How to unlink records from two forms – help please !

[nickc]

Hello, I wonder if anybody could help with a quick query please.

I have two forms one is the parent of the other and there is a field that links from the parent form to the child form with a one to many relationship. I have also set the show inverse relationship flag.

I can easily add links to the parent record and these correctly show on the child records, but how do you delete the links ? There is no option to do this. Even the drop down list to select more records does not have the selected records in so they cannot be unselected from either form.

Also there is no mention on unlinking in the help manual.

Am I missing something ? Please could somebody advise as this is such a brilliant database creator.

Many thanks

[nickc]

Sorry, should have mentioned I am using the iOS version 5.3.30 on my iPad.

Thanks
Nick

[nickc]

Ok, I have found the answer after much playing about. My child form was being shown in Photo view and not list mode. When I change it to list mode I can then click and drag the field sideways and the Unlink and delete options come up.

I am happy with this workaround, but it appears that if a form is in Photo mode you cannot unlink !

[Brendan]

Right, the Photo Grid View doesn’t have the swipe feature unfortunately. You can however, tap on a record, then tap the action menu button, then tap the delete function. You should be asked to unlink the record if it’s a many-to-many relationship. Although it seems for a one-to-many it only asks to delete the record. I’ll have to look into that so you get both options. Although usually with a one-to-many you would normally want to delete the record.

[nickc]

Hi Brendan, many thanks for the reply and I will have a look into to the actions required within Photo mode. Having the ability to unlink the record in photo view would be a great addition, thanks.

Just a comment on your last statement that ‘usually with a one-to-many you would normally want to delete the record’. In this case this is not so and I will explain. I am not creating a database to log things eg. diary where the number of entries will grow and grow. instead I am writing a bird identification database so there are a fixed number of known records that will be linked together to form relationships to allow manual filtering of the data records. Eg. for a Blue Tit I can link similar species (even in the same form) and it just helps the user to flick through to find the correct match. So no deletions of records, just removing of links if not correct and replacing with new links.

I have to say that I have been using this for a couple of years now and very pleased with my results. Then a couple of weeks ago I discovered how to link forms and it has absolutely blown my mind. Now my bird DB has grown way past my expectations and syncing to my iPhone means I can take the database out into the field and use it and update it in realtime.

Many thanks and keep up your good work.

Nick

[Brendan]

Hi Nick,

That’s great to hear!

Yes, I guess in your situation unlink is appropriate. I guess I was thinking in my mind when I said that of things like Orders and Order Items. An Order Item would never exist without the order it belongs to. But your use case makes perfect sense for the unlink function.

Thanks!

Brendan

[nickc]

Thanks Brendan!

[Author]

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