Lookup fields in forms for larger DBs
Suppose I have a "child" form (with ID and name, say), and a "visit" form. A child may have multiple visits. In the "visit" form I want to refer to the child, so I add a lookup field to child.
I'm already puzzled here. I think the user would like to refer to the child by name, but I need the ID to unambiguously use it for links and such. So lookup ID or Name? Also (see below) I might want to hide this lookup field, but it is required. It looks like I can either make it required or hidden, but not both.
Now suppose I want a DB with 100K children, each of whom has 1-10 visits.
The lookup field is a drop-down or multi-select box. A drop-down with 100K names is clearly no good.
A UI that might work is to have a "create visit" button on the "child" form and a "link to child" on the visit form. I've looked at help/deluge-tips/sub-forms.html, but I can't really decode exactly how to put either the "link to child" URL or the "create visit" button. I know it's possible, but there's nothing describing exactly how URLs work.
I tried a formula field "Link to child" on the visit form. Due to the forum URL restrictions, I can't post the code, but you can see ... dfrankow/childdb/#View:visit_View.
It kind of works, although the left side bar with the other views and such goes away.
Presumably the "create visit" button is possible with more URL wizardry.
Is there a nice discussion of how to put together URLs for Zoho?
Is there a nice discussion of 1-to-many relationships like this with many entities, where drop-downs won't do?
Dan