Maddyhome Forums

It would be nice to have group lists akin to the current Lookup lists. So, for example, I could have a group named "People" with any entry for each member of my family, and that group list could be accessed by multiple logs (weight, exercise, etc.) Another example would be a Car group list that could be shared between Mileage, Car Repair, and Fuel Stops.

kabing

How do you see these groups being used? Just as a way to see all entries, from any log, for a specific member of a group? Something else?

Mostly I was thinking about ease of setting up various logs and consistent data entry. So if I have three logs related to cars (mileage, maintenance, fuel stops), I only have to set up a list of cars once. And if I bought a new car, I'd only have to add it to one list, instead of three.

Potentially this could also be helpful if someone wanted to import data from multiple logs into a relational database, in the sense that the linking field/group would be consistent across all the logs.

I hadn't thought about being able to see entries from multiple logs that share a group. I suppose that might be helpful.

Part of my interest is because I keep mixing up groups and lookup lists. More than once I've made a lookup list to use as a group, only to realize that it doesn't work that way.

Maybe I don't understand groups well enough.

To be honest, groups don't have as much use as they used to have. The addition of full blown filtering kind of made the main purpose of groups a bit obsolete. For what you want to do I would recommend using lookup lists for your cars and people. Then each of your log templates can define attributes using the appropriate lookup list. Then when you add a new car, for example, you simply add the new car the first time you add an entry needing the new car. Then the new car will be available for all attributes using that lookup list. Having all share the same lookup list ensures data consistency.