Database Design Documentation
How can we help?
Full Site Search

Subtables

What are Subtables?

Subtables are extremely useful for handling one-to-many relationships in your form. For example, you may want to create an entry for a customer account with activity history records for multiple contacts. Or, you may need to create records for multiple items in a purchase order or quotation. Subtables are everywhere in business applications, and Ragic provides the easiest way for you to create and manage them.

Video Tutorial

Please watch the following video tutorial for a more detailed explanation of how you can create a new subtable on your Ragic form.

Creating Subtables

While creating a form in Design Mode, you can create a subtable simply by lining up the fields horizontally. The field headers must be placed next to each other in a row of consecutive cells. Just start typing the next field header in the adjoining horizontal cell, disregarding where the field value of the previous field would typically be placed. Ragic will automatically shift the field values to be displayed vertically below the field headers.

Remember, forms cannot begin with subtables in Ragic. We recommended placing subtables at the bottom of your sheet design, since subtables will expand to accommodate new entries. We also suggest not placing more than one subtable per row or placing independent field next to the subtable for this reason. If you have different subtables placed in different rows, but start from different columns, it's suggested to place a long description field in between in order to prevent the displaying issue caused when subtables expand.

For a more detailed explanation of Subtable creation in Ragic, please watch the video tutorial below.

To learn how to move subtable fields, please refer to the following document.

Entering Data into Subtables

When using subtables, users can enter many sub-entries belonging to the main form entry. The subtable will initially show three empty rows for entering data, but as a user enters more information, additional rows will appear.

Filtering and Sorting in Subtables

In some cases, you may want to filter or sort subtable records. This can be done by clicking on the drop-down arrows located to the left of each field header.

Filtering your Subtable records

You can use the Filter by Text option to filter your subtable. If the field is a Selection Field or a Multiple Selection Field, you can also choose one of the selection options to filter your results.

The filters applied can be cleared either by using the Clear Filter button located at the top of your page, or by using the Clear Filter option accessible from the drop-down arrow of each field header.

Sorting the order of your Subtable records

Options include sorting by ascending or descending order.

Sorting applied to the subtable can be cleared using the Clear Sorting option accessible from the drop-down arrow.

Setting a default filter and default sort to a Subtable

You also have the option to set a default filter or a default sort to subtables in order to filter and/or the results displayed whenever entries are viewed.

To set a default filter, click the Save current subtable filter and sort as default option accessible from the drop-down arrow.

Default filters can be cleared using the Remove current subtable default filter and default sort option from the same menu.

Exporting Data from your Subtables

The best way to export data from your subtables is by using the Create new sheet from subtable option:

1. Create a new sheet from your subtable with this linking type. This will generate a new sheet with the total subtable values from that sheet, spanning all entries for all records.

2. Add other necessary fields If necessary, you can add stand-alone fields from a parent sheet with the link fields from parent sheets method. This way you can export your subtable data along with other related fields.

3. Export your data from your new sheet Exporting data from the new sheet works just like exporting from a regular sheet.

More about Subtables

Learn more about how to use formulas to make calculations in subtables.

Having hundreds of entries in a subtable can cause the form to load more slowly. If this happens, we recommend managing the records from a new sheet created from the subtable. Learn how to do that here.

If you would like to prevent users from deleting subtable records, you can lock permissions using the No subtable deletion allowed option while in Design Mode.

Top of Page Table of Contents

Start Ragic for Free

Sign up with Google