Manage Registers

The Grid Link Editor is the interface for viewing and managing the row-level data stored in Grid Link custom field templates. Each Grid Link template appears here as a named register — for example, an employee register, an asset register, or a risk register. Users use this area to add, edit, delete, and import rows into registers without navigating individual documents, and to see which documents are linked to each row.

Who configures this

Users with access to the New module. Manage Registers is accessible from New > Custom Fields & Configuration > Manage Registers.

Grid Link Editor

The Grid Link Editor panel lists the Grid Link custom field templates in the database, one card for each register. Grid and Filter templates are not registers and do not appear.

Grid Link Editor panel

Clicking a register's card opens the register data view for that register.

Register data view

When a register is opened, its name is the title of the view. The toolbar has these controls:

Register data view

Control	Description
Reload Data	Reads the register again from the database.
Add Row	Opens a form to add a new row to the register.
Column chooser, density and filter icons	Choose the columns shown, switch the row height between compact and standard, and show or hide a filter box on each column.
Search	Filters the visible rows by text.
⋮ (3-dots menu)	Opens Export to Excel, which downloads the rows the grid shows as an Excel workbook, Import Data, for importing rows from an Excel file, and Preview Chart, which draws the register's data as a chart.

The 3-dots menu

Preview Chart

Preview Chart draws the register's rows as a chart. Choose the Chart Type (Bar Chart, Donut Chart, Line Chart, Heatmap or Data Grid), choose the Column to group the rows by under Group By, add a metric with the + beside Metrics (a count of the rows to start with), and click Preview Chart at the bottom to draw it.

Preview Chart settings: grouped by Site, with a count metric

Row controls

Each row has these controls at its start:

Control	Description
Row permissions (lock icon)	Opens Row permissions, where you choose who can view the row and the documents linked to it, and who can also change it. Shown to users with the Group and User Admin permission. The lock is open while nobody has been granted the row, and orange once it has been granted to someone. See Register row security.
Delete (bin icon)	Deletes the row after you confirm. Documents linked to the row lose that link.
Edit (pencil icon)	Opens the row for editing.
Linked documents count	An orange number: how many documents are linked to the row. Clicking it opens Linked Documents, the list of those documents.

The Row Count at the bottom of the view is the number of rows in the register.

Linked Documents

How to create a register

A register is created by configuring a Grid Link custom field template. The register appears automatically in the Grid Link Editor once the template is saved.

Step	Description
1	Navigate to New > Custom Fields & Configuration > Custom Fields.
2	Click Create New Template.
3	Set Template Type to Grid Link, enter a template name, and add the field entries. Tick Display Value on the field that names a row, so rows are listed by that value wherever a row is picked.
4	Click Save Template. See Custom Field Templates. The template now appears as a register in the Grid Link Editor.

How to add rows to a register

Step	Description
1	Navigate to New > Custom Fields & Configuration > Manage Registers.
2	Select the relevant register.
3	Click Add Row, complete the fields, and click Save Changes.
4	Repeat for each additional row required. To change a row later, click its Edit (pencil icon); to remove it, click Delete (bin icon) and confirm.

Add Row

How to import rows from Excel

Use Import Data to add many rows at once, or to update or remove rows from a spreadsheet. The register's fields must already exist; to create them from the spreadsheet's columns first, see How to import field columns from Excel.

Step	Description
1	Navigate to New > Custom Fields & Configuration > Manage Registers and open the register.
2	Click ⋮ and select Import Data. In Custom Field Importer, click Open Excel Importer.
3	In Excel Data Transformer, click the upload area (or drag and drop) and choose the Excel file. If the workbook has several sheets, choose the sheet with the tabs at the bottom.
4	Click the pin icon at the start of the header row, so Header Pinned shows its row number. Tick the rows to import. Rows Selected counts them, and Clear All Selections starts again. Click Finish.
5	In Map Columns, check that each Source column (from your file) is paired with the right Destination field. The importer pairs columns that have the same name; change a pair, remove one, or click Add Mapping for another. Click Next: Select Import Mode.
6	Choose the import mode (below) and click Next: Validate Data.
7	In Clean & Validate Data, check the rows. Rows that cannot be imported are marked: double-click a cell to correct its value, or tick Show only rows with errors. When every row is valid, click the import button (for example Import 3 Valid Rows).

Excel Data Transformer: the header row pinned and the rows ticked

Map Columns

Import modes

Select Import Mode

Mode	What it does
INSERT	Add new rows only. Existing rows are not affected. This is the mode selected first.
UPDATE	Update existing rows only. New rows are skipped.
UPSERT	Update existing rows and insert new ones.
DELETE	Delete rows that match the imported data.
REPLACE ALL	Delete every existing row, then import the spreadsheet as the complete new dataset. Marked Danger zone.

Every mode except INSERT needs to know which rows are the same row: choose the Match Keys, the fields that identify a row, then click Fetch Existing Data and Perform Comparison to see what would be inserted, updated or deleted before anything is written. REPLACE ALL asks for further confirmation before it deletes anything.

Clean & Validate Data

Example: importing rows into a register

Troubleshooting

Risk	Detail
Register not appearing in the Grid Link Editor	Only Grid Link templates appear in this view. Grid and Filter templates do not. Check the Template Type of the template.
The import button says "Fix … rows with errors first"	Some rows do not match their field's type or rules. Correct them in Clean & Validate Data (double-click a cell), or go back and untick them.
A column of the file is not imported	It has no Destination. Add a mapping for it, or leave it out on purpose.
Rows of a linked register are missing for a user	A register that has row grants shows each user only the rows granted to them. See Register row security.

Related configuration

• Custom Fields overview — introduction to the custom fields configuration sequence
• Custom Field Templates — create and configure the Grid Link template that powers a register
• Lookup Lists — configure lookup lists sourced from Grid Link register data