Tip 5 — User Specific Columns | Glide Tips

Key Takeaways

So when you add a basic column in the data editor, you have this option to mark the column as user specific. So what does this mean? Well, if you leave this unchecked, then that cell will just hold the same value for everyone. Everyone will see exactly the same value for that data. But if you check it, then that same cell will hold a different value for each loggedin user. In other words, if you have a thousand users, that's potentially a thousand different values in that one cell. So the question is, what do you check in that box? Well, when the data is shared and everyone should see the same data on that same thing, then leave it unchecked. But when each user needs their own data or value for that row, often this is if someone wants to be able to favorite something or leave their own personal notes or their own scores or preferences, then that's when you need user specific columns. For example, here we have a user specific text column storing personal notes. When we switch between the different users in the layout editor, we see those notes changing. Two important notes about this column type. Firstly, once you check this checkbox, that's it. The choice is permanent. You can't flip it back later. You can only set this when you first create the column. And secondly is really just like a mindset on this stuff. The power of user specific columns isn't just about sort of individual cells with private data in them. It's really about what you can do with those values. How that can drive what happens in your app. You can drive them with lookups. You can add them to templates which you can make different screens or layouts show depending on what users set. You can even affect the way that workflows run. You can have one choice or multiple choices in user specific columns and that changes the whole experience for a user. But the thing you definitely can't do is run uh calculations over all user specific columns. For example, you couldn't sum up all of the values inside of a particular thing and say things like how many people have favored this item. If you want to do that, then the better way to do this is with a separate table and then a form so that you can actually log that data and then do rollups and sums and things like that on that data.