Given the new record in table 2 is “linked” to a record in table 1 and this is an Airtable DB link, I cannot just write the linking email into table 2. Some more context below:
See the schema I am using.
I have a company table - called table 1 and an owner and other shareholders table called table 2
Table 1 has company details but also an owner linked from table 2.
Now I want to owner to log into their glide account and be able to add and link other shareholders to their company record in table 1 with new shareholders being created and linked in table 2
I also want these new shareholders to be able to see the same company record in their view of the glide app.
Stackerhq.com allows this because it has built in visibility and addition of new records for relational databases (I think that’s what its called). I am trying to explore if Glide does so or not.
See attached my rough drawing - an attempt to explain better
Let me ask this first. How important is the use of Row Owners in this case? Are you attempting to use it as a replacement for filters and relations, or are you using it to secure the data so users can’t snoop the data and see other people’s companies and shareholders?
I assume that an owner can see all shareholders, and shareholders can see the owner, but can shareholders see other shareholders?
How secure does the company table really need to be? Does it really need row owners in this case, it is there critical data that must remain private?
Based on how I understand your description, you would need an ever expanding array of owner and shareholder emails in both tables. I’m wondering how necessary row owners are in this case, it could we get away with filters and glide relations to link everything together? It all depends on how you answer the above questions.
The company name and shareholders are all sensitive data (a bit financial too in nature) and I feel a little uncomfortable to expose it all to everyone when no one needs to know that.
Only a company and its shareholders should be able to see each other and not other companies and their shareholders. Therefore I was using the row owners concept.
Ultimately you are going to have to create the relation and a linked array of emails on the airtable side. I don’t know how that works, so I can’t give much advice there. Ultimately I think when an owner adds a shareholder, then the company ID should be passed and written to the new shareholder row. Then on the airtable side, you will need to link the company table to the shareholder table using company ID and get an array of shareholder emails for that company. You will also need to link the shareholder table to itself using the Company ID to get an array of all shareholders of the same company. Once you have built an array of emails in each table within airtable, then it should show as an array in glide and I believe you should be able to assign row owners to the array.
Again, I’m speculating without having any knowledge of how airtable works. There will be a slight delay when you add a shareholder as the data will need to sync from glide to airtable, the arrays will need to rebuild, and the data will need to sync back to glide. I’d imagine that the shareholders won’t notice, but the owner may not see the new record for a few seconds after adding it. To fix that, you would just need a secondary owner email column in the shareholder table and fill that with the owner’s email. Then also apply row owners to that secondary email column.
In the end, you should end up with an owner email column and a shareholder email array in the company table. The shareholder table should end up with a shareholder email column, a shareholder email array, and an owner email column. All of those email columns and array columns can have row owners applied.
Actually, it works by bringing in an Airtable array of users (Airtable supports CSV as arrays) - and making that column as row owners.
What doesn’t still work is assigning a linked record to the new record that has been added. I think that functionality is still under works (hopefully). e.g. if I add a shareholder, I want this shareholder to link to the company record. Airtable construct will not automatically allow me to assign a row owner email because that is linked to the company rather than the new shareholder record.
Which ultimately becomes the limiting factor. But super glad we could get it to here.
(((Prefacing this with: "I’m new here, and only signed up last week and LOVE it. I just realized you only recently (March 22) released your Airtable integration). Wow, kudos and great work. Looking forward to it becoming all it can be))))
Linked records are definitely one of Airtable’s most powerful features and is what makes it freakishly powerful—due to its relational nature to have records talk to other records on one table.
I am loving Glide, but I don’t think I’m going to be able to build my app due to this current limitation.
I too am hitting a wall when trying to assign an Airtable linked record via glide. The fields don’t even show up as data sources for me. I’m guessing Glide doesn’t fully support Airtables linked fields. Being able to support linked fields keeps our tables clean, tidy, and truly relational. I’m really bummed Glide doesn’t support this yet. But maybe I’m completely missing something.
The other field I wish had better support is multi select. Right now it seems I have to create a clunky/separate table with values just so glide can present the user with a dropdown list. Would be so much better if we had support for Airtables native multi select field. Instead, I have to use the choice field + a values table—just to create a multiple choice select. Seems crazy to me. Again, maybe I’m missing something.
Thanks for an awesome product, and keep those updates and Airtable integrations flowing!
@david answered to this question at April community event and assured that Glide will “absolutely” support this feature and recognized the hidden power of Airtable linked fields. When? Only god knows.
I think launching Airtable integration support without this linked fields and multi attachment editing capabilities is a strategic failure from glide. If they want Airtable users consider Glide as a front end for their data they will feel confused and disappointed and probably will discard glide.
Thank you for the info, @darder. Yes, I was getting very frustrated and thought I was making an error in my setup—never did I imagine it was because linked fields aren’t yet supported. I agree it’s a strategic failure from glide — especially when competitors like Softr and Stacker supported this feature from their early days. Here’s hoping @david and team are about to release native linked records support for Airtable.
As a workaround, let’s say I have a linked field in AT called Topics.
What I did was to create an additional text field in AT called Topics (from Glide). Then I set up an AT automation so that whenever that column gets updated, to write the value into the linked field. It’s a tad slow, but works like a charm.
I think that Glide support for multi attachment and linked fields edition is urgent and absolutely necessary if Glide don’t want the Airtable users to feel disappointed with this poor integration.
I started learning and testing my concepts in Glide because of their Airtable Integration, and found out linked table is not yet supported… so I had to use Webhook in Make as a workaround. But by doing so, whenever I submit a form in Glide, 2 records were created in Airtable, one was by Glide itself, another was by Make. I had to use some trick in Make to remove the extra records, complex but it works I guess… hope they release an update soon… it is an essential feature, the lack of it will definitely be a hard NO for many Airtable users…
Yes it is annoying to have duplicate records. One more thing, if you use option “allow users to add data”, it will create duplicate records. But if you use floating button to create record, it will not. Funny.
You can create an automation in airtable that when you add a new record it update this record and take the value you need relation and add it on related field in airtable.
