You can’t. Well, not easily. But, I don’t think you need that…
There is a way you could do this without having to directly access your Users user specific data.
I assume you have a separate table with “Location Posts” that is linked to your Locations table via a LocationID (or similar), yes?
Assuming that’s true, you should be able to use a lookup to retrieve the signed-in users Following status from your Locations table.
Then what you can do is add a user specific boolean column to your Posts table. Each time a user views a Post, set that column to true.
Now, to determine if any post for any of a users followed locations is new, you just need an if-then-else column:
If followed is not checked, then null (leave empty)
If viewed is checked, then null
Else true
Any posts where that if-then-else column is checked can now be considered as “new” (for the signed-in user).
You could present a list of “New/Unread” posts in an inline list using that column as a filter. Every user would see a different list, depending on which Locations they are following.
Quick clarification, following != view, they need to actually Favourite a location to Follow it.
I’m just not sure I need to know if they are unread or new.
Let me clarify further:
Surfer Journey:
The Surfers Favourite location(s) they like or generally surf at
Once a photographer has posted an image, the Surfer receives an email to say that their Favourite location has a new image posted to it.
No, you can have as many as you like. But once a column has been created, you can’t change it to User Specific (or vice-versa). You just need to create a new column and make sure you check the box before you save.
Okay, so what I described wont get you this. Probably your best option here is to use Trebuchet to maintain a list of Location Followers. Have a watch of Bob’s video to learn how that works: