Combine Multiple DBs into One View

<aside> 🧙‍♂️ A workaround to combine multiple database date properties into one calendar view. See instructions for the respective $\color{#4fb0ae}\small\textsf{Movies}$ and $\color{#4fb0ae}\small\textsf{Books}$ databases.

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<aside> 🧙‍♂️ Wizard’s Guide

Create a Central (parent) Database

The first step is to create a database which will act as your aggregator for two or more databases you’d like to combine into a single view.

Here, we create a $\color{#4fb0ae}\small\textsf{Books \& Movies Combo}$ database which we’ll use to pull data from the individual $\color{#4fb0ae}\small\textsf{Books}$ and $\color{#4fb0ae}\small\textsf{Movies}$ databases.

Prepare Each Individual (child) Database

Next, we must relate each individual database to our central database. We use a $\color{#4fb0ae}\small\textsf{Relation}$ property to do this, which lets us select a record in the central database to link a record in the individual database to.

This is where the magic happens and to simplify the workflow, because we know everything in the $\color{#4fb0ae}\small\textsf{Books}$ database is a book, we create a unique record in the $\color{#4fb0ae}\small\textsf{Books \& Movies Combo}$ database and title it “Book”. This essentially uses the $\color{#4fb0ae}\small\textsf{Name}$ property in a Notion database (which can’t be changed from anything but text) to our tag of what kind of data the record represents.

Display data entered in an individual (child) database in the centralized (parent) database

Lastly, we use separate $\color{#4fb0ae}\small\textsf{Rollup}$ properties in the $\color{#4fb0ae}\small\textsf{Books \& Movies}$ database to pull the value for a specific property in the related individual database into the parent database.

Optional: Release Date Logic

If you want to display a release date, the below formulas will apply the same approach above ($\color{#4fb0ae}\small\textsf{Rollup}$ to pull data from the child database into the parent.

A Calendar and Timeline database can only be displayed using a single property for driving display logic, so because we have two Release Date Rollups (one for Movies one for Books), we need to combine them into one field which our Calendar and Timeline views will use for displaying results. This is where the formulas come in below.

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//everything empty 
if(empty(prop("Rollup Book Release Date")) == true and empty(prop("Rollup Movie Release Date")) == true, fromTimestamp(toNumber("")), if(empty(prop("Rollup Book Release Date")) == true, prop("Rollup Movie Release Date"), prop("Rollup Book Release Date")))

//determine if movie or book date to use
if(empty(prop("Rollup Book Release Date")) == true, prop("Rollup Movie Release Date"), prop("Rollup Book Release Date"))

Books & Movies Combo

<aside> 🧙‍♂️ Type $\color{#4fb0ae}\small\textsf{Book}$ in $\color{#4fb0ae}\small\textsf{Books \& Movies Combo}$ relation property for each book you add to link to the $\color{#4fb0ae}\small\textsf{Books \& Movies Combo}$ database and add as new record.

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Books

<aside> 🧙‍♂️ Type $\color{#4fb0ae}\small\textsf{Movie}$ in $\color{#4fb0ae}\small\textsf{Books \& Movies Combo}$ relation property for each book you add to link to the $\color{#4fb0ae}\small\textsf{Books \& Movies Combo}$ database and add as new record.

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Movies

<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/d97c22d3-da8c-4595-8abd-a86335e08269/ID__N_Logo_(Light).png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/d97c22d3-da8c-4595-8abd-a86335e08269/ID__N_Logo_(Light).png" width="40px" /> By Adam ⫶ ☑ Notion Certified Reddit ∙ Notion Answers ∙ UpWork ∙ Twitter ∙ Newsletter Feeling generous? ☕ Buying a coffee refill is greatly appreciated!

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