Glide 101: Row Owners vs. User Specific Columns

Row Owners and User Specific Columns in Glide both provide a way to secure, privatize, and personalize user data, but which one should you use in your no code app? Join me as I walk you through a few different scenarios as to when you'd use each (and when you WOULDN'T use either!).
User Table vs Profile Table: • Glide: Secure Your Dat...
Demystifying Roles and Row Owners: • Glide: Row Owners and ...
🚀 Start building your Glide App today: join.glideapps.com/robert
💎Grab a copy of this app by becoming a Glide VIP member!
/ @robertpetittowa
👔 Hire me to build your Glide app:
join.glideapps.com/glideexpert
00:00 - Intro
00:26 - The User Profile Table
01:01 - Row Owners Explained
03:14 - When Row Owners should not be used
04:08 - Creating a Public Profile Table
04:26 - A Row Owner example
08:37 - Filters are NOT security measures
09:38 - User Specific Columns explained
13:16 - When User Specific Columns should NOT be used
19:21 - Which columns can designate Row Owners
20:11 - Roles
24:48 - Outro

[@robertgay494]

Robert that cleared up a lot for me. Thanks!

[@RobertPetittoWA]

Glad to help

[@user-lm7su6rb4o]

Very clear tutorial, thanks a lot Robert!

[@RobertPetittoWA]

You are welcome!

[@carlodagnolo]

This was a great tutorial. Thanks!

[@RobertPetittoWA]

Thank you!

[@JamieIsInvesting]

☝This was 🧠💭💡💡💡💡💭🧠for me! Thanks a million! Looks like I'll be binge watching for a while! 🤣🤣

[@RobertPetittoWA]

Ha! Amazing! Let me know what other content you’d like to see.

[@JamieIsInvesting]

@@RobertPetittoWA Will do!!

[@elisabethalvareznunez8952]

Super Tutorial Thanks!! I don't know how to make the user who has the admin role see everything, for example products from all users. I have ideas but it's not the best.

[@RobertPetittoWA]

Best way is to add a column that writes the Admin role every time a new product is entered. Make it a row owner.

[@elisabethalvareznunez8952]

@@RobertPetittoWA Thanks, it works!! :)

[@elisabethalvareznunez8952]

@RobertPetittoWA I thought it had worked but even if I set the field as admin, in the form, if the field is row owner it changes it by email :(

[@abdelrhmanelbarsiky9855]

Thanks, Rob for the great tutorial, I saw the three videos you have made regarding this topic, great explanation as usual. However, I find it hard (even if I understand the row owners thing) to let a customer see the process of fixing his car as an example without seeing other customers' repairing processes.. I can make row owner in the customer table or the users table but I'm struggling to connect a lot of information from different tables (cars owned, repairing process, invoices related, etc,) to a separate screen tailored for the customer. not forgetting to mention that, that tailored screen values and data change based on the admin entries who are working in the workshop. it sounds a bit complicated, and I hope you give me a TIP to help me. Thanks in advance

[@RobertPetittoWA]

Hey there! If you need customers to see their lines only, then you'll need to add an email column to any table that you want them to see, add their email address, and set it as row owner. You'll also want to add another "admin access" column that includes the role of the admin (as defined in your user profile setup) on every row.

[@abdelrhmanelbarsiky9855]

Thanks, Robert that helped me a lot. I did add the option through the Admin's workshop to add/allow access to the customers to view different views if the Admin chooses the customer email (from a dropdown from the database) while filling out the form or details. It's better than nothing but for some reason, I feel that there's an easier way. Thanks a lot for your assistance @@RobertPetittoWA

[@brumagency]

Hey, Bob! Thanks for another amazing tutorial! I have a question. I have an app which very closely resembles the last use case you mention in your video: it's an inventory app used by a couple of different companies and then some admins, where I want each company to be able to access only their inventory items and orders data, but not those of other companies. I also want the admins to be able to see everything. I implemented your suggestions, where there's a role column (with row owners) that holds each respective companies' names and then the word admin for users who are admins. Then there's another column (also with row owners) where I specify which role will be the admin (the one able to access all of the data). However, in the layout, "admins" can't see anything. It works for users who belong to specific companies, but not for admins. Do I need to specify something else in my inventory and orders tables for this to work properly?

[@RobertPetittoWA]

Yes, you’ll need a second column with the word Admin in every row in every table that should have admin access

[@brumagency]

@@RobertPetittoWA Awesome! That makes sense and it worked! Thanks again, Bob.

[@JesusVillalobos1]

Is it possible to create a hierarchy for access? Like Managers can see certain users information?

[@RobertPetittoWA]

You bet! You’d use roles for this.

[@krishale5529]

I wonder if this can help me in my glide app. I am trying to find a way to assign a certain number of my master spreadsheet to each user, as a sort of list of tasks, and they will show up on a map for the user as voters to go and complete a survey with.

[@RobertPetittoWA]

Hey there! I’m not sure I follow. If you have a list of tasks for users to complete, Glide can certainly do that. Not sure where a map fits in. Perhaps you can provide more context.

[@AlligatorPools]

Hello fellow Glider Bob - to clarify, if you have a Row Owner (let’s say on a User table) and there is a Relation column linked to another table where there are NO row owners, does that still pull in ALL the rows from that related table? Or is it only pulling the related rows? Trying to optimize speed for users! PS - thank you for all the tutorials!

[@RobertPetittoWA]

The relation will only bring in the related rows, but the entire database (the one not protected by row owners) would still be open and available to the end user

[@ajaysuresh8856]

Awesome explanation , is it possible to login using mobile number with otp verification

[@RobertPetittoWA]

Not yet.

[@clariziahrodriguez9642]

Hi, Robert. My user-specific checkbox in the data editor sheet cannot be ticked. Why is that so?

[@RobertPetittoWA]

Perhaps you’re not signed in as anyone?

[@eliglanz]

If I am unable to apply Roles to public pro apps, what would be the ideal way to set up an ordering App? I wouldn't want to require users to login- I would want the store owner to see all the orders, but not the rest of the users.

[@RobertPetittoWA]

Without login, you cannot prevent this if you also want users to see their orders after ordering (though I don’t know how that would be possible without login anyway)

[@eliglanz]

@@RobertPetittoWA I see, It's a real problem for any public app where you want admins to access data but you don't want end users to access them.

[@eliglanz]

A potential solution is just using Google sheets as a source and have 2 separate apps. Problem is- it doesn't scale beyond 25k rows and is much less efficient. Although, syncing live is not an Issue, as I use the Tables API to load the data to the sheet rather than the sheets API.

[@eliglanz]

I'm looking for a solution to share records across organizations. Both roles and Organizations. So row owners should be anyone assigned to a specific Domain or an Admin.

[@eliglanz]

And btw, your videos and solutions are ingenious. Kudos! And thank you for sharing.

[@RobertPetittoWA]

What database are you using as the source to your app? Glide Tables? Google Sheets?

[@eliglanz]

@@RobertPetittoWA depending on the project, at times I use Google sheets and at times I use Glide Tables

[@oB3ATS]

How could glideapps make the role process so confusing and hard? Glideapps, please allow me to make a table with a list of roles. Then let me use the users table and multiselect roles from the roles table to assign to users. Then let me simply assign access logic by role (not this stupid row owner process). You know, simple organization. :facepalm: