Sort References by Type/Database and filters for DB fields

References are a real difference-maker in Fibery for my team, possibly the most key feature for us. Many other apps have integrated a sort of backlinking functionality, such as Jira, Clickup, Notion last year, and others. But they are all missing the benefit of references, giving you the ability to see what the context of the “originating” entity alongside the backlink. This is where Fibery bleeds into the excellent benefit of tools like Roam Research, etc. while maintaining its own identity and all the well-thought out Work Management features that you don’t get in writing apps like Roam.

One of the ways we use References is by setting up some internal procedures around certain types of recurring process around databases. One example is a DB we have for Decisions. We use a Database for a broader use called “Discussions”, and we have a drop down used to tag certain Discussions as “decisions.” This is how we track a lot of decision in the company.

So an example would be “we are moving to Bitbucket from Github” within the Engineering team. We’d create an entity in the Discussions db, tag it “decision,” and then it lives forever and we can see when we made the decision, and the reasoning behind it that we write up in this entity.

Where this gets interesting is when we integrate this into other db’s we have in Fibery, which would be for both our Dev tools, where we’d include both Github and Bitbucket, and Team Meetings. So to expand how this would look, if the decision happened in a meeting, we’d include this Discussion in the Meeting, mark it as decision, and then tag it to both BitBucket and Github. Over in the Dev Tools db, where we’d have both Bitbucket and Github, I could then sort the references by “Discussion” db, and filter for “decisions”, and then see all the decisions we make ever about Github. Likewise in that meeting where we made the decision, we could sort the references to see only decisions on one area.

Currently references sort by time they are made, which is useful in its own right. But like with a lot of data, it would be even more useful to be able to further sort and filter with your own criteria, and not just have only the option to see references by the default ordering of what time they are made.

Thanks guys!

I don’t know if I’m exactly getting your need, but are you aware that you can do some things in formulas with References?
For example, if ‘This thing’ is mentioned 3 times, but only 2 of them were from the Discussion database, you can use this formula to get a limited collection of references:

The ‘This thing’ entity will now have two reference fields, where the lower one shows only the 2 from the Discussion DB:

Unfortunately the name of this field is not used, but if people know what to expect, it might be useful all the same.

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Thank you so much for sharing this workaround! This is extremely useful for me.

It would be wonderful if the added references section could display the name of the formula (in your example: Discussion-only references) in addition to “Referenced x times”, so it would read:
“Referenced x times in (Name of Database)”

Should I make an additional feature request for that?

Ideally we’d have a References section where you could filter and sort them by database without having to create formulas. Still, I’m so glad for the workaround you shared. Many, many thanks!

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I’ll make a note of the request

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