Exporting Linked Forms & Records

[Roo]

I need to export linked forms and their records to other devices that are not on the same iCloud account. I had trouble doing this and had to get exact instructions from Brendan to get it to work so I thought it would be helpful to share my experience on the forum in order to assist others.

1. Export Settings

Before starting any transfer of linked forms you MUST ensure the export settings are correct. Open the Tools menu and select Import & Export Settings. Ensure that both Export Record ID and Export Linked Data are turned ON. Turn on Export Media too if your forms have media in them that you want to transfer.

2. Export Parent Forms

First you need to install the forms on the destination device. This is easiest by email. Open the Tools menu on the first device and select Customize Forms. Scroll to the parent form that has the links in it and select it. Use the Action button to then select Email Form to send the form to the other device(s).

I made the mistake of also sending the linked child forms this way but this is not necessary as Tap Forms automatically includes a copy of the each of the linked forms when you export the parent form.

3. Import and install Parent Forms on second device

Next you can open the form in the destination device by tapping and holding on the .tff icon in the email on that device. This brings up the dialogue where you select the option to Open in Tap Forms HD. On selecting this, Tap Forms will open and you should get the dialogue “Form Import Complete” which you OK. Note that in order to see the forms appear in your list of active forms you will then need to import some records. You can check that the forms are there by either clicking the + button in the main form menu or going to Tools; Customize Forms where you can see all imported forms.

4. Transfer Linked Form Records

To transfer the records for the forms you must also export records separately. Open the parent form in the first device so you see the list of records. Select Email Records from the Action button to send them to the other device(s). This will send a .zip file which contains a .csv file of both the parent records AND the linked child records. It will not send any additional records in the child database that are not linked.

5. Transfer Additional Records

If you want to send extra child records that were not linked, you can also send them by opening each of the child forms and emailing their records in the same way as described above. This will send an unzipped .csv file for each form containing all of the records in that database. Only do this if you have additional records that you want to transfer in addition to the linked ones.

6. Import Linked Records

To import the linked records tap and pause on the .zip icon in the email on the destination device and choose Open in Tap Forms. This will open the Imports screen in Tap Forms with a copy of the .zip file in the list. Tap Forms offers you the option to unzip the file and Import it on this screen but this produces an unformatted copy of each list of records in the main directory. Because these have no template attached to them the links will not be present. It is a mistake to do this as I found that I HAD TO delete these automatic forms and records before I could successfully import the records into the previously loaded templates.

The correct way to import the records is to dismiss the Import dialogue and instead open the Parent form by tapping the + button in the main form directory (which will create an extra blank record when it opens) and then select Import Records from the Action button. This will re-open the Imports screen where you can see the imported .zip file. Tap on this and then choose Unzip File. This will open the parent and child .csv files in a folder with the same name as the original zip file. Then you can select the records for the parent form and import them. You may not see them appear immediately in the form records list but if you go back to the main Forms directory you should see the form listed with the correct number of records (plus the extra blank record) in grey. Once the parent form has been successfully imported, you can then import the child records in the same way by opening each of the forms and importing them. It is important that you import the parent records first though. Lastly you may want to delete the extra blank record from each list to keep track of how many records you have in each.

7. Import Additional Records

If you also exported the full child .csv files of records and want to add the missing records to the already loaded forms you can now do this. However, like with the first import, I found it was necessary to make sure that they are imported directly into the correct form rather than using the Import function in the Imports screen. Follow the procedure described above to do this and then you should see the extra records have been added to the already imported records. Doing this will not break the links of the previously imported linked records.

This rather full description of the process makes it all sound complicated but it is actually pretty straightforward provided you follow the steps in the correct order. If you find that imported records don’t show up after going through the Import process, it is probably because there was a pre-existing form with the same structure already present which needs to be deleted beforehand.

[Brendan]

Thanks for the great tutorial Roo!

One thing you can do instead of tapping the + button from the Forms screen and dealing with that extra blank record is to go to the Tools screen, tap on Customize Forms, then tap on the form you want to import your records into. The action menu button also has an Import Records function on it. So you don’t need to create that extra record and delete it later.

The important part is to just select the form you want to import into before importing. When forms are imported via email or on the Files screen, Tap Forms will always automatically create a new form for you with field names based upon the titles in the first row of your CSV file.

Thanks!

Brendan

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