# reference field

**URL:** <https://forum.wixstudio.com/t/reference-field/14064>\
**Category:** Ask the community\
**Tags:** wix-members-area, code, question\
**Created:** [January 14, 2019, 8:42pm UTC](https://forum.wixstudio.com/t/reference-field/14064 "2019-01-14T20:42:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ssivan84](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wix/user_avatar/forum.wixstudio.com/ssivan84/32/6990_2.png) [@ssivan84](https://forum.wixstudio.com/u/ssivan84)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2019, 8:42pm UTC](https://forum.wixstudio.com/t/reference-field/14064/1 "2019-01-14T20:42:32Z")

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Hi,

I have a dataset with 2 fields: “answer” (text field) and “Member” (reference field):

![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/wix/original/3X/1/1/110c2734f853dda400af728f6eb9d6bd5d982acf.jpeg)

On my site, the user write an answer to a question and the answer goes to the text field “answer”:

 ![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/wix/original/3X/a/3/a393bf210531d06db45ea3713d7f164bf27aeadd.jpeg)

I want that the reference field - “Members” - will automatically be set to the current user id/or email (my key field on the members dataset)

how can I do that?  
Thanks

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**Author:** ![mikemoynihan99](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wix/user_avatar/forum.wixstudio.com/mikemoynihan99/32/5930_2.png) [@mikemoynihan99](https://forum.wixstudio.com/u/mikemoynihan99)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2019, 9:04pm UTC](https://forum.wixstudio.com/t/reference-field/14064/2 "2019-01-14T21:04:02Z")

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Just add another line under toInsert  
“member” : userId

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**Author:** ![ssivan84](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wix/user_avatar/forum.wixstudio.com/ssivan84/32/6990_2.png) [@ssivan84](https://forum.wixstudio.com/u/ssivan84)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2019, 9:15pm UTC](https://forum.wixstudio.com/t/reference-field/14064/3 "2019-01-14T21:15:23Z")

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Thanks Mike.

I try it and got: “Reference is broken”.  
Why?

![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/wix/original/3X/8/4/84d415c66874b3871e0ff36abe46868bec95796d.jpeg)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mikemoynihan99](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wix/user_avatar/forum.wixstudio.com/mikemoynihan99/32/5930_2.png) [@mikemoynihan99](https://forum.wixstudio.com/u/mikemoynihan99)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2019, 9:28pm UTC](https://forum.wixstudio.com/t/reference-field/14064/4 "2019-01-14T21:28:26Z")

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> **[Adding a Reference Field to a Database Collection | Help Center | Wix.com](https://support.wix.com/en/article/adding-a-reference-field-to-a-database-collection)**
>
> Link one collection to other collections of yours, using reference fields. You can access all the fields in both a main collection and referenced collection usi

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![deagofantana](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wix/user_avatar/forum.wixstudio.com/deagofantana/32/5334_2.png) [@deagofantana](https://forum.wixstudio.com/u/deagofantana)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2019, 11:55pm UTC](https://forum.wixstudio.com/t/reference-field/14064/5 "2019-01-14T23:55:25Z")

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The reference field is broken because the data cannot display there since it’s reference to fields from a different database… However, you can set the value in one of the field your referencing from.

You can access the Reference field " Field" \>\> {itemData.members.field key from reference field;}.  
then you can use setFieldValue to set the Field you want. “little complicated but i hope you understand”

$w(“#myDataset”).setFieldValue(“title”, “New Title”);

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ssivan84](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wix/user_avatar/forum.wixstudio.com/ssivan84/32/6990_2.png) [@ssivan84](https://forum.wixstudio.com/u/ssivan84)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 12:30pm UTC](https://forum.wixstudio.com/t/reference-field/14064/6 "2019-01-16T12:30:36Z")

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I didn’t understand where to insert this row:  
{itemData.members.field key from reference field;}.

And also what is the “title” and “new title” stand for?

Q1 = the DB with reference field called “member”  
the referene field “member” is point to DB call “Members”

What shpuld I do? \>\>

**This is my code:**

**import** wixUsers **from** ‘wix-users’;  
**import** wixData **from** ‘wix-data’;  
**import** wixLocation **from** ‘wix-location’;  
**import** wixCRM **from** ‘wix-crm’;

$w.onReady( **function** () {

**let** user = wixUsers.currentUser;  
**let** userId = user.id; // “r5cme-6fem-485j-djre-4844c49”  
**let** isLoggedIn = user.loggedIn; // true

$w(“#sendAnswer”).onClick( () =\> {

**let** toInsert = {  
“answer”: $w(“#answerText”).value,  
“member”: userId,  
}

wixData.insert(“Q1”, toInsert)  
.then( () =\> {  
wixLocation.to(“/q1”);  
} )

. **catch** ( (err) =\> {  
**let** errorMsg = err;  
$w(“#error”).show();  
} );

})  
});

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tsuyoidesigns](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wix/user_avatar/forum.wixstudio.com/tsuyoidesigns/32/10286_2.png) [@tsuyoidesigns](https://forum.wixstudio.com/u/tsuyoidesigns)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2019, 8:38pm UTC](https://forum.wixstudio.com/t/reference-field/14064/7 "2019-04-22T20:38:02Z")

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@ssivan84 Have you been able to figure this out? I am having a similar issue with my code and no one on the forum responds.

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**Author:** ![esile66](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wix/user_avatar/forum.wixstudio.com/esile66/32/3790_2.png) [@esile66](https://forum.wixstudio.com/u/esile66)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2019, 2:06pm UTC](https://forum.wixstudio.com/t/reference-field/14064/8 "2019-05-19T14:06:21Z")

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Following - I have the same issue too. It seems simple, but I just can´t figure out how to retrieve and insert the referenced item ID  
I find a lot of explanations and code snippets, but actually, i need to see the whole page code to see what is going on

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**Author:** ![clswall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@clswall](https://forum.wixstudio.com/u/clswall)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2020, 12:20am UTC](https://forum.wixstudio.com/t/reference-field/14064/9 "2020-01-14T00:20:26Z")

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Any resolution on this (seemingly simple) DB coding action?