Importing data for a link from form field

[Gabrielle Stanley]

I am trying to migrate a large database from Access, and taking advantage of reorganising at the same time. I have a form (Pattern) with nearly 2500 records, and this needs to be the child of another form (Pattern Publisher) with about 160 records.

I’d like to be able to use this link to be able to visit the pattern publisher’s website, or to view any notes I have made about them.

Is there a way I can use the imported field with the name of the Pattern Publisher on each Pattern record to establish the ‘link from form’ on the Pattern form without having to manually go through and establish all 2500 links individually?

[Brendan]

Hi Gabrielle,

Yes you can do this. Do you have a common field between your two forms?

If you do, then import your CSV files into separate forms. Then on your parent form, add a Link to Form field and choose the child form to link to. Then choose the Join Link Type option.

Then choose the field from the parent that matches the field from the child.

Tap Forms will do the rest so that when you select a parent record, all the child records that have matching values from the parent’s join field will display in a table.

I hope that makes sense.

Thanks!

Brendan

[Gabrielle Stanley]

But this is a one-to-many relationship, is that a problem? (I usually think of a ‘join’ as supporting a many-to-many relationship).

I will be importing another form later, with images of the garments for each pattern, but with the garment type associated with each picture. This will be a one-to-many in the other direction, e.g. a pattern might have a top, a dress and a skirt associated with it.

When I input a pattern I want to be able to load pictures of the different garment types, and also link to a folder containing the various PDFs associated with it.

Later, I want to be able to look at the garment type form and search through a particular garment type (for example all tops) then link back to the pattern for the one that I select and then open the files for the PDF or the instructions etc.

Will the method you described support this too?

I was planning to use a join type of relationship when I log projects which will need to have Many to many relationships with both garment types for a pattern, and fabric (i.e. a project may consist of more than one garment type from one or more patterns, and also use one or more fabrics, but I could use the same pattern or fabric in another project.) I might want to keep a note on a specific join in this circumstance.

I’d appreciate your input on whether I am going about all this in the correct way.

[Gabrielle Stanley]

OK, I have just tried this and the linkage field was blanked out in the parent table. I tried deleting the records and re-importing and despite seeing the data in the import panel, when the file is loaded it is again blanked out.

This is very frustrating, as you can imagine.

[Gabrielle Stanley]

I CAN NOT get this to work even without the imported data. Tearing my hair out here.

[Gabrielle Stanley]

I apologise. I went away for a couple of hours and tried again and I now have it working. I have no idea what I did differently but obviously there was something I missed before.

I would delete the previous 2 messages but there doesn’t seem to be a way to do that.

I’d still be interested to know if you think I am attacking this structure in the right way, otherwise consider the thread closed and answered.

[Sam Moffatt]

But this is a one-to-many relationship, is that a problem? (I usually think of a ‘join’ as supporting a many-to-many relationship).

JOIN obviously is ambiguous in that it’s really based on your own data if it’s 1:M or M:M. If you only ever have one record with that key though it’s effectively a 1:M. The UI will treat it as M:M with the table rendering but if that bothers you then you could build a script later to relink records if you want to have that 1:M enforced link.

I will be importing another form later, with images of the garments for each pattern, but with the garment type associated with each picture. This will be a one-to-many in the other direction, e.g. a pattern might have a top, a dress and a skirt associated with it.

When I input a pattern I want to be able to load pictures of the different garment types, and also link to a folder containing the various PDFs associated with it.

Later, I want to be able to look at the garment type form and search through a particular garment type (for example all tops) then link back to the pattern for the one that I select and then open the files for the PDF or the instructions etc.

Will the method you described support this too?

I can’t comment entirely on the import use case because it’s not something I’ve done a lot of but my understanding is that you should be able to import the attachments as well. If you’re on a single device, you can generally use the “web site” field to link to a location and Finder should be spawned to go to that location which should solve your link to folder use case. You could also import the attachments into Tap Forms as well but that might not make sense for you.

You can created searches per form and then use the links to navigate to other records where it makes sense. You can also create script fields to combine values from multiple child records to make it a field you can pull directly in from a saved search as well.

I was planning to use a join type of relationship when I log projects which will need to have Many to many relationships with both garment types for a pattern, and fabric (i.e. a project may consist of more than one garment type from one or more patterns, and also use one or more fabrics, but I could use the same pattern or fabric in another project.) I might want to keep a note on a specific join in this circumstance.

It feels like you’re in a situation where I’d recommend a third form that handles the join details and adds any extra notes you might want to keep with it. It does add a layer of indirection to the system that you have to navigate through but it will permit you to model this many to many relationship with the extra data you want to track. I have a video that might help with leveraging link to form fields. Doing this natively will be a little easier than importing it later but obviously you can import it using the JOIN mechanism as well and change it later.

I’d still be interested to know if you think I am attacking this structure in the right way, otherwise consider the thread closed and answered.

I think it’s a reasonable approach to the situation. I’d suggest to create a simple test document where you work through the flow to see how it works and make sure it does what you need and models what you want to achieve.

Good to hear you figured out the import in the end too, it can be frustrating when things that should work in an obvious way don’t and you don’t understand why :)

[Gabrielle Stanley]

Thank you for your exhaustive reply. I am still getting my head round the best way to cope with TapForms structure, and how best to represent my data in a usable way. I think I will be losing the 1-m for linking the pattern to the individual items, and go to having multiple photos and also a multi-value popover for the types of garments – presuming I can search on this.

I am intrigued about your statement ” If you’re on a single device, you can generally use the “web site” field to link to a location and Finder should be spawned to go to that location which should solve your link to folder use case. ” Where can I find out more about how to do this? I have not got anywhere in figuring out a search term to find instructions, though I expect I am missing something obvious!

[Sam Moffatt]

Play with the link structure and how it works in the UI is probably my best suggestion there to get through what flow works best for your processes. One other aspect I’d add is that if you can tackle some Javascript, it can make working with linked fields more efficient. A simple example is that I have a form script that triggers a prompter to quickly input a subset of the data or fields without having to leave the parent form (particular use case is entering shipping data, it also sets the ship date to the current date plus some other nice features).

On the second part, you just create a link that is file:///Users/username/path/to/folder/ in the website field and when you click on the globe it should trigger Finder for you. If you put the full path in, it should trigger selecting the file in the Finder window (I don’t think it’ll open as a security limit from MacOS).

[Gabrielle Stanley]

Again, thanks for the advice. I have been doing some data input, copying the paths into a hyperlink field, but something strange seems to be happening.

I have a Notes field also on this form. On the Default layout, the notes field has to be opened to type anything in it, and then closed which brings up a Save dialog box. However if I set up a new layout I can just click in to the notes field and type. But in the new layout, the hyperlink returns an error message (TapForms Mac 5 does not have permission to open), despite working fine on the Default layout.

Is there something I have done wrong on my settings on the new layout for the Hyperlink field? Or is there a setting I can change to make it work?

[Sam Moffatt]

I did a quick test with a file:/// link and could reproduce the “does not have permission” error with a file in my home directory or inside of the TF container using Big Sur and Mojave. I added a quick notes field, copied and pasted the file path link I had already in my test form into the notes field which autolinked it (yay) but clicking on it appears to work without error. Big Sur was an App Store build and the Mojave Mac has a download from the site. I think this one is in the domain of the Keymaster.

[Brendan]

Hi Gabriel,

I’m glad you got your import and relationships setup. Sorry for the difficulties that you had.

If what you want to do is link to a folder in the Finder, then I would suggest perhaps using a File Attachment field. If you attach a folder using the Alias button (arrow with +) instead of the Add File (+) button, then the security will be setup correctly so that the Finder will navigate to the folder if you double-click on it in Tap Forms.

The local file link in the Notes field seems to be working in Catalina. Still have to test it in Big Sur. Although the Finder merely selects the file. It doesn’t open it.

[Gabrielle Stanley]

Brilliant! Thanks for this. This is what I wanted in the first place, I didn’t realise that’s what the +/arrow did which is why I went the hyperlink route recommended earlier. #newbie

As for the notes, if I can use the ‘new layout’ and type in notes that is good enough. I was just wondering if it was something I had done in my inexperience.In the ‘default layout’ I cannot type directly into the field, I have to open a separate window, but in the ‘new layout’ I set up I can just click and type in it, which is good enough for me.

(BTW I’m still using High Sierra, my old Mac would perform sluggishly if I went any ‘newer’. I can perfectly understand that you would not want to delve into the interface if it is release dependent.)

[Brendan]

Excellent! I’m glad the folder alias is a workable solution for you.

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