How do I add rows to a relational table?

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I have dedicated tables for Projects, Tasks, and Contacts, all connected through relations.

I’m trying to find the best way to add a contact to a project or task from their respective views.

In Notion, this was simple: you could type a contact’s name into the field, and if no match was found, hitting Enter would create a new contact automatically.

I tried replicating this in Coda, but instead of saving the typed name, it just adds a blank contact.

Any ideas on how to go about this?

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That works in Coda as well, but you have to turn in on in the relation column option settings (allow new options). When typing a new option, it show with a little “+” symbol, meaning you can add it at that point (type enter twice or click on the new option).

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The option to add new entries was already enabled, but your response helped me think things through and pinpoint both the issue and the solution.

My Full Name column was a formula combining the First Name and Last Name columns. I didn’t realize that’s what was causing the weird behavior.

Reversing this approach—storing Full Name as regular text and extracting the first and last names from it—did the trick.

Thanks! :slight_smile:

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:wave: @Edan_Ben-Atar

great self solve! :slight_smile:
For future coda users - Theory behind it is any “Display Column” that is a formula column wont be saved (because it is not editable) when the new row is added (hence the blank values)

but main reason why im replying is - curious why youve moved on from Notion?

cheers!
Mel

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Hey Melanie! :wave:

We haven’t made the move yet, but as I continue building out our existing Notion environment in Coda, I find myself leaning more toward it.

Notion has been great, but we keep running into limitations—even with Make automating a lot of our workflows. Despite being a small team of six, we need better permission controls and more functionality under the hood. No matter how much we optimize, we keep hitting glass ceilings.

To be clear, I’m not knocking Notion—I actually wish we didn’t have to consider alternatives. It’s been phenomenal for us, but it’s starting to feel like we’re outgrowing it.

Coda, on the other hand, may not have Notion’s polished UX, but its functionality feels much more powerful. The ability to pull up formulas, tables, and automations from anywhere in a doc is a huge advantage.

And that’s not even getting into Notion’s pricing and AI features—which are outrageously expensive.

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Wait until you discover the joys of packs… :wink:

Using and making

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Welcome (hopefully) to the darkside @Edan_Ben-Atar and team of 6 (5 if that 6 included you lol) :hugs:
or as some people like to put it Notion’s Ugly Cousin :joy:

you have hit the nail on the head! here we value function over form. tho there are ways to transform your doc into a Cinderalla (Codarella?) haha (search this community forumn and there’s lots of UI/UX examples shared by very smart people round here)

jokes aside, some tips in building out your doc from Notion -

  1. as @Piet_Strydom says, take a look at packs. Depending on your company’s techstack, you may be able to cut out some or majority of your Make automations. Also packs are generally more stable and less prone to break than external automations.
  2. Propounding on above, really look into Buttons. For me, this is the chef’s kiss of Coda. and youll also may be able to minimize external automations e.g. Make.
  3. Permission controls - Please be aware there are limitations to this on Coda currently. Look into/research what youre trying to acheive and if stuck, it may be helpful to create another post to clarify what can/cant be done?
    With regards to AI and the pricing - if youre not familiar on the Coda lore - allow me to get you up to speed LOL
    Coda officially merged with grammarly last month. they had a year review/product discussion a week ago, in it they discussed better permission controls (and also pricing).
    you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrCxgdGlq-k
    summary post of it here: Big news: Grammarly is acquiring Coda! - #178 by Melanie_Teh

lastly, its not all rainbows and unicorns here in codaverse, like any other product, there are some downsides (mobile, performance, ui/ux, sharing). in the event (above) last week, they did address these issues. Cant speak for everyone, but general consensus is for now, we are cautiously optimistic they deliver on their promises.
But overall the ceiling is very high with coda, it does a lot more things right (than most SaaS out there. personally when i discovered it coming from Airtable- i thought WOW! this is a sleeper hit!).
anyhoos, hope this essay helps you and your team in making a better/informed decision to transitioning over and also feel confident in said decision :slight_smile:

Cheers!
Mel

p.s. not notion bashing either (for me thats airtable’s job lol) but cant deny i wasnt like that michael jackson meme eating popcorn when this video came out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERarYs2KVPI and then this creator jumped on the train the next day, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N72GUFChW7A :joy:

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