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Related records

A fundamental aspect of GraceBlocks is the ability to establish connections between records on different tabs in GraceBlocks. This article explains:

Understanding related records
Viewing related records
Adding and creating new related records
Removing related records
Additional controls inside the related records area

Understanding related records

Related records have a connection that is defined by a builder. It's easiest to use an example to explain the concept of related records by looking at a specific scenario. This example focuses on a recruiting and hiring use case: Candidates are tracked on one tab, Candidate Job Applications on a separate tab, and finally, Jobs and their associated hiring requirements are tracked on a third tab. The relationship looks like this:

This illustration shows that a single candidate record could have multiple job applications, each representing their expression of interest in a different job. Each job application is affiliated with a single job, and multiple job applications can be submitted for each job. Builders define these relationships when using the relational field type, which gives the builder the power to establish connections between tabs.

Viewing related records

From spreadsheet view:

Related records appear in a spreadsheet view with a lighter shade of the Block's color around them. The following illustration shows candidate and job records for a single candidate's job applications.

In the case where multiple options can be selected, it may be helpful to expand the width of a column by dragging it using the resize icon that appears on hover between column headings ( ), or to change height using the height icon () to show more in the spreadsheet view. To see all records in the list, click the expand icon ( )in the top right corner of the cell.

An expanded view presents a modal of all related records. It's also a place from which you can add more related records by following the steps outlined in the next section.

Here is a preview of a related records modal from spreadsheet view. In this case, the Job application records are all related to the candidate Ashley Ortiz.

From the details page:

On the details page, related records appear on the left or right side of the page, depending on whether a single value or multiple values can be associated with the record.

Single select options

If only one related record can exist, the values appear as a field in the main information section on the left side of the page, as illustrated by the Candidate and For job fields on the Job Application record below:

Multi-select options

If multiple related records can be related to a record, the values appear as a related records section in the auxiliary information section on the right side of the page. This is illustrated in the following graphic for Job Applications for the Candidate Ashley Ortiz.

🔔 It's important to note that a record can have multiple fields where relationships can exist. In this example, Ashley can also have multiple Areas of interest associated with her record. It's easy to see that right now, 0 Areas of Interest are associated with Ashley's record. To review and associate Areas of interest, you can click this tab to activate it and work with these related records. Each related record that can have multiple records associated becomes a tab in this section, and these relationships can be managed from here.

Adding existing and creating new related records

Follow the steps below to add existing related records or to create new related records.

Step	Action	Visual
1	A. From spreadsheet view, click the add icon (+) inside a related record field's cell. B. For multi-select: From the expanded view or the right side of the details page, click Add related record. C. For single-select relational fields: on the right panel of the details page, select the field to highlight it. Then, click the dropdown arrow for that field. The available related records appear as a list selector.	A: B: C:
2	If the record exists in the list of records, select it and click Done. Otherwise, continue to the next step.
2	If the record you need is not in the available list, click the Create new record button in the top right of the page area where available records display. 🔔 If there are no existing related records to select, you will skip this step and be taken directly into the next step to create a related record.
3	Complete the Add new record form, and click Create new record +. The newly created related record is created and automatically associated to the record with which you are working.

Removing related records

When you remove a related record, you are not deleting it. You are simply removing its relationship to the existing record. Follow the steps below to remove related records.

For multi-select related records

Step	Action	Visual
1	Access the related records area by clicking the expanded view icon () or from the details page. (See the Viewing related records section earlier in this topic.)
2	Move the cursor over the record, and then click the Delete icon (x) for the item you wish to remove. The item is immediately removed.

For single-select related records and from spreadsheet view

Step	Action	Visual
1	Click to activate the cell where you'd like to remove an item. The cell activates, and the selected value has the Delete icon (X) associated with it.
2	Hover over and then click the delete icon (x) for the item you wish to remove. The item will be immediately removed.

Additional controls inside the related records area

🔔 Use the Find records option to search the list of available options. Enter text in this box, and then press Enter to narrow the list of available records.

🔔 Click one of the Sort icons if you'd like to sort the list. By default, the list is not sorted.

Ascending

Descending

🔔 If knowing more about the related records can help you make the right selection, expand the row height by clicking the Height (double-row) icon (). When the row height is expanded, you can see more information about each available related record.