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"Joined" Forms - Foreign Keys

By: Rudi JvR | Asked: 03/22/2023
Forums › Category: General questions › "Joined" Forms - Foreign Keys
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Rudi JvR asked 1 year ago
Hi there, I'm in need of some guidance to pull, and join form values from different forms.  It a database sense this is done using primary and foreign keys. Scenario: Table/form 1: Master inventory table Table/form 2: To captures details associated with Table 1, the details are captured at different intervals (many entries) So Table 1 is unique and Table 2 has many entries associated with Table 1 (1 to many relationship)   So my Question is: How do I store the Entity_ID from Table 1 (primary key) in the Entries for Table 2 (foreign key)?
  • How do I set up the Form for Table 2 to submit entries WITH the Entity_ID from Table 1?
  • How to I retrieve (i.e. in a FF View or "joint Table/Form") the details of Table 1  & Table 2 using FF?
  I will really appreciate any help to get me over this hurdle, as this functionality will be used throughout my website.   Thanks Rudi  
2 Answers
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Victor Font answered 1 year ago

First, forget the idea of tables, primary, and foreign keys. Both WordPress and Formidable use a metadata design. All formidable entries are stored in two tables, wp_frm_items and wp_frm_item_metas. wp_frm_items is an entry header and wp_frm_item_metas stores each field from an entry as a separate table row. Here's a link to the database schema: https://formidableforms.com/knowledgebase/database-schema/. If you want to add an entri_id from Form A to link it with form B, just add it as a hidden field on Form B and make sure you pass the entry_id from Form A as a parameter to populate the field. Use the [get param] shortcode to populate the field.

Rudi JvR replied 1 year ago

Thanks Victor - This insight is very helpful and will hopefully help steer my design in the right direction.

I'm new to both WordPress and Formidable Forms and had a feeling there was a "language" breakdown in terms of the design principles, and that is exactly where I was stumbling.

Thanks again!

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Rudi JvR answered 1 year ago

Hi Victor,   

I feel like I'm so close to cracking the solution I'm developing, but have difficulty passing and storing Entry ID's between forms.  I really hope you can give me some guidance to get past this hurdle.   

I created a custom Search form on my User Inventory table (unique inventory entries) which returns results to a View. 

I added an Edit Link for each returned row which links to a different form where I intend capturing Detail related to the selected Entry from the search result (many Detail posts are possible for a single Inventory entry). 

I want to pull the Entry ID of the selected row (Edit Link) to the Details capture form.  For the life of me I can't seem to find the way of parameterizing the Inventory Entry_ID so that I can reference and save it in the Details form!?   
Link config on View:
[editlink label="Capture Detail" page_id=1338 title="Capture Detail" ]  
On my Details capture form I added a field to store the "InventoryEntryID" and tried adding the following as the Default Value:
[get param=InventoryEntryID] 
How do I get the Entry_ID of the Unique Inventory Entry?  

I really appreciate your assistance.  

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