Table of Contents

Connection Types

Lesley Updated by Lesley

There are three types of relationships that can be created with connections: one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many.

How your data works together will decide what type of connection you need. This is what we will discuss in this article.

Here are some common examples using the connection types:

  • One Manager record connected to one Location record
  • Many Contact records connected to one Company record
  • Many Student records connected to many Class records

To learn more about using connections in general you can read more in the following articles:

One-to-One Connection

A connection type where each record can only be associated with a single record from the connected table, and vise-versa.

For example, a business may have multiple warehouse locations with a designated manager for each location. In this scenario, we have a Manager table (or user role) and a Locations table.

In a connection between the Manager table and the Location table, each Manager record connects to one Location record and each Location record connects to one Manager record.

While the relationship between these tables is 1:1, we are not actually enforcing that the connected record can only be used once.

Where to add the connection

With a one-to-one connection, add the connection to the table you will be editing more often.

If you want to assign a manager to each Location from the Location page, you’ll add the connection to the Location table. This will show as a connection field on the Location records where you can select a Manager.

One-to-Many Connection

A connection type where many records from one table connect to a single record from the connected table.

For example, in a company and contact directory, each company may have multiple contacts tied to it. This is a one-to-many connection type.

In a connection between the Contact table and the Company table, each Contact record connects to one Company record and each Company record connects to many Contact records.

With a one-to-many connection, you’ll be able to create a page for your Live App that shows a specific company and displays all their contacts below. When you add a new contact from the company’s page, you can set up your form so the new contact is automatically connected to the page’s company.

Where to add the connection

When working with a one-to-many relationship, you have a parent and a child table. The parent table is the “one” part of the relationship and the child table is the “many.”  

In this example, Companies is the parent table and Contacts is the child table.

With a one-to-many type of connection, we add the connection to the child table. The reason for this is better workflow options, visual presentation, and data management in your apps. For an example, see the “Which Table to Add Your Connection To” section of this article.

Many-to-Many Connection

A connection type where each record in one table can connect to many records of the connected table, and vise-versa.

For example, in a connection between a Students table and Classes table, each Student record connects to many Class records and each Class record connects to many Student records.

Where to add the connection

With a many-to-many connection, add the connection to the table you will be editing more often.

If you have many Students assigned to many Classes, ask which one you will want to edit to relate the records. Do you want to add Classes to each Student from the student’s record? If so, add your connection to the Student table.

 

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