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TonyGonzalez's avatar
TonyGonzalez
Qrew Trainee
3 months ago

Bring field "forward" to related table

I have a Department table.  Department and director email are two fields in this table. 

In another app, Customer Satisfaction Survey, outsiders will use a form and pick a department.  I want, on submission of the survey, for director email to be listed on the All Records table, even though it isn't listed on the form the web user sees.  (I don't want to expose those emails on the form.)  How do I do this?  I feel like I know, i just can't put the puzzle pieces together.



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Gonzo - A Newbie, but learning fast. (Former SmartSheet evangelist who is quickly converting to QuickBase)
IT Director City of New Braunfels
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16 Replies

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  • AlbertoTablada2's avatar
    AlbertoTablada2
    Qrew Trainee
    3 months ago

    Hello Tony,

    if you don't want to expose the email on the form, and want to show it to user after submission.

    Have you considered sending a notification email to user after the form is submitted, and on this notification include the selected department's email (you might have to ask user to provide their email address, assuming you are using an EOTI form).



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    Alberto Tablada
    Lead Software Engineer
    BlueWell Group
    Florencia
    +50688083124
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    • TonyGonzalez's avatar
      TonyGonzalez
      Qrew Trainee
      3 months ago

      I don't actually want to ever show it to the user.  I just want to be able to notify the director when they get a new survey.  I assumed the easiest way to do this is to list the director, based on the other table, on the table so I can use that field to send an email notification.



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      Gonzo - A Newbie, but learning fast. (Former SmartSheet evangelist who is quickly converting to QuickBase)
      IT Director City of New Braunfels
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      • ChayceDuncan's avatar
        ChayceDuncan
        Qrew Captain
        3 months ago

        If you're making a relationship to 'Departments' then you just need the email to be a lookup field. You don't have to put it on the form or ever expose it to the user. When you set the department on the submission then the email would be populated and you can use it in an email notification. Fields don't have to be on the form or viewable by the user to have data - you can remove it through security if you're really concerned about it. The user would pick the department on the form via the 'Related Department' field and then then notification would just interpret the email that comes through via that relationship. 



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        Chayce Duncan
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  • BrianSeymour's avatar
    BrianSeymour
    Qrew Cadet
    3 months ago

    Hey Tony,

    I don't totally understand your intent as it your initial question and latest response seem to have opposing goals of displaying the Director's email once submitted or not at all (both are possible).

    Here are couple things to consider: 

    • Notification data is separate from displaying form data, so you'll have access to fields that are not necessarily shown on a given form.
    • You may have cross-app relationships so it may be useful to relate Surveys to Departments
    • But, I try to avoid these cross-app relationships when possible (consider a Pipelines search to locate the Director's email instead once the new Survey record is created?) But, it depends on your use case.
    • Form fields may be set to display on add, edit or view. So you could have the director email shown on "view" (after the record is saved), but not on "add" (when submitting the form)

    If you've created the Surveys table where users/visitors are able to create records, then it seems like you would be able to trigger a email notification when a new record Survey record is created and the Director's email field is not empty (based off the selected Department)?

    Hopefully that helps!



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    Brian Seymour
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    • TonyGonzalez's avatar
      TonyGonzalez
      Qrew Trainee
      3 months ago

      Thanks, Brian.  Now I see why you and at least one other helper were confused.  I didn't word it in a clear fashion.  I have now edited, so I hope that helps. 

      I have the form working as intended, where it doesn't show director e-mail field.  The field does show up on my All Records table, which is correct.  But now, I am only getting it to show the record id# and can't get the proxy field to work correctly.  For the proxy, it only shows me FY and Month, which aren't in the Departments table.  I am lost as to what is broke here

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      Gonzo - A Newbie, but learning fast. (Former SmartSheet evangelist who is quickly converting to QuickBase)
      IT Director City of New Braunfels
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      • BrianSeymour's avatar
        BrianSeymour
        Qrew Cadet
        3 months ago

        In your screenshot of the Related Department field props, click the "Edit the Relationship" link near the top. Then, you'll be able to add "lookup fields" from the Departments table into your Customer Satisfaction Surveys table.

        Presumably, you'd look up the Department Name and the Director's Email fields so they'd be available in the Customer Satisfaction Surveys table. Then, change your Related Department's Proxy in your screenshot to Department - Name (or whatever makes sense for your User's to select the appropriate Department). Then, you could email the Department - Director Email when a new record is created.

        That all assumes there is a relationship already in place between where Departments have many Customer Satisfaction Surveys.

        If that's not the case, then you'd have to explore other workarounds such as creating a "Departments" Text - Multiple Choice dropdown where you'd pick a value that not related to anything and then use Pipelines to search through your Departments table to find the selected Department (to get the Director's Email). I'm reluctant to mention this last point! One thing at a time! Did the first few paragraphs make sense and are your two tables already related?



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        Brian Seymour
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