My team submits some basic information on a project into a form. Each from displays the name of the Key Objective (example “Market research A”), Then I add that form into a detailed display with other information to summarize into a report based on “Market Research A”.
Inside of this report (detailed display) I have added a table called COLLECTIONS which brings in additional data into the report. I am trying to filter this table so that it shows all the fields related to “Market Research A” which is listed in a column in the report already in FORMSUB2.keyobj.
I have tried everything to get the table to filter properly but I cannot make it work and I am not sure where I am going wrong. I have little problems getting the filters work inside of a table column but when I have to put the formula inside of the “Filter by” I cannot get it to work.
I am pretty sure it is something simple because if I manually use the filter and filter by keyobj it works properly but is just not automatically triggering from the field keyobj in my form.
I am happy to share my work with someone temporarily. I am not sure what I am missing here. Thanks
@Chris_DeAngelis
its hard to give advice/help without seeing your doc/database architecture.
but in general - you may want to revisit/rethink some of it as from reading this -
Inside of this report (detailed display) I have added a table called COLLECTIONS which brings in additional data into the report. I am trying to filter this table so that it shows all the fields related to “Market Research A” which is listed in a column in the report already in FORMSUB2.keyobj.
my concern would be having fields(columns) specific to a project. Fields(columns) should be generic and apply to all projects.
with regards to your filtering issue, would kindly advise/ask for you to make a copy of your doc and redact info etc so others can better understand and help you whilst new users can learn from this in the future as well.
cheers!
Mel
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Fields are not specific to a project. Let me know if you have any issues accessing. Thank you.
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@Chris_DeAngelis
please check doc.
ToText() was required to be chained to “thisrow”. As “thisrow” is seen as an object/chip by Coda and you need to match the Key Objective chip which is a Text.
For future reference, you need to match types e.g. text with text, objects with objects etc.
Hope this helps!
Mel
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Do you know why it is only showing 1 of 3 with the same name? Thanks so much on the text chip comment. That answers a lot.
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@Chris_DeAngelis - do you want 1 row for each key objective and then form results have 3 items in there ? Or 3 rows in table
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3 items. In other words, I want the table to populate with all the milestones related to that one key objective. btw, did you add the related column on the end and was that needed or could I refer to the source directly? The reason I am asking is that the table is not adding the rest of the data from the collection table.
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I can do this manually by a formula in each column to bring the rest of the data but something I did before (not sure now) auto populated all the columns using the Collection table but my problem was I only had one row
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I think I found the issue. It is one of logic. I was trying to get it to filter by a display detail which is essentially a look at a table. My formula has no way to know which is the key objective I want to search. In my mind I wanted to show the row selected but I don’t think this can work. And it probably shouldn’t work. Instead I will have the user reselect the preferred objective form a new one cell form and then filter by this.
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@Chris_DeAngelis
I think I found the issue. It is one of logic
to be frank, please consider reworking/rethinking your doc design.
the issue of “logic” that you have brought up… that is the “workflow” and currently, it only makes sense to you as the Doc Maker and i fear that those you work with will hate Coda as a product or it isnt sustainable (in adoption) nor maintainable (continual use of tool) because simply put - its convoluted due to a lack of knowledge of database architecture and/or abilities and features of coda as a product.
An example would be the need for separate Key Objective Table when its Form Results 2 column can be added to Master Database table. Its this duplication of info that will be hard to maintain because say for instance, someone changes the “Reseller Enablement Process” to “Reseller Enablement & Accreditation Process” on Master Database table - then you or someone on your team will have to go change this info on the Key Objective table plus other tables. Additionally, from what ive seen in your design, the matching by “text” in the filters will break because now it is not exact match.
Another example would be in your Collection table, the Key Objective is a Select options column which will also need to be manually updated to reflect changes. A better approach would be to change it to a relation column.
hope this helps!
cheers!
Mel
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Fully agree. I have been fixing a lot of those issues along the way as I get a better understanding of how it works but it is still clunky for sure.
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thats awesome to hear @Chris_DeAngelis !
can you please ask the merge tables question in a new thread?
just for better organisation of thread topics and i will answer there.
cheers!
Mel
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