Which features require triggering, and which don’t?

Ragic has a variety of features that allow you to create relations between sheets and automate workflows. Each feature operates differently; some are synced automatically; others can only be “triggered” manually. See table summary below.

Difference between “auto-synced” and “Triggered” links

Ragic provides 4 features to link sheets together: Link & Load, Multiple versions, New sheet from subtable, Show references from existing sheets .

Except for Link & Load, the other 3 features support auto-sync. In principle, these features create links between sheets by allowing 2 sheets to share fields with the same Field ID. That is, whenever you modify a field value in sheet a, the same field in linked sheets will also be synced because they are exactly the same fields.

Note: Not every field in sheets created by Multiple versions or New sheet from subtable shares the same Filed ID with the source sheet (e.g., fields unique to one of the Multiple version sheets, or new fields created in the New sheets from subtable ). Fields that do not share the same Field ID will not be auto-synced.

Link & Load is different. Loaded fields will only be populated when triggered by entering data into linked fields

Knowing the difference between “auto-synced” and “triggered” is crucial to choosing the right design feature for your database.

Multiple versions and New sheet from subtable are the perfect features to establish links between “Employee Information” sheet and the “Contacts” sheet, or link the “contact info” subtable in the “Customer Info” sheet to the “Customer Contacts” sheet, because you want the info to be in sync at all times

But you probably wouldn’t want to auto-sync the “Sales Information” subtable in the “Sales Order” sheet to the “Pricelist” sheet, because you want product prices in “Sales Orders” to reflect the current prices at the time of sale, impervious to subsequent changes in “Pricelist”.

Common use cases for “Triggered” links

Besides Link & Load, these features also require triggering: Formulas, Auto generated field values and Default values

In general, these features can only be triggered in the sheets to which the features are applied, i.e., in a sheet where you apply Default Value, Auto generated field values (such as sequential numbers), and formulas, corresponding fields will be populated in the sheet when you create new entries or modify existing entries.

If a field value is modified/populated by other means, e.g., Update Value On Another Sheet, or execution of Link & Load when importing files, then in most cases, additional steps are required to trigger value syncing. For example, by checking the “Automatically execute when saving“ box in Advanced Setting, changes made and saved to sheet a will trigger automatic modification to the field value in sheet b.

Additionally, Action Buttons also require manual triggering (by pressing the Action Button or using the Mass Update function in the listing page). You don’t have to worry about accidentally triggering the Action Button when updating field values.

For more detailed information, please refer to corresponding documents in Ragic Design Manual.