Hello! My app is a candidate database, all built on a single users table that also contains the candidate profile information. These candidate profiles are displayed in a list details block. I want to allow users to save other users’ profiles to a shortlist/favourites list that they could then view on a different page though a list block.
I’ve been trying to figure this out for hours but keep getting stuck and can’t find exact solutions among existing posts. Most workarounds revolve around using airtable automations which I would like to avoid as with these types of saving actions they will likely be maxed out quickly.
I’ve managed to create a ‘shortlisted by’ field in my users table by using the one click update button on the list details block, but because this is a linked record within the users table it doesn’t create the reciprocal field. ie if User1 shortlists User2, I can update User2’s record to show it was shortlisted by User1 but can’t find a way to update User1’s record to show it shortlisted User2. What am I missing?
I’d also be very happy to create a separate table that just contains the shortlists but struggling to figure out how to make that work too.
ok, I’m half-way there now with a separate Candidaate Shortlists table and a form with hidden fields on the List details page that add the viewed profile recordID and the logged-in user’s recordID into 2 fields of the Shortlists table. These two fields are linked records to the users table.
This works well for building the shortlist, but what about removing records from the shortlist? a User should be able to click another button to achieve that otherwise the shortlist functionality is pretty pointless.
Any tips?
this seems to work ok:
1)on my shortlist airtable I added a ‘Status’ single select field with Shortlisted/Unshortlisted options. When a shortlist record is first created it is set to Shortlisted.
2) On the list details page for the shortlist/favourites list block I add a form with only a hidden field that updates the Status to Unshortlisted and call the form submit button ‘Remove from shortlist’.
3) I set the Shortlist list block to only show records that have status Shortlisted
So the user flow is:
-On candidate list detail page, user can add a record to shortlist and that creates a record in the shortlist airtable with a user - shortlisted record pair.
-Then I have page with a list block showing all shortlisted records for that logged-in user
-When a shortlisted record is clicked it opens the list details page for that and importantly the data source for this is the shortlist airtable not the original users table (to make this work I have to add lookup fields to the Shortlists airtable to pull all the list details field from the original record (the one that is being shortlisted) so it can be displayed in this list details block.
-on the shortlist details page the user can remove the record from their shortlist
-what happens on the backend is that the airtable Status field is updated but the record remains. This is also useful for data analysis: how many times has a record been favourited, etc…
Hopefully this makes sense but let em know fi anything is unclear!