Linked Record (+ SubForms)

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A Linked Record field in Airtable allows you to link data from one table in Airtable to the other. In On2Air Forms, you can create or edit Linked Records on your form. You can also add multiple Linked Record fields on 1 form to update records from multiple tables at one time. (To display data from your Linked Record in another location on your form once the Linked Record is chosen, check out the Linked Field Display field type)

See more Fields in the Form Field Types - Airtable and On2Air Forms

In this article

• 📽 How to Get Started with Linked Records

• How to Add a Field to Your Form

• Field Configuration

• Field Labels

• Field Status - Display Mode

• Field Defaults

• URL Prefill Settings - Pre-Populated Fields

• Display Configuration

• Display Fields

• How to Format Your Linked Records Display

• SubForms Configuration (Create/Edit Linked Record Forms)

• SubForm Permissions

• Build a Linked Record SubForm - (Manage Create/Edit SubForm)

• Lookup Search Configuration

• Search Fields

• Sort Fields

• Lookup Filter Configuration

• 🎥 Use On2Air Forms to Filter Airtable Records Based on Selection (Parent/Child Fields) - Linked Records

• Extra Options - View Advanced Options

• Table and Column Properties

• Search Properties

• Controls Properties - Buttons, Icons, Labels

• User Guides for Customizing

• Danger Zone

📽 How to Get Started with Linked Records

How to Add a Field to Your Form

Here’s how to add Airtable Fields or On2Air Custom Fields to your Form

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How to Add Airtable Fields and On2Air Custom Fields to Your Form

Field Configuration

The Field Configuration includes options to give your field a title, add subtitles and helper text, the display mode of the field, field default values, and URL prefills

Field Labels

Title

- Add a title to be displayed above the field as the main name. To leave blank, add a single space

By default, this is the name of your field in Airtable. You can use a different field name than your base and it will not affect the field name in your base.

Sub Title

- Add a subtitle to be displayed above the field. To leave blank, add a single space

You can use text in this field and you can use Markdown to increase text size, bold, or italics

Related: Use Markdown with On2Air Forms

Helper Text

- Add helper text to be displayed below the field. To leave blank, add a single space

You can use text in this field and you can use Markdown to increase text size, bold, or italics

Related: Use Markdown with On2Air Forms

Example:

Field Status - Display Mode

Select Display Mode

- Choose how you want this field displayed on the form

Options:

Optional Field - Standard, editable field - Form user can complete this field, but it is not required

Required Field - Standard, editable field - Form user is required to complete this field

Disabled Field - Standard, non-editable field - Form user can view, but not edit

Display Field - Display the field as Text or other format

Hidden Field - This field will not be displayed for the form user, only internally

Field Defaults

Default Value

- Add a default value to this field that is automatically added to the form field

Depending on the Display Mode you choose, this field value may or may not be editable

To disable editing a default value, choose a Display Mode of Disabled, Display, or Hidden

Use Default on Edit if Empty

- Enable if you want to use the default value on Record Edits if the field has no value when the form is submitted

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Related: How to Add Default Values to Your Form

URL Prefill Settings - Pre-Populated Fields

You can add pre-populated data to your form fields to make it easier for your form user. You can do this with URL Prefills in On2Air Forms.

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Related: What is a URL Prefill (Pre-Populated Fields) and How to Use Them in On2Air Forms

URL Prefill Key - The Key used to set this field value from the URL (i.e. ?key=value). Remove key to disable URL Prefills for this field.

For Linked Record URL Prefills

URL Linked Field

- Select your initial field from Linked Table to compare with URL value. Leave blank to use Record ID values

URL Case Sensitive

- Enable if the prefill URL value is case sensitive, meaning it needs to match uppercase, lowercase, etc. exactly

Display Configuration

Display Configuration is where you’ll choose what Fields display on both your Linked Record table and in Linked Records lookup/search displayed on your form. Any fields you will need on your table or lookup/search must be added from here. There are options on each field to display or hide it on the table and/or lookup.

Lookup Display

Table Listing

Display Fields

• Choose the fields you want displayed on the Table and Lookup

How to Format Your Linked Records Display

• Click Add/Remove Fields

• Choose any field you want displayed on your form table and click the > arrow. To add all fields, click >> and then click Done

• Once you’ve added your fields to the Display, click on each field and set up the Field Configuration options

• Display on Table Listing - displays the field value on the table of the main form

• Display on Lookup - displays the field value on the Search lookup

• Column Header - add a custom table column name; leave blank to use the Field Name

• Display Template - add a custom text template surrounding your field value; use {{VALUE}} as a placeholder for your field value

• Example: If you want a $ symbol before the value, use ${{VALUE}}

• Lookup Display Position - Determines where on the record in the Lookup Display your data value will appear. Depending if you’ve set other Lookup Displays on fields, you will see Primary, Secondary, Image, or Sub Fields as options

3. See Image below for location of Lookup Display positions

Lookup Display field displays

Advanced Format Options - advanced formatting options for each field. Will display different options depending on the field type - Learn more about adding advanced formatting to your fields.

SubForms Configuration (Create/Edit Linked Record Forms)

With SubForms, you can create a form within your form in order to update multiple tables in your Airtable base with one form. SubForms are created within Linked Record (+ SubForms) Fields.

SubForm Permissions

You can set specific permissions for your SubForm records. You can allow or disallow creating new records, updating existing records, bulk record updates, lookup existing records, removal of existing record, bulk removing existing records, and ordering of records.

Allow Create New - Allow a form user to create new Airtable records in the SubForm

Allow Update of Existing- Allow a form user to update existing Airtable records in the SubForm

Allow Bulk Updates- Allow a form user to update Airtable records in bulk (multiple records at once) in the SubForm

Allow Lookup Existing - Allow a form user to look up existing Airtable records in the SubForm

Allow Removal of Existing - Allow a form user to remove existing Airtable records already displayed on the SubForm table list

Allow Bulk Removes - Allow a form user to remove existing Airtable records already displayed on the SubForm table list in bulk (multiple records at once)

Allow Ordering - Allow a form user to reorder Airtable records displayed on the SubForm table

Build a Linked Record SubForm - (Manage Create/Edit SubForm)

To create and edit Linked Records, you need to set up the Subform in Subform Configuration.

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Learn how to Create and Edit Linked Records with Subforms (Update Multiple Tables from 1 Form)

Lookup Search Configuration

Choose how the fields the form user can use to search Linked records from your Subform fields

Search Fields

• Choose the fields that can be used to Search your linked records

• Open each field and choose the Field Configuration options

• Search Fields Matching Style - Select how searches against the search field will be performed Options: Exact Match - The form user must enter a value that exactly matches a search field value Contains - The form user can enter in values that are contained in the search field values

Case Sensitive - Enable if Search Field needs to match exactly, including uppercase, lowercase, or other

Sort Fields

- Select the fields to be used for sorting search results of field

• Choose a field and then choose Ascending or Descending order
• You can add multiple fields used for sorting by clicking Add new option after the first sort

Sort Fields - Select the fields to be used for sorting results of field

• Choose a field and then choose Ascending or Descending order
• You can add multiple fields used for sorting by clicking Add new option after the first sort

Lookup Filter Configuration

The Lookup Filter allows you to limit what data can be viewed or edited in the Linked Record field.

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Related: How to Filter Records with Parent - Child Relationships (States > Cities in the State)

🎥 Use On2Air Forms to Filter Airtable Records Based on Selection (Parent/Child Fields) - Linked Records

Parent Link Mode - Determine how to link Parent field to this field

Options: Field Match - Match to exact field Custom Formula - Create a filtered search using an Airtable formula

Parent Source Field - Choose the Parent Source field

Parent Matching Style - Select how to link fields with Parent field

Options: Exact Match Contains Does Not Contain Does Not Equal

Case Sensitive - Enable if Parent Field needs to match exactly, including upper case, lower case, or other case

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Related: What are Dynamic URL Filters in Search for Linked Records

Extra Options - View Advanced Options

With Advanced Options, you can further customize your linked record table display.

• Open the Extra Options menu in your Field
• Click View Advanced Options

Advanded/Custom Settings Available

Table and Column Properties

You can use the Advanced settings to make your table Sortable, Scrollable, add a Style, and more.

Name

Description

className

Style class of the column.

emptyMessage

Add text to display when a table is empty

footer

Footer content of the column.

header

Header content of the column.

rowHeight

Set height of row - use pixels - example: 100px

scrollable

Enable horizontal scrolling - default is true/enabled

scrollDirection

scrollHeight

style

Inline style of the column.

tableClassName

tableStyle

[

size

](/content/on2air-help-center/app-documentation/on2air-forms/advanced-linked-record-options/size)

Change size of table to small, normal, or large - click for visual example

dataType

Depending on the dataType of the column, suitable match modes are displayed.

exportField

Property of a row data used for exporting, defaults to field.

filter

Defines if a column can be filtered.

filterElement

Element for custom filtering.

filterField

Property of a row data used for filtering, defaults to field.

filterMatchMode

Defines filterMatchMode; “startsWith”, “contains”, “endsWith”, “equals”, “notEquals”, “in”, “lt”, “lte”, “gt”, “gte” and “custom”.

filterMaxlength

Specifies the maximum number of characters allowed in the filter element.

filterPlaceholder

Defines placeholder of the input fields.

filterType

Type of the filter input field.

headerStyle

Inline style of the header.

sortable

Defines if a column is sortable.

sortableDisabled

When enabled, the data of columns with this property cannot be sorted or changed by the user.

sortField

Property of a row data used for sorting, defaults to field.

width

Defines the width of the field column - use pixels - example: 50px

Search Properties

Customize how your linked records are displayed in the Search/Lookup box

Name

Description

card_height

set the card height of the list of linked records in the search box - uses pixels - enter as numerals - example: 100

layout

choose layout type of grid or list - default is list

num_cols

set the number of columns for the grid layout - not applicable to list layout

instant_single_select

if checked (true), will automatically select the result if only 1 result found and its a Single Select Linked Record

Controls Properties - Buttons, Icons, Labels

Choose how your buttons, icons, and labels are displayed. Click the Controls toggle, then choose the appropriate setting

Name

Description

full_width

make buttons full width

classes

Add classes to the following buttons on your form: Cancel, Lookup, Lookup_Disabled, Create, Edit, Display, Order, Remove, Grouping - See available options

disabled

Disable the following buttons on your form: Cancel, Lookup, Create, Edit, Display, Order, Remove - click the checkbox to disable the corresponding button

tooltip

Add a tooltip to the following buttons on your form: Cancel, Lookup, Lookup_Disabled, Create, Edit, Display, Order, Remove

styles

Add any valid CSS style to the following buttons on your form: Cancel, Lookup, Lookup_Disabled, Create, Edit, Display, Order, Remove, Grouping

labels

Add text labels to the following buttons on your form: Cancel, Lookup, Lookup_Disabled, Create, Edit, Display, Order, Remove - Example: If you want your button to say Create Estimate, just type Create Estimate in the button label field

icon

Add icons to the following buttons on your form: Cancel, Lookup, Create, Edit, Display, Order, Remove - See the list of available icons - Enter the icon shortcode - Example: pi-camera will add the camera icon

singular

add a singular label for your linked record name

plural

add a plural label for your linked record name - displays when no records are chosen on your form

User Guides for Customizing

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Related: Customize Your Form Styles and Buttons Customize Your Form with Extra Options (Advanced)

Danger Zone

Remove - Remove the field from your form