Unable to use columns for certain Glide features (metadata, grouping, in-app filters)

[efileno]

Hi,

I’m creating an app where users are able to browse a list of typical project management issues and see concrete examples for these issues. I created and maintain the data in Airtable where I have two tables: “issues” and “examples”. They’re linked using Airtable “linked columns” and it’s meant to be an “n to n” relationship where one issue can have multiple examples and one example can apply to multiple issues.

I’ve been working on this for a while and several problems are blocking me; keep in mind I’m a novice, so I might be misunderstanding a few things.

In Glide, I created a list component with the examples and thought I’d have the option to:

• Display issues associated with each example as metadata
• Allow users to filter examples by selecting one or more issue
• Group the examples by issue.
  Note that my goal is not to do all these things at the same time, as it might not make much sense from a user experience standpoint. But I thought these options would be feasible in Glide.

However, I can’t see the issues table appear in the options for metadata, in-app filters, or grouping. Below are screenshots to illustrate some of what I’ve done.

1. The list of issues in Airtable
   

   

2. The list of issues in Glide
   

   

3. The list of examples in Airtable
   

   

4. The list of examples in Glide
   

   

5. The options I see when trying to add the issues as metadata for the examples list
   

   

6. The list of options I see when trying to use the issues for in-app filtering of the examples
   

   

I’m not sure what’s preventing me from using certain columns for certain Glide features:

• Is it because some columns have multiple values for a given row?
• Is it because some columns are of the wrong type (e.g., can’t relations columns be used for metadata, grouping, in-app filtering)?
• Is it because Airtable “linked columns” don’t convert into the right type of columns in Glide? Do I need to do some manipulations to convert the data in some way?

I’d be grateful if anyone could point out any mistakes I might be making, clarify any misunderstandings, or share guidance. Again, at a high level, I’d like to be able to use data from the issues table in the components created for the examples (e.g., metadata, grouping, in-app filtering).

Happy to answer any questions to further clarify if needed.

[Jeff_Hager]

Linked Records in Airtable are essentially Relations in Glide. Relations are links to entire rows…not a specific columns. Relations don’t represent a specific value. Instead they represent a matching row or set of rows in another table.

Airtable and Glide are completely different systems and I think many Airtable users tend to think that features that are highly specific only to Airtable should work the same in Glide, which is not always the case.

Think of relations like a mini table, inside a column cell, inside a table. You are trying to display an entire mini table inside a meta value that can only display a single string of text. If you want to retrieve a specific column from the relation, then you can use a Lookup column to retrieve one specific column from the relation’s related rows. However, in your case that would return an array of multiple values which you still can’t place into something that only accepts single values. The next option is a Joined List column which works like a Lookup column, but instead of returning an array, it returns a single string of delimited values. That would solve placing values into the Meta configuration in a collection.

Now as far as making those related values clickable, since you are attempting to do it within a collection, I recommend using a Custom Collection. Then in the collection container you can place another collection which is sourced from your Linked Record/Relation. That way you can have a custom collection of Issues, and within each collection item, you have another collection sourced from the relation to display the examples.

[efileno]

Thanks @Jeff_Hager, for your help. I didn’t think about relation columns the right way, so this is super helpful. I’ll continue working on the app with all this in mind and I think it’ll unblock several things I was struggling with.