feat: add relation column type by Koc · Pull Request #2248 · nextcloud/tables

Koc · 2026-01-09T12:49:18Z

This PR introduces a basic relation type. It allows to connect few tables together. We will store row id as a column value and display selected column as a label for this values. Closes #172.

✔️ Implemented

🔍 Column create/edit

🔍 Row create/edit via popup/inline

🔍 Row display in table/view + handle relation row removal

🔍 Filter for view

🔍 Filter for rows

🔍 Import/Export

🚧 Pending (help welcomed):

Behat tests
Cypress tests?

❎ What is out of scope:

Lookup columns to add an extra columns from the related table to the current one. It will be handled separately in upcoming PR.

enjeck

Thanks, it works quite well already. A few comments for now. I have only tested the creation of columns and rows so far

enjeck · 2026-03-04T05:42:19Z

+			$targetColumn = $this->columnMapper->find($settings[Column::RELATION_LABEL_COLUMN]);
+			if ($isView) {
+				$view = $this->viewMapper->find($targetId);
+				$rows = $this->row2Mapper->findAll(
+					[$targetColumn->getId()],
+					$view->getTableId(),
+					null,
+					null,
+					$view->getFilterArray(),
+					$view->getSortArray(),
+					$this->userId


Do we ever consider permissions such that the user must have access to the table/view before they can link to it?

No, and this is a "feature by design". The main idea is that admin creates tables for dictionaries, e.g. users, departments, offices, etc, then creates table that references to this dictionaries, e.g. vacations. And he can share only vacations to the end users.

Otherwise he should to share all dictionary tables as well. And users will have tons of irrelevant tables in their shares. Or admin can forget to share dictionary tables and users will suffer because table with relations not displays all columns.

We can't share table partially per column right now. Let's preserve same approach for new column types as well.

We have to be careful not to leak data. At the moment, suppose Bob shares a table X witih Alice. Then Alice creates a table Y with a column that links to table X. Then Bob later decides to revoke the share from Alice. But Alice is still able to continue reading the linked relation column, despite not having the permission for that. Plus, Alice gets a 403 when they try to edit that column (which is to be expected since they no longer have permissions, but maybe a better error message than Could not load columns. Request not allowed helps?)

I got what you mean, but we open only single column that selected in "Value selection label".

In our organization we have hundreds of dictionary-tables. Imagine what mess can can have our users that will manage tables that rely on this dictionary-tables.

I can add some NcNoteCard with a notice that field will be exposed. WDYT?

I can add some NcNoteCard with a notice that field will be exposed. WDYT?

okay, for the MVP so we can merge this now, adding this is okay. Thanks!

We've discussed internally some ideas for what the follow-up for this would look like:

we require that a column that is being referenced is accessible by a table manager.

when a table ore or view, that contains such a column, is being unshared with someone, we check whether this this column is included in a reference. And then we re-eavluate the situation: check whether the owner or any other manager still has access to that column. If not, disable the relation and show an error.

check should also happen with ownership transfer and demoting table managers.

Koc · 2026-03-19T20:02:24Z

pipeline failures looks like are unrelated. Please re-review @enjeck @blizzz

Aveyron-RetD · 2026-03-30T08:05:50Z

So I have user tested and this looks good. 👍 Could not get it to work at first because I did not get that only text field were working. This will create maybe some confusion on first use. Not all tables do have this text field. Perhaps a comment with a small tooltip with a little (i) in the screenshot below to explain that you can only link that kind of data

For my mention of #2035 this is not a good fit.
I was hoping that this would solve the one-to-many expansion I have been dreaming about, but no :-( .

Koc · 2026-03-31T15:34:01Z

I was hoping that this would solve the one-to-many expansion I have been dreaming about, but no :-( .

@Aveyron-RetD yeah, I'm aware about that case. But you need to understand me as well: feature is really huge, we should start from something simple and improve it in upcoming iterations 🤝

I will add tooltip soon. Hope that we can merge it soon 🙏

enjeck

would be nice to have tests to avoid regressions in the future

Koc · 2026-05-04T21:45:47Z

@Aveyron-RetD here we go, without tooltip

Signed-off-by: Kostiantyn Miakshyn <molodchick@gmail.com>

Koc force-pushed the feature/add-relations-column-type branch from c3f6a2d to fdd744e Compare January 15, 2026 17:44

Koc force-pushed the bugfix/fix-loading-of-large-tables branch from f792683 to f599f40 Compare January 15, 2026 19:21

Koc force-pushed the feature/add-relations-column-type branch 6 times, most recently from 92af03c to 0f9416b Compare January 16, 2026 00:28

Aveyron-RetD mentioned this pull request Jan 16, 2026

Append to cell #2035

Open

Koc force-pushed the feature/add-relations-column-type branch 3 times, most recently from 6a4e073 to 5209182 Compare January 16, 2026 18:06

Koc changed the base branch from bugfix/fix-loading-of-large-tables to main January 16, 2026 18:06

Koc force-pushed the feature/add-relations-column-type branch 4 times, most recently from fb98364 to 198afa1 Compare January 16, 2026 18:43

Koc marked this pull request as ready for review January 16, 2026 19:12

Koc requested review from blizzz and enjeck as code owners January 16, 2026 19:12

Koc force-pushed the feature/add-relations-column-type branch from 198afa1 to ddc1bd1 Compare January 16, 2026 20:45

Koc mentioned this pull request Jan 19, 2026

feat: add lookup column type #2271

Draft

juliusknorr added the enhancement New feature or request label Jan 21, 2026

juliusknorr requested a review from samin-z January 21, 2026 20:49

Koc force-pushed the feature/add-relations-column-type branch 2 times, most recently from f34f8f9 to d406233 Compare January 25, 2026 12:47

Koc force-pushed the feature/add-relations-column-type branch 4 times, most recently from f092bad to 502b69b Compare February 12, 2026 23:24

Koc force-pushed the feature/add-relations-column-type branch from 502b69b to 8093d63 Compare February 15, 2026 16:40

Koc force-pushed the feature/add-relations-column-type branch 7 times, most recently from d45b95c to cb637bd Compare February 28, 2026 18:32

enjeck force-pushed the feature/add-relations-column-type branch from cb637bd to 9b36f43 Compare March 4, 2026 04:59

enjeck reviewed Mar 4, 2026

View reviewed changes

Koc force-pushed the feature/add-relations-column-type branch 2 times, most recently from 7e22314 to b47617a Compare March 19, 2026 19:56

Koc force-pushed the feature/add-relations-column-type branch from b47617a to 3240639 Compare March 25, 2026 23:07

blizzz moved this to 🏗️ In progress in 📝 Productivity team Mar 26, 2026

blizzz added this to 📝 Productivity team Mar 26, 2026

AndyScherzinger added the 3. to review Waiting for reviews label Apr 12, 2026

enjeck force-pushed the feature/add-relations-column-type branch from 3240639 to 0cdfefa Compare April 23, 2026 03:47

enjeck reviewed Apr 23, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread src/shared/components/ncTable/mixins/filter.js Outdated

enjeck reviewed Apr 23, 2026

View reviewed changes

Koc force-pushed the feature/add-relations-column-type branch 3 times, most recently from b707106 to f3c29d8 Compare May 4, 2026 21:45

Koc force-pushed the feature/add-relations-column-type branch from f3c29d8 to b426237 Compare May 7, 2026 14:06

feat: add relation column type

5752ee3

Signed-off-by: Kostiantyn Miakshyn <molodchick@gmail.com>

Koc force-pushed the feature/add-relations-column-type branch from b426237 to 5752ee3 Compare May 7, 2026 14:09

feat: add relation column type (tests WIP)

54088bf

Signed-off-by: Kostiantyn Miakshyn <molodchick@gmail.com>

Conversation

Koc commented Jan 9, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

✔️ Implemented

🚧 Pending (help welcomed):

❎ What is out of scope:

Uh oh!

enjeck left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

enjeck Mar 4, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Koc Mar 19, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

enjeck Apr 23, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Koc May 4, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

enjeck May 7, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Koc May 7, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Koc commented Mar 19, 2026

Uh oh!

Aveyron-RetD commented Mar 30, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Koc commented Mar 31, 2026

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

enjeck left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Koc commented May 4, 2026

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

6 participants

Koc commented Jan 9, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Koc Mar 19, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Koc May 4, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Aveyron-RetD commented Mar 30, 2026 •

edited

Loading