Forum Discussion

AlexGale's avatar
AlexGale
Qrew Captain
7 years ago

Can you configure the Copy Master/Detail Records button?

How much flexibility do you have with the Copy Master/Detail Records button? I would like to be able to configure a couple things:  Exclude fields from being copied Edit the values in certain copi...
Tips and tricks
QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
QuickBaseCoachD
Qrew Captain
7 years ago
In order to set up a copy master detail you need to select a text data field.  So for example it would be the field like Project Name.  So of the Project Name was called

"Figure out how to do a custom Copy Master detail"  (no doubt with child task records like RTFM, post to community forum, guess etc, then the clopied Project would be called

"Copy of Figure out how to do a custom Copy Master detail".

so I have a formula field like

Begins([Project name], "Copy Of") and if that is true, I know that the record was just copied.

As a part of the URL # 2 button I remove the leftmost 8 characters of the Project name to get rid of "Copy Of
  • AlexGale's avatar
    AlexGale
    Qrew Captain
    7 years ago
    Ah that makes sense, thanks. 
  • QuickBase9's avatar
    QuickBase9
    Qrew Cadet
    7 years ago
    Mark, is there any way that an automation could handle this? It is not recognizing an "add record" action just took place when the user clicks the Master/Child button, so it seems there is no trigger for me to set up for when to remove one of the copied fields.

    My concern with doing the copied nomenclature and the formula field is that the users will never change the Copy field and the rule will always fire to remove the entry from the specific field because you will not be able to set it for "only when field changes" (because it will be like that from the add).
  • QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
    QuickBaseCoachD
    Qrew Captain
    7 years ago
    Interesting.  I never thought of using an Action or Automation for the Step 2 since they were not available when I started using the technique.  You should be able to use either one and trigger on add record and also the condition that the "Copy Of" field begins with copy of. 

    Are you saying that you tried an Action or an Automation and it did not work.  It seems to me it should work perfectly.
  • QuickBase9's avatar
    QuickBase9
    Qrew Cadet
    7 years ago
    The automation process actually works* - so this is a great fix for a very old, annoying problem! I did not even need to include the Copy Of field - just set up my automation like this:

    When a user Adds a Record on X table
    Match the Record ID to the Trigger: Record ID
    Update the field you want

    *Sometimes you just need to walk away from the computer! It wasn't working originally because I accidentally typed a word along with the Trigger:Record ID 
  • QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
    QuickBaseCoachD
    Qrew Captain
    7 years ago
    OK, great.  So I learned something too.  But don't you need to filter the automation / action on Copy Of.  What if a user just Adds a record the regular manual Add Record method. 
  • QuickBase9's avatar
    QuickBase9
    Qrew Cadet
    7 years ago
    Ah yes, it depends on what you what the action to do. I want it to delete a field being copied over, so for me it is just zeroing it out to what it would be on a normal add record.

    To specifically target only the Master/Detail ones you could do that OR even better, you can indicate that the record has children records >0 as additional trigger criteria.