Well, a Key field can't be a formula field, but yes you can create that formula field and use it to populate the key field initially and if adding a record manually (Form Rules).
If you can get that key field changed, then what you do is to create a formula checkbox field on the Parent called [Parent Exists?] with a formula of True. Look that up down to Children.
Then create or repurpose your Automation to create a Parent when a child is added or modified and the lookup value of
[Parent Exists?] is unchecked
The surprising but convenient behavior of the automation is this. Suppose you import 1,000 children needing 500 parents created. You would think that this would cause a rate limit being hit because you were asking for 1000 automations to run all at once and they can only be triggered at a maximum rate of 20 per second.
The surprise is that you will find that the automation is only run once except it will have 1000 steps. You can watch it run and it doesn't run particularly quickly but eventually it will finish.
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Mark Shnier (YQC)
Quick Base Solution Provider
Your Quick Base Coach
http://QuickBaseCoach.com[email protected]------------------------------
