# Referencing Clones **URL:** \ **Category:** Questions about Thunkable X\ **Created:** [July 22, 2019, 3:50pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/referencing-clones/152052 "2019-07-22T15:50:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![renren66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/34f0e0/32.png) [@renren66](https://community.thunkable.com/u/renren66)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 3:50pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/referencing-clones/152052/1 "2019-07-22T15:50:00Z")
I’m making a Facebook or Instagram-esque quiz app where posts are created at runtime. This is fine with the cloning blocks, however when there are interactive components such as upvote, downvote, etc., I can’t reference or make changes to the specific clone. I know that there’s something coming soon where the properties of components can be copied, but are there any workarounds for now? ---
**Author:** ![maxb](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/maxb/32/35200_2.png) [@maxb](https://community.thunkable.com/u/maxb)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 4:05pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/referencing-clones/152052/2 "2019-07-22T16:05:21Z")
I was just going to post a thing similar to yours: I’d like to clone entire rows or columns that have multiple buttons and label inside but I don’t think that it’s possible to have a reference to them in any way right now unless you copy and position alla of them one by one, which is not that crazy now that I think about it, but it’s way more work that there would be needed with for example a name component block, Here’s the ending comment on a problem I’m having that would have made me use way many blocks. > [@Renaming isn't... real? Problem with any component blocks](http://community.thunkable.com/t/renaming-isnt-real-problem-with-any-component-blocks/146234/43): > > @maxb I think I understand what you’re trying to do and it makes sense to me. There are a couple of upcoming features that should help you. One is a block which would return the name of a component. That would, presumably, let you do exactly what you described. The other is the ability to add your own properties to a component, so you could, for instance, add a food property on your buttons which could have a value of “pizza” or “hamburger”. That would allow you to name your buttons whatev… ---
**Author:** ![Mark](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/mark/32/18133_2.png) [@Mark](https://community.thunkable.com/u/Mark)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 5:07pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/referencing-clones/152052/3 "2019-07-22T17:07:59Z")
> [@renren66](#): > > however when there are interactive components such as upvote, downvote, etc., I can’t reference or make changes to the specific clone. @renren66, Can you describe in some more detail what problems you are having with referencing or making changes to a specific clone? You should be able to change or reference the properties of a clone by using the appropriate blocks in the Any Component drawer, i.e. these blocks: ![08%20AM](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/4/a/4a501b0568d202e704971fa55c7ed51b0046f8a1.png) Perhaps I am misunderstand the problem that you are having, though. -Mark ---
**Author:** ![Mark](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/mark/32/18133_2.png) [@Mark](https://community.thunkable.com/u/Mark)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 5:11pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/referencing-clones/152052/4 "2019-07-22T17:11:51Z")
> [@maxb](#): > > I’d like to clone entire rows or columns that have multiple buttons and label inside but I don’t think that it’s possible to have a reference to them in any way right now @maxb You can get references to all the components in a row or column by using the `'all ... in ...'` block, i.e.: ![35%20AM](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/3/0/30d1618fe8de8e87e61bc7b48ae4c3f73152ba91.png) Just replace the 'Screen1` there with your row or column and the block will return a list of all the components in that row or column. -Mark ---
**Author:** ![renren66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/34f0e0/32.png) [@renren66](https://community.thunkable.com/u/renren66)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2019, 1:15am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/referencing-clones/152052/5 "2019-07-23T01:15:02Z")
![21%20AM](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/0/8/08ce26231433efe49b9acd9487b3a8072e98cf93.jpeg) This is the basic layout of the post. For example, what I want to do is to change the value of the label between the upvote and downvote buttons when the user clicks the corresponding button. However, as you can imagine, if there are multiple clones, I cannot reference the specific label to be changed. I do know the workaround where the background picture/colour is referenced. But when the user clicks the upvote button, there is still no way reference the label next to it to make changes. ---
**Author:** ![renren66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/34f0e0/32.png) [@renren66](https://community.thunkable.com/u/renren66)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2019, 1:23am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/referencing-clones/152052/6 "2019-07-23T01:23:49Z")
Is there a way to reference the parent column of the button maybe? ---
**Author:** ![actech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@actech](https://community.thunkable.com/u/actech)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2019, 8:24am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/referencing-clones/152052/7 "2019-07-23T08:24:03Z")
After creating a clone, you can get its UUID using the light green block “clone”. This means that you can refer to any clone after its creation. ---
**Author:** ![renren66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/34f0e0/32.png) [@renren66](https://community.thunkable.com/u/renren66)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2019, 10:36am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/referencing-clones/152052/9 "2019-07-23T10:36:36Z")
How exactly can I get the UUID? ---
**Author:** ![domhnallohanlon](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/domhnallohanlon/32/29554_2.png) [@domhnallohanlon](https://community.thunkable.com/u/domhnallohanlon)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2019, 11:16am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/referencing-clones/152052/10 "2019-07-23T11:16:38Z")
![20190723_121430](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/d/b/db82b46c2c326686ae3761ad2d22974e989ba3f4.gif) This is the kind of thing you’re looking for, @renren66, right? ---
**Author:** ![renren66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/34f0e0/32.png) [@renren66](https://community.thunkable.com/u/renren66)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2019, 11:44am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/referencing-clones/152052/12 "2019-07-23T11:44:47Z")
Yes exactly How does this work? ---
**Author:** ![domhnallohanlon](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/domhnallohanlon/32/29554_2.png) [@domhnallohanlon](https://community.thunkable.com/u/domhnallohanlon)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2019, 1:20pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/referencing-clones/152052/13 "2019-07-23T13:20:32Z")
Here’s my approach to this @renren66 > [@Changing properties of cloned components (DIY Advanced Listviewer)](http://community.thunkable.com/t/changing-properties-of-cloned-components/153213): > > We’re working hard to bring you the [Extended Listviewer](https://docs.thunkable.com/release-notes#coming-soon-to-thunkable) component to make developing your app even faster, but in the meantime here’s a DIY approach. By using the “Any Component” blocks in Thunkable, you are able to clone entire rows or columns of content. But what if you then want to change some of the components within the row or column? Design Usually you can leave the precise details of your design until the end, but in this case you need to know what components will be… ---
**Author:** ![actech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@actech](https://community.thunkable.com/u/actech)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2019, 1:24pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/referencing-clones/152052/14 "2019-07-23T13:24:34Z")
![%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B6%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/e/c/ec41f4072f08dea293a12f7466de9bafd0ef9a95.png) ---
**Author:** ![renren66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/34f0e0/32.png) [@renren66](https://community.thunkable.com/u/renren66)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2019, 1:45pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/referencing-clones/152052/15 "2019-07-23T13:45:29Z")
Thanks a lot ---
**Author:** ![Mark](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/mark/32/18133_2.png) [@Mark](https://community.thunkable.com/u/Mark)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2019, 4:56pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/referencing-clones/152052/16 "2019-07-23T16:56:10Z")
> [@actech](#): > > After creating a clone, you can get its UUID using the light green block “clone” I think it’s unnecessarily technical and confusing to talk about UUIDs. I would prefer to think of it as the clone block actually returning the cloned component (or a reference to the component, if you want to get technical). And just to be clear, while the clone block does use UUIDs, that should be considered an implementation detail and, in principle, could change. -Mark ---
**Author:** ![actech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@actech](https://community.thunkable.com/u/actech)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2019, 5:59pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/referencing-clones/152052/17 "2019-07-23T17:59:28Z")
Totally agree with you. The reference to the component sounds more understandable and universal. ---
**Author:** ![maxb](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/maxb/32/35200_2.png) [@maxb](https://community.thunkable.com/u/maxb)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 3:38pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/referencing-clones/152052/19 "2019-07-24T15:38:51Z")
Wow @domhnallohanlon that’s pretty much mind blowing for me! Kudos to you, I think I can totally use that, but, my design has the pattern: Column - Button1 - Row – label1 – button2 – label2 – button3 – label3 and I’m also thinking about taking the ‘cloning pattern’ from an online database, so the name of the labels, the bgr picture, will be taken from there. Update: my database idea is working, super cool. Next I’ll face what happens when a button is pressed, but I think I have it figured out. Right now (off topic I kno) I **really** need some help understanding how to secure the firebase database and then I’ll be a very happy thunker 😃 I’ll start thinking if I can use your ideas 👍 ---
**Author:** ![ioannis](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/ioannis/32/146956_2.png) [@ioannis](https://community.thunkable.com/u/ioannis)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2024, 12:12pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/referencing-clones/152052/20 "2024-11-08T12:12:05Z")