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AndrewFry's avatar
AndrewFry
Qrew Assistant Captain
6 years ago

Automation when field is blank

I have two tables: Subdivision Locations Locations is a child of Subdivision (many locations to one Subdivision) When I enter a new location I can select a previously input subdivision to asso...
Quickbase Automations
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AndrewFry's avatar
AndrewFry
Qrew Assistant Captain
6 years ago
Blake, I think what you recommended is on the right path, but I can't seem to implement it correctly.

Here is what I have done:

  • App Home > Settings > Automation
  • New Automation > When Data Changes
  • When User [Adds A Record] > In the [Locations] table
  • Additional Criteria > Any Field Changes > And Any of the conditions are true
  • Subdivision Name - Is Equal To - The Value - 0
  • Add Action > Modify Records > Modify Records from a Different Table (Advanced)
  • Table = [Locations]
  • Filter Records (left alone)
  • Field: Related Subdivision
  • Source: Copy Value From Another Record
  • Value: Trigger [Locations] | Related Subdivisions

I understand the concept that you have proposed:

Basically, create a Subdivision of "No Subdivision" or similar.
In my case I created a Subdivision of: <blank>
The Subdivision ID# is 12.
Then create an automation so that when a new location record is saved, with a blank subdivision, it changes the related subdivision to Subdivision # 12.

I just can't seem to get it to work correctly because I can't seem to figure out how to tell it which Subdivision record to copy.

Any pointers you can give?

-Andrew
ArchiveUser's avatar
ArchiveUser
Qrew Captain
6 years ago
It looks like you're pretty close. I'd suggest the following changes:

  1. Where you have 'Subdivision Name = 0', you should have that as 'Related Subdivision=0'. "Subdivision Name" is going to be a text field and "Related Subdivision" is the numeric field that references the matching Subdivision record in the other table.
  2. Filter Record should be set to show Record ID# = Trigger:Record ID# as follows:
  3. For the 'Source: Copy Value' step, you should set that as 'Type a Value' and then manually enter 12 in the 'Value' field.
I have to admit, though, that this is kind of like using a sledgehammer when a hammer will do. Probably the easiest thing to do would be to go into the properties of the 'Related Subdivision' field and change the 'Default' to 12. This would automatically add the Blank record as the connected Subdivision when a user selected the green ADD button, but wouldn't do it if they added a Location from an existing Subdivision record.