Forum Discussion

MikeTamoush's avatar
MikeTamoush
Qrew Commander
2 years ago

Ideas when filling out a form and using a child table

I have always struggled with the following, and wonder what creative solutions people have come up with.

When building a form, say an equipment request form, the user would fill out some typical info, and then need to create a list of equipment to request. The best practice way for this is to create a child table. Here are the issues I run into when trying to use a child table in a form:

  1. Editable Report Links would be the perfect solution, except for the terrible interface where when you double click on cells, particular the very right cell, you don't really 'see' the entire selection. You always end up scrolling the report link to the right etc. It's particularly wonky when the far right column is a drop down selection. Any way to combat this awkwardness?
  2. Alternatively, could just use the 'Add Child Record' button. Works, but not super user friendly as they have to hit 'save and next' until they are done. Additionally, they need to figure out how to delete the child record if they decide they don't want it, which isn't necessarily intuitive for non QB users or for users who rarely use QB. Additionally, if ever on mobile, you need to have the record saved first to see the button, or create a custom rich text button.
  3. If I have say, 10 or less items that could be chosen, just create a bunch of fields on the parent and use dynamic form rules to keep showing them as the user fills in the prior. This works well, but if I have description fields etc, could result in a lot of fields. This wins for user friendly, but loses for best practice in a build.

I suspect if I knew coding, I could design something with a code page, but that is beyond my capabilities. Anyone else come up with a creative solution?



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Mike Tamoush
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    • MarkShnier__You's avatar
      MarkShnier__You
      Icon for Qrew Legend rankQrew Legend

      Mike

      i have a Quick Select Technique  with User Focus.

      The user would click a button to launch off the parrot, and under the covers that would set a user focus for the parent record. Then they would land on a regular QuickBase, report of all of your items. The user would use that report to search or filter to what they wanted then click, click  click on any items they wanted, and then click the button to get back to the parrot record where the children will be there.

      I must've showing this to you in the past, but if not, I can show it to you and set it up for you under an hour and then you would have the technique for the future.  



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      Mark Shnier (Your Quickbase Coach)
      mark.shnier@gmail.com
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      • MikeTamoush's avatar
        MikeTamoush
        Qrew Commander

        Thanks All. 

        Don, not  sure that is perfect for me in my current use case, but a really interesting idea I will make note of.

        Mark - yes you have showed me that and I have done it in other areas! Thank you! Also not exactly right in my current use case, but both good ideas to note. Really, I probably should put in a user feedback and hope one day QB decides to fix or update the interface for using editable report links....



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        Mike Tamoush
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