Adding fields, exporting linked field, importing and iTunes question

[W P]

Anyone else either get booted out to the home screen or have it act like you hit the done button when backing out after editing/adding a field?

Also, when I have a linked field set to export, the field is always empty.

Is there a way to import records and also indicate what records they should be linked to in other forms?

This is on. The iPad running 5.0.2.

Also, how do I get to the export and import folders inside the file folder when in iTunes and syncing my iPad. Right now I have to save out the entire Files directory and then copy it back in. Or send the export to Numbers and save it out that way. I am not running El Capitan so I cannot use the new version of Tap Forms. Plus, the data would not be going there anyway as I already have another database system that I’ll be importing and exporting data to. This just allows me to take some of the data with me.

Thanks!

[Brendan]

Hi WP,

There’s 3 different ways to get to the editing form screen. Which way are you using?

1. Tap Edit on the main Forms list and then tap the form you want to edit.
2. Tap on any form to view its records, then tap the action menu, then tap Customize Form.
3. Tap on any record to view its details, then tap on the action menu, then tap on the Customize button.

Each will work in a slightly different way in terms of how it appears and disappears from screen. I just want to know which way is triggering the crash for you.

Only a Link From Form (from the inverse of a one-to-many Link to Form) field’s data will be included in the export because there’s only one value to export as opposed to a list of values. For a Link to Form field, there would be multiple child records to export. What were you expecting to see in that column?

iTunes doesn’t let you navigate inside those folders unfortunately. I use a program called iExplorer (https://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/) to do that. It’s a good app.

[W P]

I use option one to edit the forms. The fields seem to be added when I come back in from when I get booted back out to the home screen (Tap Forms is still shows as being open when I double click the home button), reedit form if I need to add/edit more fields or just go look at a record.

Okay, did not know that only the Link From Form and one to many would only show up in an export. I have one form (A) where you can select a related record from another form (B). I was expecting the value when I exported data from form A. Thanks I will give that a try. Or would I be better off using form B as a Pick List that gets its value from Form B. Sorry, I just thought of that as I was writing this and looked closer at the Pick List functionality. That would probably be the best way to do what I am doing.

What about importing records and indicating how they relate to records in other forms? Is that possible?

I’ll take a look at the iExplorer app. Thanks!

[W P]

It’s almost as if it gets confused to find a field. What gave me this thought was I tried the pick list to a form. When I added it, it didn’t crash but didn’t show up as a field when I went to edit/look a record. I had to go back out to Documents and go back in for it to show up. Something, it appears anyway, isn’t getting refreshed in memory when a field is added. When it does whatever it does, it finds this extra field it “doesn’t know about”, it can’t deal with it. Like I said, the field has always been added with all my settings when I get back in Tap Forms.

Would deleting Tap Forms and reinstalling help do you think?

[W P]

Any help or suggestions on setting relationships when importing records?

Also, I have added fields since making this post and it seems to have not crashed. Hopefully it stays away but, it has come and gone before.

[Brendan]

I’ve fixed the bug recently that caused new fields not to be displayed. It’ll be coming in a forthcoming update. It was just a little bit of over aggressive caching of the fields list for the form.

Ultimately I would like to have the ability for you to define in Tap Forms how two forms are related to each other rather than having to deal with it during the import and export process via specially structured internally managed IDs. You should be able to specify Form A links to Form B via this field and in this way.

[W P]

I’m not sure I quite follow what you wrote about the importing. Do you mean that right now there is no way to import the records and tell TF which records relate to other records in another form at import? My understanding right now is, if I delete all records in form A. Then reimport records to repopulate form A, I have to go to each record in form A and reselect the record(s) they are related to in form B.

However, you are working on an update (TBD when it will be delivered) that will relate the records more like a real relational DB does? Meaning, the one field you speak of, will be used by TF to automatically link records to form A and B (and others) as long as the forms have a similar named/defined field.

Did I interpret that correctly?

[Brendan]

The CSV file import of relationships was written to support importing of records that were previously exported from Tap Forms. It was a bit awkward because you had to import first the parent form’s records and then the child form’s records. But with the new Tap Forms Archive format, that’s no longer necessary. You can just export a Tap Forms Archive and import a Tap Forms Archive into a different document and Tap Forms will import all relationships and data intact.

What is the purpose of you deleting all the records and then re-importing them?

Your last paragraph is correct. I envision an enhancement to the Link to Form field with a new Link Type. Something like “Dynamic” or “Related by Field” or something like that. You would configure the Link to Form field by choosing a field from the parent form and choosing a field from the child form.

Tap Forms would then generate a list of child records on the parent record where the parent field value matched the child form’s field values.

Imagine an Order form and an Order Item form. The Order form has an “Order Number” field. And so does the Order Item form. You could tell Tap Forms to link the Order form to the Order Item form via the Order Number field that exists in both forms. Then when you selected a particular Order record, you would see the list of Order Item records for that order.

[W P]

My data is not in TF. It is in a MySQL database with Xataface as the front end. I am using TF on the iPad to make some of my data portable without having to expose my database to the outside world with all of its data. Since the TF import only imports all records, it would duplicate records when I import from my other system. I can make updates in Tf, export those records and when I import into my current database it will update the existing records and add any new records I’ve added using TF. TF to my knowledge does not have that capability. Hence my question.

Looking forward to that new relational setup as that will make it a lot easier to import records and automate the relationship linking.

[Author]

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