We are looking to build an app that will keep track of various services we offer in IT (A service Catalog), we have maybe 10 types of services (Software, SaaS, Accounts, Hardware, Servers and so on). Each service will have a set of common fields, but each sub type of service will have it’s own set of fields. So in my thinking there is a catalog table where the common fields are stored, including a sybtype field. Then there is a table for each sub type storing the fields for that type, with a reference to the ID of the catalog entry it belongs to. Then we would have a view that show title and description for all entries of the catalog table, and when clicked we would see then common (catalog fields) and the fields from the matching subtype.
At the moment in my detail view I get a table of related subtypes for each subtype. I don’t want that. It looks like I ned to use slices, but I can’t figure out how I would use the “Sub type” field from the catalog to limit the data I bring in to the detail view.
Any help would be appriciated, or maybe it isn’t possible, or there is a better way. What I’m trying to avoid is duplicating fields in each service sub type.
Or is the solution to use a “real” DB and not the built-in DB?
You would have system generated reverse reference columns in the main Catalog table. These reverse reference columns would be titled something like [Related Software Services] for software services, [Related Accounts Services] for accounts services and so on.
I assume you would also have a field called something like [Catalog_Type] with enum values such as Software, SaaS, Accounts, Hardware, Servers and so on in the main Catalog table..
In each of this reverse reference columns you could use a show_if condition something like [Catalog_Type] =”Software” in the [Related Software Services] reverse reference column and [Catalog_Type] =”Accounts” in the [Related Accounts Services] and so on.
This will ensure only the inline view of only related subtype services table is shown in the main catalog view.
Thank you so much for your help. That was excatly what I needed.
Can I ask a follow up question, or should it be a new post?
Is it possible to show data from 2 (or more) tables on the same page? I don’t want users to have to click several layers deep to see the subtype fields.
Yes, generally that should be possible. Could you elaborate what exactly those tables are. Meaning are those other subtype tables or are those further children of subtype tables?
One option you could take a look at is dashboard views. Please search for dashboard views in the help documentation.
With more details, we can offer more definitive suggestions.