Is there anyway to create a view or additional table where I could log in and see all the projects I’m working across all those tabs? I know within one tab I can filter for things assigned to me but I’d love to see everything I’m working on easily in one place

[ScottWorld]

Welcome to the community, @Rob_Warner! :slightly_smiling_face:

It doesn’t sound like your database is setup in the appropriate way.

Instead of having a different tab (i.e. table) for each one of your project categories, your projects should all be in ONE TAB with a single-select field called “Category”.

Then, you can easily do what you would like to do in many different ways.

Hope this helps! If this answers your question, could you please mark this comment as the solution to your question? This will help other people who have a similar question. :slightly_smiling_face: If not, please let me know what else you need help with!

[Rob_Warner]

Thanks, ScottWorld, but that doesn’t work for us. We need separate tabs because each tab has a unique workflow that we can’t smash into one tab. Let me know if you have any other ideas!

[Justin_Barrett]

This is a tricky situation indeed. The collaborator field is great because it helps to notify collaborators about records assigned to them, but as you’ve seen, it doesn’t create an easy way to see all records across multiple tables for a single person.

My gut says to add a [Collaborators] table to store collaborator data, and link projects to their respective collaborators from the other tables. The benefit is that you can then create a view for each collaborator (assuming it’s a relatively manageable number), where each person can see links to all of their projects across all tables. The downside is that you’ve already got an Airtable collaborator field in your project type tables, so this adds redundant data.

I’m currently a team of one, and haven’t used Airtable’s collaborator features before, so I’m not sure if there’s a clean way to get the best of both worlds.

[Rob_Warner]

That was my instinct as well! The only issue is that you can’t create such a table :weary: As far as I can tell at least. Presumably you’d make the primary field collaborator and then pull in all the projects, right? But the primary field can’t be a collaborator nor can it be reference to another table…the plot thickens!

[Justin_Barrett]

Rob_Warner:

But the primary field can’t be a collaborator nor can it be reference to another table

True, but we don’t need the primary field to be a link to another table. We need other tables to link to the records in this [Collaborators] table. After building the links, Airtable will automatically add reciprocal fields in [Collaborators] showing the incoming links from the other tables (one new field per linking table).

Airtable is pretty slick about field conversion, especially when it comes to turning an existing field into a link to another table. My gut says that you might be able to convert a collaborator field to a link field. If Airtable does the same thing that it does with other similar conversions, it will add records to the target table matching the collaborator names.

You might run a test of this in a dummy base for starters. Make a table with a collaborator field, putting yourself (and maybe one other collaborator, if they’re willing to be a guinea pig) as the collaborators on a handful of dummy records. Make a new [Collaborators] table, and delete all of the empty sample records. Back in your first table, edit the collaborator field settings to change it to a link to the new [Collaborators] table, and see if it auto-adds records matching the existing collaborator entries.

[Rob_Warner]

Ah I see what you’re saying. That took me a while to comprehend :slightly_smiling_face:

I think the issue with that set up is that currently I really like the way collaborators behaves, specifically when it notifies folks who’ve been added to records. In your solution is there a way to keep that ability?

[Justin_Barrett · Accepted solution]

Rob_Warner:

I really like the way collaborators behaves, specifically when it notifies folks who’ve been added to records. In your solution is there a way to keep that ability?

There might be a way to incorporate an integration service like Zapier or Integromat to monitor links to the records in [Collaborators], notifying a particular person when a new link is added. The downside with that option is that such notifications wouldn’t be instant. Zapier or Integromat would need to look for changes on a fixed schedule (using the methods I currently know from prior experience). There might be a way to code your own notification system via the Airtable API, but I don’t have API experience so I’m not sure if that’s actually possible or what it would require.

[Rob_Warner]

Right. That feels a little weighty for what should be a simple view. I’ve just created views in each of the tabs that filters those person’s projects and I think that’s what I’m gonna go with. Thanks for your help though!

[Justin_Barrett]

Glad to know that you got something working, even if it’s not the ideal solution! If you would, please mark the appropriate comment above as the solution to your question. This helps others who may be searching with similar questions. Thanks!