Problem with linked forms (TF 5 to TF Pro)

[PierreBn]

Hi,
Happy to see TF pro released 😉

I have a problem I can’t figure out after importing my TF 5 records into TF Pro.

I had in TF5 a linked form, linking to the same form (many to many type).
I could link record 1 to record 2. The link would appear both in the field of record 1 (record 2 in the linked records list) and automatically in the field of record 2 (record 1 in the linked records list).

But in TF5 Pro, I don’t see the reverse.
In record 1, I see record 2 in the list. But in record 2, I don’t see record 1 appearing anymore.

In TF5, since this is an “intra-from” link, I never had to activate “show inverse relationship” (as opposed to cases where I am linking a form to another form). But even if I do, it changes nothing.
Is intra-form linking a feature that was removed in TF Pro, or am I missing something?

Thks,
Pierre

• This topic was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by PierreBn.
• This topic was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by PierreBn.

[Brendan]

Tap Forms Pro handles the inverse relationship a bit differently than Tap Forms 5 did. In Tap Forms 5 the record would appear in the same field in the inverse case. But Tap Forms Pro requires you to enable the Show Inverse Relationship option and the value will appear in the Link From Form field of the “child” record. So it’s supported, it’s just more consistent now with the way linking to other forms works.

[PierreBn]

Thanks Brendan,
The new way of handling it doesn’t fit my needs. But I understand why this can makes sense.

The problem is how to fix:
Basically my setup is, within the same form, “Records of type 1” are accessories to “Records of type 2”, and both are linked. The direction of the link shouldn’t matter (items listed in my form can be accessory(ies) to one another).
Since the relation was direction-agnostic in TF 5, I didn’t have to pay attention which way I was doing the link.
So now my records are shown inconsistently in TF Pro; sometimes “Record of type 1” is a child of “Record of type 2”, sometimes “Record of type 2” is a child of “Record of type 1″…

I would be ok with handling this the way TF Pro does, but I need the link to be displayed in a consistent manner (“Record of type 2” is a child of “Record of type 1”, not the other way around).
How can I update my TF Pro DB now (or in TF 5 before exporting the backup) ? I’ve got hundreds of records…

Thanks

• This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by PierreBn.

[Brendan]

In Tap Forms 3.5, earlier than Tap Forms 5, the relationships were displayed exactly as they are in Tap Forms Pro. I had to switch to the way Tap Forms 5 did it because of the nature of the CouchbaseLite database engine I was using. It was a bit of a hack actually to show the inverse in the same field. But now with the new database engine I’m using (Apple’s CoreData and regular SQLite), I can go back to displaying them the way they should be, as separate fields. Having them as the same field was very confusing to some customers and caused them troubles with their databases.

The only way I can think of correcting it is to just re-link the records from a consistent direction. Start at the parent form and add the child records for every one of your parent records. Then do the migration to Tap Forms Pro.

I’m sorry this has caused you this trouble/work.

[PierreBn]

Thanks Brendan for the quick answers. At least I know what I have to do!

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