🔎 Decoding The Rollup
The rollup is a database property in Notion that helps visualize data from connected databases in the workspace. And so, rollups need to work in tandem with the relation property. The relation property connects databases. Rollups pulls data from those connections.
The Notion Rollup Property In Action
Say you have two databases you want to connect. One is for Tasks and another is for Projects. These two databases have the following properties:
Task Database
Priority select
Delegate to person
Done done
Project relation to 'Projects'
Project Database
Location select
Deadline date
Tasks relation to 'Tasks'
Adding Rollups To A Database
After connecting the Tasks and Projects databases with a relation, I can add rollup properties to transfer data from one database to another.
Inside the Tasks database I want to see the corresponding projects’ deadlines.
Step 1: Create a rollup property
Step 2: Configure the property
Finished!
How To Use Rollups In Filters
What you can do with filters
Continuing with the example above, I could filter the deadline rollup to show me tasks with project deadlines within the next month.
What you can’t do: Auto-populating properties with the rollup filter
Ordinarily when a filter is created, upon creating a new database entry, those property filters will apply to the new entry. For instance, if I have a filter to view all tasks with the ‘Priority 1’ tag, ‘Priority 1’ will auto-fill in the new entry’s corresponding property.
This is not the case with rollups. A new entry will not auto-populate rollup properties. You cannot create relation entries either. This is a limitation to keep in mind.