Creating Records
How portal users create new records in CollabPortals, including form fields, required fields, and auto-linking.
Overview
When a table has Create permission enabled, portal users can add new records. CollabPortals generates a form based on the table's fields and their permissions.
Creating a Record
- 1
Click the Create button
On the table view, click the New button in the page header. A form opens with the fields available for input. ("New" is the built-in wording; it is renameable per table on the Labels tab, so your portal may say "Log a job" instead.)
- 2
Fill in the form
Enter values for each field. Required fields are marked with an asterisk and must be filled in before submitting.
- 3
Submit
Click Submit at the bottom of the form. If validation passes, the record is created in Airtable and appears in the table view. The submit caption is renameable too.
Which Fields Appear in the Form
The create form shows fields based on their permissions:
| Field Settings | In Create Form? |
|---|---|
| All off | No |
| View only | No |
| Create | Yes (optional) |
| Create + Required | Yes (must be filled) |
| Edit without Create | No, it is collected on the edit form instead |
Computed fields (formula, rollup, count, lookup, auto number, created time, last modified time) never appear in the create form since their values are calculated by Airtable.
To control which fields appear in the create form, adjust their field permissions. Only fields with Create switched on are included, which lets you keep the create form short and leave the rest to the edit form.
Auto-Linking to the User
When a table's ownership field is a direct link to your user table, CollabPortals fills it in for the person creating the record. They do not pick themselves from a list, and the field does not need to be on the form at all.
This means:
- Users don't need to manually select themselves
- The link field can be left off the create form entirely
- The new record shows up straight away in a table scoped to its owner
Two cases work differently:
- A table owned through a lookup has no link to stamp, so ownership comes from the record's own chain. The link the lookup reads through has to be filled in, and a create that leaves it empty is refused with a message naming the field.
- Creating from inside a related tab links the new record to the parent record it was created under, so a task added on a project's Tasks tab belongs to that project.
A table with no path to your user table has nothing to fill in. The record is created, but it is not scoped to anyone, and the table shows the same records to every portal user.
Field Types in Create Mode
Each field type has a specific input control in the create form:
| Field Type | Input Control |
|---|---|
| Single line text | Text input |
| Multiline text | Textarea |
| Rich text | Markdown textarea |
| Email input | |
| URL | URL input |
| Phone | Phone input |
| Number | Number input |
| Currency | Currency input with symbol |
| Percent | Percentage input |
| Rating | Star rating selector |
| Single select | Dropdown |
| Multiple selects | Multi-select dropdown |
| Checkbox | Toggle |
| Date | Date picker |
| Date + time | Date and time picker |
| Linked records | Dropdown with record names |
| Attachments | File upload |
See Supported Field Types for the full reference.
Validation
CollabPortals validates the form before submitting:
- Required fields must have a value
- Field type validation - emails must be valid format, numbers must be numeric, etc.
- Airtable constraints - single select values must match defined options
If validation fails, error messages appear next to the relevant fields.
Linked Record Fields in Create Mode
Linked record fields appear as dropdowns in the create form. The dropdown options show record names from the target table.
The dropdown offers what the person is allowed to see in the table the field points at: that table's own record visibility and record filter both apply, so a linked table scoped to each user offers each user their own records. On top of that you can restrict the field to a fixed shortlist you tick by hand, with linked record filtering.
After Creation
After successfully creating a record:
- The record is written to Airtable
- It's automatically linked to the current user (if applicable)
- The user is returned to the table view
- The new record appears in their list
Next Steps
- Editing Records - How to modify existing records
- Field Permissions - Control which fields appear in forms
- Linked Record Filtering - Restrict a picker to records you choose
- Record Ownership - Decide who owns a new record
- Record Filtering - Control which rows users see