Imagine that you run a sports memorabilia store and you track your inventory in QuickBase. You just got in a shipment of vintage baseballs from a new supplier. They're such beautiful specimens that you dive right into your inventory table and start creating a record for each baseball. But, as you type, you realize that you never entered your new supplier in the Suppliers table. So, you can't make a selection within the Supplier field dropdown.
There's no need to break your stride by switching out of the Inventory table and into the Suppliers table to add a new record. You can add a new supplier directly from within an inventory item.
This convenience is brought to you by the magic of relationships. Whenever you're in a detail record, QuickBase lets you add a master record to relate it to. (Don't know what the difference between master and detail is? Find out.) The best part is, you don't need leave the detail record, so you won't lose the work you've already done.
Note that if the master table is in a different application than the detail table, you must have create permission in the master table to add a master record from the within a detail record. Read more about creating cross-application relationships.
To create a new master record from within a detail record:
Create or edit a Detail record.
Locate the reference field.
The reference field is the field containing values from the Master table. This field appears as a dropdown list containing values from your master table. For example, the sports memorabilia store's Supplier table is the master.
Click the reference field's dropdown and select <Add a new Record>.
If your reference field is set to use the record picker you'll see only one choice here: <browse choices...>. Select this option and within the dialog box that appears, click Create a new record.
Note: The word "record" refers to the records in a table, but the term used in your application may be different (for example, "contact," "task," or "issue"). This means that the menu item or button text in the instructions below may be slightly different from what you see.
A blank master record form appears as a popup above the detail record in which you were working.
Complete the form and click Save.
QuickBase saves the new master record and automatically populates the reference field's dropdown with the value.
Finish filling in the Detail record and click Save.