The Auto Populate field is a type of linking field in Apricot that allows you to automatically pull data from one record and display it on another related record. This is recommended when you need to:
Create a calculation on one form using data from another form
Physically display data from one form on another related form.
However, it's important to use Auto Populate sparingly, as it can lead to data redundancy in your database. We recommend reaching out to the Support team if you have questions regarding whether this field is recommended for your use case.
Follow the steps below to learn how to set up an Auto Populate field in a form and store data entered in one record into another linked record.
Notes:
You cannot use Auto Populate on a Wizard-linked form as it contains a target link.
Secure fields cannot be used as the source for an Auto Populate field.
It is not recommended to auto-populate data from a Tier 1 record into its associated Tier 2 records. Tier 1 records are directly related to the Tier 2 records housed under it, so the Link field required to use Auto Populate would create an unnecessary relationship between the two forms in reporting. You can instead use Quick View fields to see data from a Tier 1 record on the Tier 2 record without storing it directly on the record. This will always reflects the latest data from the linked record.
Auto Populate fields do not currently filter correctly when used as a searchable field in a report. We recommend adding the field as a report column in order to filter its data.
Step 1: Determine your base and target form
In the following example, we'll auto-populate data from the Tier 1 'Participant Profile' form into the Tier 1 'Incident Report' form. This will allow users to pull relevant participant information directly into each new incident report.
The Link field required to auto-populate the data will be added to the Incident Report form, establishing it as the "base" form. The Participant Profile form we're pulling data from is then considered the "target" form.
Step 2: Add a Link field to the base form
Before you can auto-populate data into a base form, a separate Link field must be present when creating a record in order to select which target form record to pull data from. This setup is considered best practice; we do not recommend Auto Populate form setups without this base linking field.
Open your base form in the Form Designer, then expand the "Linking" category in the Field Choices palette. Click and hold the "Link" field name to drag it into a form section.
Next, click on the gear icon at the top-right of the field box to open its properties. We recommend changing the Display Name field from the default "Link Instructions".
In the "Linked To" section, select the target form from the dropdown. You'll then decide in the following dropdown menus how many links can be created between records of the base form and records of the target form. For forms using Auto Populate, this Link field must allow only "1" target form record to be linked to each base form record and "Many" base form records to be linked to each target form record.
Select "Apply" once you've finished setting up your properties, then publish the base form from the Form Actions palette.
Note: Adding a Link field to a base form creates a "Linked [Base Form Name] Records" section in the target form as well. We recommend opening the target form in the Form Designer to hide this report section from users as they perform data entry.
Step 3: Add an Auto Populate field to the base form
Open the base form in the Form Designer once again to add an Auto Populate field into a form section.
Next, click the field's gear icon to open its properties. Change the display name, then select the Link field created in Step 2 in the "Linking Field" dropdown.
The options in the following "Field" dropdown will be field names from the target form selected within the Link field properties; select the field you want to auto-populate into the base form. For our example, we chose to auto-populate participants' "Assigned Caseworker" into the incident report once a user links their Participant Profile record to the base form.
Auto Populate Properties:
The "Duplicate Check" standard property will not be available to select for Auto Populate fields until the linking field dropdowns are selected and the base form is published.
To prevent your users from changing the values may auto-populate into this field, you can mark the field as "Locked". It will still auto-populate data (as well as auto-update data if the special property is enabled).
You can select "Convert to Static Field" to no longer auto-populate data from another form but instead collect data manually like a typical form field. Data that was previously auto-populated will remain intact, but new records will not have auto-populated data.
Important: Once you've converted to a static field, the action cannot be undone.
Selecting the "Auto Update" special property will allow the Auto Populate field to update itself if the information in the target form record has been changed. The base form record must be opened and saved in order to accept the new auto-updated value into the record.
Note: When archiving linked records, Auto Populate fields will retain their values if Auto Update is disabled.
Once a form is published with an Auto Populate field, the link between forms cannot be changed. To edit this relationship, you must deactivate the existing Auto Populate field and configure a new one.
Select "Apply" once you've finished setting up your properties, then publish the base form from the Form Actions palette.
Step 4: Auto-populate data within a record
Navigate to create a new record of the base form as an end user would. You'll find that until a target form record is selected in the Link field, no data will display in the Auto Populate field.
Click the "+ Add" button next to the Link field to open a Record Search pop-up window.
Then, select the record that contains the data you want to display. The link will be automatically created as soon as you click the record name.
Close the Record Search window, and the Auto Populate field will display the data entered in the field that was selected in the Auto Populate properties.
Be sure to enter any other required form information and click "Save Record" in the Record Options palette to save your data.