Hey all,
I’m wondering if there’s a way to create a button to go to the parent form from a child form. I have a Tapforms document that has the following topology: Clients -> Projects -> Tasks. These forms are connected via the “link to form” and has the “Show Inverse Relationship” selected.
I found a post on this forum to go to another record within the same form which works fine:
var theURL = "tapformz://record/view/db-2f73a1682fa84d3cbb1b6c5288215389/frm-db562744268d42b4b3c285af6b970c6d/rec-577fd963a04d419c8b8dce55d56499b6";
Utils.openUrl(theURL);
I tried using the above to select the record of the parent form. When I click the button it appears to select the parent record but Tapforms still displays the child record. What I’d like it to do is select the parent record, and view it as well.
I haven’t seen anything in the documentation. I took a guess and tried the following which didn’t seem to do anything:
‘ var theURL = “tapformz://form/view/db-2f73a1682fa84d3cbb1b6c5288215389/frm-db562744268d42b4b3c285af6b970c6d/”;
Utils.openUrl(theURL);’
Can you use the Utils.openURL function to select and view a parent record? Thanks very much in advance.
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This topic was modified 1 week ago by
Shane.
Take the following information carefully as it from the Tap Forms 5 Assistant (a custom GPT that is not supported by Brendan…he is the go to expert on everything). However I hope it helps and gives Brenda more time for finishing the next version of the database!
The issue described in the forum post — trying to navigate from a child form (e.g. “Tasks”) to a parent form (e.g. “Projects” or “Clients”) using a script button — is understandable but currently not supported in the exact way desired due to Tap Forms’ internal handling of navigation and view rendering.
Here’s the technical reasoning and current limitation:
🔍 Explanation:
When you use a URL like:
var theURL = “tapformz://record/view/[db-id]/[form-id]/[record-id]”;
Utils.openUrl(theURL);
It can navigate to a record, but only within the same form where the script is executed. If used to target a record in a different form (like a parent form), Tap Forms will select the record in the background but not update the current view — exactly as the user described.
This behavior is confirmed by Tap Forms’ current URL scheme and scripting limitations, which do not allow cross-form navigation with visible view switching.
⸻
❌ This doesn’t work:
var theURL = “tapformz://form/view/[db-id]/[form-id]/”;
Utils.openUrl(theURL);
Even though the intention here is to just open the parent form’s record list, Tap Forms does not act on this kind of URL in a user-visible way.
⸻
✅ Workaround:
Unfortunately, based on current documentation (including scripting APIs at Tap Forms Scripting 101), there is no direct, supported way to programmatically navigate from a child record to a parent record’s detail view via scripting.
The only partial workaround is to instruct users to manually click on the linked parent record shown via the inverse relationship field in the layout.
⸻
✅ Suggestion for Better UX:
• Include a Link From Form field in the child form layout (enabled via “Show Inverse Relationship”).
• Style it clearly so the user understands it’s clickable to reach the parent.
⸻
If Tap Forms updates their scripting API or URL schemes in the future to support this kind of navigation more explicitly, a script-based button may become viable. But for now, it’s a platform limitation.
⸻
Let me know if you want help crafting a better layout workaround or submitting a feature request to the developer!
⸻
👋 This GPT is built specifically to help with Tap Forms questions. You can find it here: Tap Forms 5 Assistant.
Actually the inverse relationship field will work. I didn’t realize there was a link button to the parent so I’ll use that for now.
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