Dependent field attribute types
Dependent fields are attributes whose values are constrained by another field.
For example, if you want to have a field that displays all the cities for a selected state, you could make the city field dependent upon the state field. You can make an attribute dependent on another attribute only when you add it to a specific form. That is, when you create a shared attribute, you cannot make it a dependent field when you create it, only within the context of the forms you add it to.
This section presents the city/state example.
First, you need to create the lookup tables for cities and states. Here are the first few rows of these two tables.
The lkup_state table:
state_id (primary key) | state_name |
---|---|
1 | Massachusetts |
2 | New York |
The lkup_city table:
city_id (primary key) | city_name | state_id (foreign key pointing to primary key for lkup_state) |
---|---|---|
1 | Boston | 1 |
2 | Cambridge | 1 |
3 | New York | 2 |
4 | Albany | 2 |
Once you have these tables, you create the parent (state) and child (city) attributes.
For the state attribute, use the following values:
Field | Value |
---|---|
Database Column | state_id |
Use values from this database table | lkup_state |
Key Column | state_id |
This field depends on the following column | Leave this box clear. |
For the city attribute, use the following values:
Field | Value |
---|---|
Database Column | city_id |
Use values from this database table | lkup_city |
Key Column | city_id |
This field depends on the following column | Check this box and select state (the Internal Name you defined for the state attribute). |
Note the following:
- You can have a Multiple-Select - Database attribute be dependent upon a Single-Select - Database attribute, but not the other way around. In the example above, the city field could be a Multiple-Select - Database attribute, but not the state field.
- You can sort lookup values based on either the text description or the ID for the lookup value.