Forum Discussion

MikeMike's avatar
MikeMike
Qrew Cadet
8 years ago

Maxtrix view or entry for many-many table relationships?

I am brand-new to QuickBase and trying to figure out how to do some things.  I have a matrix type table (example screenshot below) with 200+ fields along the top, and 200+ names.  



This has become quite unmanageable for the people using it, so I have created a many-many relationship using a linking table.  Name is in one table, Number is in another table, then these two tables are linked one-many to the linking table.  The result when I view the linking table is as below.  (In my actual table it's staff or customer names and activity groups each is involved in or responsible for)


I think this works much better for storing the information, and it makes it possible to report on specific things which I couldn't do from the matrix. 

However occasionally we would still like to be able to view or edit the data in the matrix style view.  We could view in this format by using a pivot table from Excel, however we're unable to edit this way, and exporting to Excel isn't necessarily the preferred method to do this if possible.




Can we set up a report or edit form (I'm not sure what they're called) in the Matrix style that will display from or record data to both tables through the relationships?

Or is there an entirely different way I could set up my table(s)?
  • QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
    QuickBaseCoachD
    Qrew Captain
    8 years ago
    You do not want to design an app with 200 checkbox fields, you the other's on the Community Forum will agree with your approach to make that a child table?

    Have you tried making a Summary report?  That is the 2nd choice when you go to make a report.  The result will basically be identical to the Excel Pivot Table.  Also, if you have any Concept where the 200 checkbox fields are grouped into categories, you ca have Dynamic filters on the report to just focus on certain of the columns as having a report that is 200 columns wide will not be very user friendly.
    • MikeMike's avatar
      MikeMike
      Qrew Cadet
      8 years ago
      Thank you, the Summary report looks good, and definitely gives the view part.  

      I'm afraid I don't understand your comment about making it a child table?

      The different columns along the top are not related to each other, so cannot be grouped in any way.  
    • QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
      QuickBaseCoachD
      Qrew Captain
      8 years ago
      Sorry, i just meant that you are better to enter the records individually as opposed to having a record with 200 fields.  ie, exactly what you have done.
  • _anomDiebolt_'s avatar
    _anomDiebolt_
    Qrew Elite
    8 years ago
    I am very short time as I have to travel shortly but I have an application called a "Join Editor" that uses HandsOnTable (a JavaScript Spreadsheet library) that can do this. Here is a screenshot I quickly created showing your data in the spreadsheet editor:



    Note that the only cells in the spreadsheet are stored as fields ion the Join Table are those with x's in them.

    I am very short time but if you are at Empower next week I can show you this in action.
    • MikeMike's avatar
      MikeMike
      Qrew Cadet
      8 years ago
      That looks good - is it editable or only viewable? 

      I don't know what Empower is :) and I won't be at it.  I will search for "Join Editor" and "Hands on Table