Linked form – display data?

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  • November 12, 2011 at 2:28 PM #3528

    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I’m using TapForms LT on iPhone to see if it meets my needs. I’m creating a database of Books I’ve read (or want to read). It should link to another database of Authors (so I don’t have to keep typing the same author name over and over). I created a Link To Form field called “Author” in the Books form, as a Many To Many link to the Authors form. When I create a new book record, I can select an author from the Authors database, but when I go back to the book record, the author name isn’t displayed — just 1 >. Moreover, when I go back to the list view of the Books form, none of the author names are displayed, even though Author is the first field.

    Am I doing something wrong? How can I get the author names to display within the Books records?

    November 12, 2011 at 6:20 PM #4921

    Brendan
    Keymaster

    Hello Brian,

    It sounds like what you want to be using is the Pick List for your Author field. If you use that, it will display the selected value in the parent form. Linked forms work just as you are experiencing. It just shows the number of records linked. Just imagine if someone linked 200 records to their form, it couldn’t possibly show all the values from the linked form in the parent form.

    You can set your pick list up as a multi-select pick list too, so if you have more than one author, you can pick them all and they’ll all show up on the parent record.

    Thanks!

    Brendan

    November 12, 2011 at 6:45 PM #4922

    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Hi Brendan,

    Thanks for your quick reply. I wondered if a Pick List might be the way to go. I think that will work for my application, since I really don’t need to keep track of any information about an author other than the name. Can a Pick List be updated “on the fly” as I create new records in the Books database?

    And what if I did want to have more data about the authors, such as their year of birth and death, country of origin, etc? I guess I could create my Authors database using the same Pick List to get started with their names. But then there wouldn’t be any actual “linkage” between the Books and the Authors databases.

    I can understand why you don’t display any actual data from the linked table in a Many To Many link, since you have no idea how many records the user might link to. But it seems that what I really want is a Many To One link (many books share the same author, but each book only has one author — not strictly true, as you pointed out, but let’s pretend we’re in a situation where it’s true). Then I could specify one field from the Authors table (i.e. the name) to display in the linked field in the Books table. Is that a feature you’d consider including in Tap Forms someday?

    Thanks!

    Brian

    November 13, 2011 at 10:38 AM #4925

    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I highly agree Brian’s request. This is a verry importend basic feature.

    November 13, 2011 at 10:43 AM #4926

    Brendan
    Keymaster

    Pick Lists aren’t updated on the fly. However, you can import a file of authors into a pick list so you don’t have to type them in manually.

    If you want more data about the authors, then that’s where you would need to use a Many-to-Many link type. But yes, as you suggest, probably a “to-one” relationship would be what you’d need (which Tap Forms doesn’t have). It’s similar to the way the Contact field type works I suppose. If you select a Contact, it will copy the first and last name into the parent’s field. Tapping on the contact icon to the right of the field will display all the contact details.

    Thanks,

    Brendan

    November 13, 2011 at 3:18 PM #4928

    Anonymous
    Inactive

    “If you select a Contact, it will copy the first and last name into the parent’s field”

    That’s it!

    In addition there must be a way to define the field witch should be shown in the parent’s field.

    Bernd

    November 13, 2011 at 4:52 PM #4929

    Anonymous
    Inactive

    But even if you only show the first field of the child record in the parent’s field, that would be a good start. In a later revision you could add the capability to have the user select the specific child field to be displayed.

    November 13, 2011 at 6:44 PM #4930

    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Good idea :-)

    December 8, 2011 at 3:04 AM #4964

    nycojoe
    Participant

    I am trying to understand the use of the linked forms vs pick lists and their differnces. I am trying to utilize it in al call report sheed about customer data base.

    any help would be appreciated.

    Thanks,

    Joe

    December 8, 2011 at 3:21 AM #4965

    Brendan
    Keymaster

    Hello Joe,

    Pick Lists are just a way of typing in a value by picking the value from a list. No magic there. Linked forms are a way to connect one form to another. In your example, you might have a Customer form with their first name, last name, address, phone number, and a link to form field connecting to a Calls form. Your Calls form might have a call date, a notes field, and maybe a call duration field (or a end time field) and a calculation field which calculates the duration of the call [End time – Start Time].

    The above example uses a “One to Many” link type. One contact has many calls. Makes sense, eh?

    An example of a Many to Many link type would be if your Customer had a link to a Products form. The Products form could contain many products with their name, description, price, etc. The products field on the Customer form when tapped could show the list of products that specific customer typically buys. Instead of having to add a new product for each customer, you could tap the checkmark button at the top-right and select from any of the records you’ve already added to the Products form.

    Hope those examples make it a bit more clear of the differences between linked forms and pick lists.

    Thanks!

    Brendan

    April 20, 2012 at 11:49 PM #5175

    daniel
    Participant

    Hi,

    I have a similar question / extension to this one. I’ve searched around and read the manual but still am having difficulty figuring out the exact relationships created with linked forms. I get the basic concept, but when I play around with it, it never seems to work like I imagine / want it to.

    Like qykzoo here https://www.tapforms.com/forum/topic/populate-link-ed-form-popup, I am trying to build a type of CRM system using Tap Forms. I am trying to see if linked forms can be two-way. Let me explain what I’m trying to do, and see if someone can’t help tell me if it is possible and how to do it if it is.

    I currently use an excel spreadsheet to track customers. Each customer has a one-page “sheet” in an excel doc that has 1) their basic company info (name, address, phone, etc.), 2) a directory of contacts for that company (ceo, coo, etc…sometimes 20+ people), and 3) a “call log” space that I record every conversation I have with them (this area includes date and time of call, person spoken to, result of conversation, next steps, etc.).

    Now, I want to take that and put it into Tap Forms such that each of those three pieces is linked to the other on separate pages. For example, each company would have a form for their basic company info (corporate address/phone/fax/etc.), but it would also include a “directory” field that would link to a mini-address book of the contacts just for that company (ceo, coo, etc.), each person in that directory would then be linked to their personal contact info. The third form that needs to exist is a “Call Log” form that includes each time I’ve talked to someone, with links to that person’s personal contact info and a back link to the company info form.

    So it is like this structure, if this makes sense:

    Company->Directory->Individual Contact

        |                                                |–>Call Log

        |                                         (OR) |

        |                                                |–>Company

        |

        

    >Call Log->Individual Contact

                                                        |–>Call Log

                                                (OR) |

                                                        |–>Company

    So I hope this tree makes sense, such that you can tell the navigation/linking between each of these needs to be two-way: if I look at a personal contact form, it would list 1) their company name (which I could click on and return to the corporate page) and 2) a link to the “Call list” page, showing every call I had logged with just them.

    From what I gather, a relational database, like Tap Forms is (or is becoming), should allow me to do this, but I can’t seem to make it a reality.

    —-

    As a side note, not to take energy away from the main answer, what I have always wanted in the old, Excel method (but never had enough skill to do) is to have a “Today” or “Upcoming” sheet that automatically contained any upcoming calls scheduled or other action items.

    Anyways, if anyone can understand my ramblings and fantastic line art, I would love to hear if this is possible. I don’t think a really great CRM could be built on Tap Forms (which is fine, as it may not be the app for it) without this two-way linking ability, so you could break each part of a business opportunity into its different segments and focus on whichever one you wanted to, without worrying about managing basic information all over the place. Record the info once, then use it wherever you want.

    Thanks,

    Daniel

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