Forum Discussion

HALEYHALEY's avatar
HALEYHALEY
Qrew Trainee
7 years ago

Connected tables: Is it possible to set up a connection with 20 tables channeling data into one connected table?

Hello,

I am working with a document library.

There are 20 tables, and different users have permission to access different tables. All records have file attachments.

I would like to set up a connected table so that all records from the 20 tables sync into one large table. Is that possible? (A table-to-table import wouldn't be able to import the file attachments so the connected table seems like the best option.)

The end goal would then be to create a report that searched the file attachment field using "contains the value <ask the user>" filter.

Any advice?

Thank you.
Ask about Quickbase functionality
File attachments
  • QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
    QuickBaseCoachD
    Qrew Captain
    7 years ago
    A sync table can only have 1 source.  But you could have 20 Actions on 20 tables to create a record in the centralized table.  The centralized table can have a formula to link back to the original document such that wen clicked, it will display the file attachment even though the file attachment is not actually on the centralized table.
    • HALEYHALEY's avatar
      HALEYHALEY
      Qrew Trainee
      7 years ago
      Thank you for the response!

      I'm not sure Quick Base Actions are the best solution because we need to not just add records to the centralized table but also modify/delete them when the corresponding record in one of the 20 tables is modified/deleted. Is it possible to do this with a QuickBase Action?

      And for the "formula to link back to the original document," what formula would you use?
    • QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
      QuickBaseCoachD
      Qrew Captain
      7 years ago
      The centralized table could have a relationship back to each of the 20 source tables. So 20 relationships. Then it could self detect if the Parent was deleted and either be hidden from reports or deleted by an Action or automation.

      That could also be useful to use a lookup for any Text fields on the source records, that way you would not need to deal with edits by Actions as they would just be lookup fields.
    • QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
      QuickBaseCoachD
      Qrew Captain
      7 years ago
      The formula URL to display a clickable link to a file attchment in another table is like this

      URLRoot() & "up/" & [_DBID_PROJECTS] & "/a/r" & [Related project] & "/e30/v0"

      Replace e30 with e and fid of the field holding the file attachment. The v0 just says to always show the most recent version if the attached file.

      .
  • TarynCuningham's avatar
    TarynCuningham
    Qrew Member
    7 years ago
    With this being the topic. I'm having some trouble. I am working on taking two tables and combining them into one. Is there an easier way of doing this without having to connect relationships and creating a new table?