Returning modified pages from a copied doc back to the original

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Hello,

I have inherited an existing document (doc1) with the goal of upgrading some pages that include views of master tables. In order to avoid disrupting the people who still act within doc1, I created a copy of it (doc2) with the intention of making the changes to the couple pages I wanted to before copying them back to doc1.

These pages I want to restore to doc1 rely on table views in doc2. For instance, the same “table1” exists in both doc1 and doc2, but the page I want to copy back to doc1 shows up blank without any option to bring the data in from doc1’s version of table1. I think it fails to see table1 in doc1 as the same table1 in doc2.

Is there a better way for me to bring these new pages in the copy back to doc1, or am I better off bringing my team members to doc2 and replacing the old one entirely?

Hopefully my question makes sense :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks!

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Why don’t you just copy the pages within doc1, hide them so that you don’t disrupt anything, and whenever you are ready delete the old views and replace them by the modified ones? No need for doc2, the tables in a copied doc are not linked to the original doc.

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That is definitely the better option, and I will do that in the future. I started making these changes a few months ago when I did not understand isolating specific pages to keep them from interfering with the rest of the doc.

I have made many changes in the copy of the original, so instead of rebuilding the these pages and risking messing a formula, automated rule, or conditional format up, I would greatly prefer to find a way to create a link between the new pages and existing tables. Is that not possible?

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I’m afraid not, if you copied table A from doc1 to doc2 it became table B (even if they look identical) and if you now copy table B back to doc1 it will become table C.

So you have 2 options:

  • Do all the changes again in doc1
  • Migrate all your users to doc2

If you plan it well, a migration doesn’t need to be very disruptive. Here’s what I do:

  • Make sure everything works perfectly in the new doc and test the process of copying data from the old one to the new one.
  • Announce in advance that there will be a downtime of 10 minutes on given date.
  • Add a callout 24 hours before the downtime with the info
  • Downtime begins:
    • Change permissions from all users to ‘Viewers’, so that no new data is generated
    • Disable all automations and whatever other source of new data
    • Copy the data from the original doc to the new doc.
    • Invite all users with the correct permissions to the new doc, but don’t send a notification email.
    • Hide all the pages in the old doc, except for a very prominent callout pointing to the new doc

Many of these steps can be automatized, but in my opinion it only makes sense if your doc is very complex or if you have to do it very often.

Hope this helps!

Pablo

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Thanks, Pablo!

Any direction/resources you can provide regarding copying data between docs?

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Well, the obvious and manual way is to copy and paste the data from all relevant tables from one doc to the other. You could also automate it: Within Coda with webhooks or writing a script that uses the API, but unless you have a lot of complex tables that need to be copied I would just do it manually.

Just make sure to make one copying test in advance before going live with the new doc!

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Since the new doc is a copy of the current one from several months ago, I have lots of duplicated rows if I copy and paste all rows as a CSV from the old source. Is there an easy way to prevent this? I am trying to find an easy way to clear all rows in the new tables to prevent duplicates after pasting the old tables’ CSVs

Also, is there a logic map or screen that can show me all the existing base tables that are not views of other tables in my doc?

Thanks

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I would just delete all data from the new doc and copy/paste from old to new, no need to export to csv. Just make sure that both table views have the same columns in the same order.

You can use @Scott_Weir1 's pack to get an overview of the tables: Doc Explorer Pack, extend Coda with Doc Explorer - Coda

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Final response, I promise. How do I delete all my doc data? This does not delete my existing automations and rules in the new modified doc, does it?

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It’s fine, ask as much as you need.

With ‘delete all the data’ I meant all the rows of all the tables, but not the tables themselves or anything else.

When I said copy the data from one doc to the other, I only meant the rows, not the whole table or you would have the same problem again. Hopefully I didn’t confuse you.

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