Related Tabs and Nested Tables

Show a record's linked records as tabs on its detail page, and surface any linked table as a page in your portal. Covers related tabs, nested tables, and inline create, edit and delete.

Overview

A lot of data is parent and child: a property has work orders, an order has line items, a project has tasks, a company has deals. CollabPortals shows that child data where it belongs, as a tab on the parent record.

Open a property in your portal and you find a Work Orders tab next to its details, listing only that property's work orders. Open a work order and find its visits and reports. Each tab shows only the records linked to the one you have open.

A table does not need a direct link to your user table to appear in a portal. Any linked table can be surfaced in one of two ways:

As a related tab nested inside a parent record (a property's work orders).
As a top-level page in the sidebar, the same as any other table.

A related tab shows the children of the record a user has open. Because it follows the parent's link, the child table needs no link of its own to the user table: it is scoped to the parent automatically. A user only ever sees the work orders under the property they opened.

The tab uses whatever view you set for the child table. A Work Orders table set up as a kanban board shows as a kanban inside the tab; set up as a calendar, it shows as a calendar. Field and table permissions carry across too, so if a role can edit work orders, it can edit them in the tab.

A related tab is governed by the child table's own permissions, not the parent's. The tab shows a role exactly what it would see on that table's own page: the same view, fields, edit rights and record access. So a role only sees a related tab if it has view access to the child table, and you control that by configuring the child table for that role separately, the same as any other table. If a role's permissions hide the Work Orders table, that role does not get a Work Orders tab, even on a property they can open.

A property's detail page in the portal with Details, Work Orders and Visits tabs, the Work Orders tab showing that property's work orders as a kanban board — The property's detail page, with a Work Orders tab scoped to that property. The tab renders the kanban board the Work Orders table is set up as.

A record can have more than one related tab, and tabs nest. The property above has Work Orders and Visits tabs; open one of those work orders and it has its own Visits and Reports tabs. Each level is scoped to the record you opened.

A work order detail page with Details, Visits and Reports tabs, opened from inside a property — Tabs nest. A work order opened from a property has its own Visits and Reports tabs.

The child table needs no link to your user table. The tab follows the parent's link, so it is scoped to the parent for you. You turn a tab on from the parent table's linked record field.

1
Open the parent table and find the linked field
In your portal admin, open the parent table (Properties) and scroll its field list to the linked record field that points at the child table (the Work Orders field).
On the Properties table, find the Work Orders linked record field in the field list.
2
Switch on Show as related tab
Click the field to open its options, then switch on Show as related tab. That renders the field as a tab on each property's detail page instead of an inline list of links.
By default the linked list moves out of the Details tab and into its own tab. If you would rather keep the inline list in Details as well, switch on Also show in the Detail tab.
Switch on Show as related tab for the linked field. Keep it in Details too with Also show in the Detail tab.
3
Save the portal
Save the portal. Open a property in the portal and the Work Orders tab is there, listing that property's work orders, ready to switch between alongside its details.

A record can have several related tabs. A company can show Deals, Contacts and Notes as separate tabs on its detail page, each its own linked table. Switch on Show as related tab for each field you want to surface. A user never sees an empty tab: a tab only appears when there are related records to show.

Create, Edit and Delete in the Tab

A related tab is not read-only. A New button in the tab adds a child record already linked to the parent, so a work order created from a property is attached to that property for you. Records in the tab are editable and deletable in place, following the same permissions as the child table's own page. If a role can only view work orders, the tab is view-only for them.

Tabs Are Shareable

Each related tab has its own URL. Open the Work Orders tab on a property and the address bar updates, so that exact tab can be bookmarked, reloaded, or sent to a colleague and it opens on the same tab. The active tab also shows in the breadcrumb, so a user always knows where they are in a nested record.

Surfacing a Table as a Page

Sometimes you want a linked table in the sidebar as its own page, not nested inside a parent. A table that links to your user table can be a page. A table with no direct link to the user table can be a page too.

Open the table in the portal admin, go to the Display tab, and switch on Show as page. The table appears in the portal sidebar as a top-level page.

A table surfaced as a page with no link to the user table shows every record to every user who can view it. That is the right choice for shared reference tables (a Categories or Statuses list) but not for data that belongs to a specific person. When records belong to a parent, a related tab is the safer choice, since it only ever shows that parent's children. See setting up your Airtable base for how per-user scoping works.

When to Use Each

Related tab: the child records belong to a parent and should be read in that context. Work orders under a property, line items under an order, tasks under a project, deals under a company. Scoped automatically, no link to the user table needed.
Top-level page with a direct user link: each user should see their own records across everything, in one place. A standalone Work Orders page where a contractor sees all their work orders across every property. The table needs its own link to the user table.
Top-level page with no user link: a reference table everyone should see in full. Categories, statuses, a shared price list.

Use Cases

Parent and child data shows up across most portal types. It fits maintenance portals (work orders and visits under a property), project management portals (tasks under a project), CRM portals (deals, contacts and notes under a company), and client portals (deliverables under an engagement).

Next Steps

Setting Up Your Airtable Base - How linked records and per-user scoping work
Summary Fields and Record Detail - Choose what shows on the row versus the detail page
View Types - Set the view a related tab inherits
Table Permissions - Control access on the child table the tab reuses