"Link to field" field type vs "link to form"

[qba123]

Hi
Great app, but… :)

I am looking for functionality more similar to what I can remember form old MS SharePoint. Let me start with an example:
I have electronic components database like this:
kind : Resistor / package : 0603 / value : 10k / key: R0603_10k
kind : capacitor / package : 0805 / value: 15pF / key: C0805_15p
and so on…
and then i have “warehouse” form with quantity of each component:
name: resistor 0603 10k / qty : 1000 / supplier: mouser / pn: 1234
name: resistor 0603 10k / qty: 500 / supplier : digikey / pn: 5678

What i’am missing in TapForms is a way to make “name” in second table a relation to “key” field in first one. I’am aware of “link to form” field type, but :
1) it is not displayed in table view
2) it’s enough to have link to one field instead whole row: I can click key to jump to linked row…

isn’t it that the most obvious way to build relations in database? or am I missing something?

thanks in advance for any advice on that…
ps. I am using mac version if that matters

[Brendan]

Hello qba123,

What you’re requesting is something like a saved search attached to a Link to Form field. This is something I have planned for a future update, but have no ETA on that functionality at the moment. Currently when you link one form to another you either create new records when using a one-to-many link type or select from existing records when using a many-to-many link type. Tap Forms maintains an internal foreign key to provide this relationship.

I would like to add the ability to specify a search to apply to the link to be able to facilitate dynamic linking so you wouldn’t have to select the records to link manually. It would be able to apply the query to the other form and automatically pull in the records which matched the query. For example, display a list of records from the child form which match the value of a specific field in the parent form. That way with different parent records you can have a different set of child records automatically linked.

I have not built this functionality just yet. I’m just thinking out loud here on how I imagine it might work.

I’m currently busy with making the app ready for iOS 7.

Thanks,

Brendan

[qba123]

Thanks for fast replay, but I think, that we are not really on the same page with that. :)
I think that what I’am looking for and what I’d like to propose as a solution here is way less complicated. I’s rather kind of pick list, but based on other table and not separate pick list editor…
Just assume that we have this electronic components warehouse thing. Right now to make whole thing easier I’am using pick list editor to create whole “assortment” list that will be used in other forms/tables (like the qty table). It would be sooooo much easier to indicate other table as a source for pick list with option to show only chosen field or concatenate all (or some) fields in parent form/table. That should be a link to child’s table row also.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have this kind of pick list? That would also in my opinion simplify system and would make it more consistent: no separate pick list editor…
From db perspective it would be probably more of “many-to-one”. I have this in some my old projects coded like this (that’s pseudo-code to make this short):

$query=select * form source_of_pick_list where key.source_of_pick_list = chosen_key
$content_of_parent’s_field=list_of_selected_fields_from($query) + link_to_child_row(chosen_key)

cheers and have easy coding with iOS7 :)

[Brendan]

Hi qba123,

Ok, I understand now. So something like a new field type maybe that’s a “lookup” field that you pick one field from another form to display the same way a pick list is displayed.

But if you edit the value selected in the child form, it updates the selected value in the parent form. Right now with pick lists, Tap Forms simply copies the value from the pick list and stores it in the value field.

Thanks,

Brendan

[davidc]

I would like to add my vote for this. It would help a lot for what I’m trying to accomplish with Tap Forms.

[Roo]

I would like this too.

[Author]

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