Show Records Connected to the Logged-In User

This article will guide you through the process of displaying only the records that are connected to the logged-in user.

Use Case

One of Knack's most powerful features is the ability for users to login and view their own private records and not the records of other users.

For example, you may want to have your customers login and see their invoices, or have your employees login to see their jobs for the day.

This article walks through how to enable logged-in users to only see their connected records using the Custom CRM sample app.

Requirements

In order to set up your app to show records connected to the logged in user, you will need to have Users enabled in your app.

 

Steps

1.  Defining Your User Roles

After enabling Users in your app, you have the ability to define the various user roles that will be able to interact with your Live App. Knack allows you to control access and permissions by specifying which user roles can access specific pages in your app and which views are displayed on each page.

Some examples of user roles include Employees, Managers, Editors, and Admins. You have the flexibility to create multiple roles based on your specific requirements. For instance, if you're developing an app for a school, you might have roles for students and teachers.

To add a user role, click the "+" button next to the User Roles list in the Data section of your Builder.

This will prompt you to name your user role, then a new user role will be added to your app. You can add fields to that user role just like any other table. 

 

After you add your user role, you can add a record to start with in the "Records" section of the Builder. Any user records you add will be able to log in to your app on the pages you have allowed.

 

2.  Connecting Users With Records

After setting up user roles, you have the ability to link your records to your users. For instance, you can connect Projects to Employees, Invoices to Clients, or Orders to Sales Reps.

To connect records to your users, you will need to add a new connection field. In this example, we will connect the Contacts table to a Sales Rep user role.

While viewing the table in the Data section of the Builder, click the "+" button in the Connections right side bar.

This will then open a modal popup where you can select which table or user role to connect with. In this case, we are connecting the Contacts table to the Sales Rep user role.

Once you have selected which table to connect with, you will be prompted to define how those tables will connect. In this example, we want each Contact to connect with one Sales Lead and each Sales Lead to connect with many Contacts.

This will allow Sales Leads to be assigned multiple Contacts where each Contact will only have a single Sales Lead assigned to them.

 

When you are done defining the connection type, click "Add Connection" and this will create a new connection field in your table. Here, you can see the Contacts table now has a "Sales Rep" connection field.

This connection field will appear as a lookup where you can choose which record to connect with. For example, when you edit any of the Contact records, you can now use the connection field to select a Sales Rep:

 

3.  Adding Login Pages to Your Live App

Now that the tables, user roles, and connections are setup, we need to add a page for your users to login and view their records.

A new login page can be added by clicking the "+" button on the Pages section of the Builder and then selecting "Login Page" from the options.

This will prompt you to choose who can login to the page. In this case, we want to select "Limit permissions to a specific user role."

For this example, we are limiting permission to Sales Reps.

 

Once you have created your new login page, you will be prompted to add a view. When adding a view, you will select the view type, the table that the view will display, and what type of records from that table will display.

For this example, we selected a grid view type which will display Contacts connected to the logged-in Sales Rep:

Next, you will be asked if you want to add any additional links to your view. This is not necessary for this example, but you can read more about action links here.

Once you have finished setting up your view, click the "Confirm" button to add the grid to the login page. Now, you have a view showing records connected to the logged in user.

 

4.  Login to the Live App & Test

Now that you have set up your login page and view to show records connected to the logged in user, you can confirm it is working correctly by viewing the Live App. To view the Live App, click the "Go to Live App" button or the "Preview" button.

You can log in with a user record from the user role you used in this example. You should then see the view you added working with the records connected to your user.

In this example, you can see all Contacts connected to the logged in Sales Rep, Johnny Gonzalez:

Notes

How do I add a login to an existing page?

If you already have a page you want to use to show records connected to the logged in user, you can add a login by selecting the drop down next to the page name. There, you can select "Require Login", and you will be prompted to add a login.

 

How do I add a view to an existing page?

If you already have login page in your app, you can add a view by selecting the "Add View" button while viewing that page. This will start the view setup process where you can create view that shows records connected to the logged in user.

 

How do I show records connected to the logged in user's group?

It's also possible to connect your users to a company or organization and show records connected to that company. For example, a Teacher may want to login and only see students connected to their Department.

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