I would suggest one of two routes:
Route (1):
Rethink the idea of how you're grid edit'ing to enter the asset forms, and put them into a 'Asset Form Request' Container that is a record that can bind all of your Asset Forms underneath an umbrella record. The structure would be Asset Form Requests have many Asset Forms. You can set it up that users add a record and then use an embedded grid edit form to enter each Asset form.
Doing it this way means that its guaranteed that all of the Asset forms are bound together. You would then make the 'Approval' just a subset of fields as part of the Request record instead of another (3rd) module. You can have it such that the User can submit the Asset Form Request for approval and log those fields, then have the approver sign off and attach it in field on the Asset Form Request and call it a day .
Route (2):
When you save the grid edit and commit the Asset Forms, have a Pipeline pick up those events, and then if the Approval Record for that Change Req ID doesn't exist already, create a new record in your Approvals table. In that table, set the key field to be the Change Req ID.
When you make the relationship, instead of letting Quickbase create a new 'Related' field as the foreign key, set the foreign key to be your Change Req ID field so that QB will bind it together through the standard relationship.
I would raise one concern with going Route (2) in that how do you alert the approver(s) that they need to sign off? Are your uses able to enter via grid edit and then make changes afterwards that might impact the approval? You will likely need some way to have the user 'submit' the handful of Asset Forms when they're ready, which would be better under the structure suggested in Route (1).
Thank you Chayce!
I definitely like route 1 better. From the parent table, 'Asset Form Request', when I edit the embedded report in Grid edit mode:
2. Also, until I save the 'Asset Request form' record, it doesn't have a record ID. So how do I ensure I can create within the Embedded form (Asset form) records for the related Asset Request form?
I am definitely missing something.
Deepa
If you're leveraging a basic relationship between Asset Request form and the Asset Form then you shouldn't need to do anything additional.
From the actual 'Form' or the Asset Request Form Table - you would just need to put the Report Link field that Quickbase generates by default on the form and have it set to a simple report that your users can grid edit. In the form elements - you can then make the element display as a grid entry and then when users are editing the native form, or when they're adding a new record Quickbase will automatically relate the new records as part of that functionality.
**I forgot to mention this - but this method only applies on the Legacy forms. The new forms don't have the same grid edit functionality as it stands right now to my knowledge so this technique is something the Legacy forms would be needed for.
Thanks Chayce.
I am using the new form and that does make things more time consuming for me as I am still figuring my way around those. It does allow Grid edits for embedded reports. But doesn't appear to automatically link the Asset Form Request record to the new asset forms via Grid Edit. I need to have to use the drop down in the Asset forms Grid Edit and select the Related Asset form and then the report shows up correctly.
Also now my app has both legacy forms and new forms making it inconsistent. Any way of switching back to legacy?
If you want to keep the new forms, I have a quirky idea that you could try to link them up automatically but if you're already on the fence between the two form types, I would personally switch over to the legacy forms so that this specific workflow is a little more seamless/user friendly with the grid edit.
You can switch your users back to the legacy forms in the form settings for each table. You'll have to make sure that any changes/updates that were made in the new forms are recreated in legacy, I'm not sure how difficult that would be for you though based on how you've used them thus far.
