How can I use Data Type Relationships in Data Designer?

Last Revised:       Written by Veloxity CRM    Time Estimate: About 5 minutes to read. Version 2.0

Contents

What are Data Type Relationships?

Definition

Data Types have hierarchical relationships to other Data Types. Data Type Relationships are expressed through Parent Data Types and Child Data Types. 

Figure 1. Parent Child Hierarchical Relationship.
  • Parent Data Types are the top-level data types. Parents are containers for the Child Types.
  • Child Data Types are underneath the parent data types.
  • Data Types that have no parent relation records are "in the ether". You can access these records through a search but they are not related to any other records.

How can I use Data Type Relationships?

 Use Data Type Relationships to define the allowable parent and child data types. In addition, you can specify the relationship for a specific data type to allow many parents or to restrict to a single child.

Where can I find Data Type Relationships?

From the Main Menu, click My Profile > App Setup > Data Designer > Relationships

Navigating Data Type Relationships

You are looking at a screenshot of Navigating Data Type Relationships in Data Designer:


Figure 2. Navigating Data Type Relationships in Data Designer.

How can I use Data Type Relationships?

Adding Allowable Parent Data Type(s)

  1. Select a Data Type to configure. 
  2. Select the Parent Data Types from the list of available data types. Which data types are hierarchically above the selected data type? Use the arrows, or drag and drop, the selected Available Parent Data Types to the Allowable Parent Data Types column.
  3. The Parent Data Types selected now show in Allowable Parent Data Types. 
  4. Click Save. 

In the above example, see Figure 3 Adding Allowable Parent Data Types, there is a single parent type of Directory for the Account data type.  If this was the final selection, the Account data type will manifest to the end user as follows:

  • If the user has selected and is viewing a specific directory in the application, there will be an option on the toolbar to “Add  Account(s)”, assuming the Account data type has the “Show on Add Menu” option enabled on the data type attributes tab and the user has this “Add Account” toolbar icon enabled for their group. If they select this action, the system adds an Account record to (i.e. “under”) the highlighted directory.
  • If the user has selected a specific directory in the application, there will be a button to “Import from CSV/Excel”. If they select this action, an import file prompt will show so that the user may import one or more Accounts from that file into the selected directory. The batch importer also allows for column mapping from the input file to the proper data fields on the Account.
  • Under all folders containing Accounts in the data tree, there will be a container node with the name “Account”. If the container node is clicked in the tree, an editable table view is shown of all the Accounts under that directory. The table will have a toolbar that has buttons on it according to the toolbar design for the user’s group, including “Add Account(s)” as well as other functions like “Auto-fill” and “Export to CSV”.
  • Each Account added will have a field on it that was added automatically by Veloxity showing the Account’s related directory parent. This is a hyperlink field that, when clicked, will take the user to that parent directory record. The field is auto-added by Veloxity but requires being added to layouts for the Account type before it will show to users.

To enable a data type as a parent of the selected data type, use the arrows, or drag and drop the data type from Available Parent Data Types to Allowable Parent Data Types.

More than one data type can be moved to Allowable Parent Data Types, allowing for multiple parents for the selected data type. These hierarchical relationships in Veloxity are implicitly one-to-many relationships. Parent types can have 1 or more child types.

Tip: The relationship of one to many is similar to the role between you and a parent. You only have one mother, but your mother may have several children.

You are looking at a screenshot of Adding Allowable Parent Data Type(s): 

Figure 3. Adding Allowable Parent Data Types.

Adding Allowable Child Data Type(s)

Children of the Account data type are defined similarly to how the parent types are defined.

  • For example, to make a Contact data type a valid child of an Account, the data type would be dragged from Available Child Data Types to Allowable Child Data Types and dropped.  Veloxity enables each data type to have any number of valid children. 
  • These relationships can be updated at any time but be aware changes to relationships, when there is existing data and functions in a production system, should only be made with careful consideration. Changing relationships can cause errors in code and other visual changes to the interface.

Under the Allowable Child Data Types, each data type added has a checkbox that designates whether the relations should be a “many-to-many” relationship. By default, this is not enabled, as this will be the common case. Once this box is checked, it means that a record of the specified type can be assigned to more than one parent record of the same type.

The many-to-many relationship is similar to the role of you and your siblings. If you have several siblings, then your siblings also have several siblings.

For example, if the many-to-many box is checked for the Contact data type, a user could put the same Contact record under two different Accounts. This is a powerful feature that Veloxity leverages for many of its out-of-the-box functions, and is easily enabled through the interface, as seen here:

Figure 4. Adding Allowable Child Data Types.