Relation fields
Pole powiązania wskazuje inny rekord w systemie: zgłoszenie wskazuje umowę, projekt wskazuje klienta. Dzięki temu dane nie są przepisywane po raz drugi.
What relations are for
The same information is sometimes needed in several places. A service ticket concerns a contract, a contract concerns a client, a project has a manager. Instead of retyping the client's name into every record, you point to a record that is already in the system.
The gain is twofold. The data does not drift apart on a change, because there is one place of truth. From each record you can also move to the related one with a single click, without searching through lists.
How to use it
A relation field is not a text field: instead of typing, you choose from a list. It is usually enough to start typing a fragment of the name or number for the list to narrow to matching records.
What you see on the choice list is the record label, that is, the same thing that appears in its list. If records are hard to tell apart, for example several items with the same name, that is a signal to the administrator that the label needs to be supplemented with a number or a date.
Example. On a ticket form you choose the contract by typing its number. After saving, the contract number becomes a link: you click and you are on the contract form, with the full context of the matter.
One relation or many
Relation fields come in two variants. Some accept exactly one record, for example a project's client. Others accept several, for example documents related to a matter or concepts described in an article. You can tell from the field itself: either you choose one value, or you add further items to a list.
People and contractors
Pointing to an employee or a contractor looks similar, but uses separate kinds of fields, linked to the list of system users and to the list of contractors. In practice the difference is invisible: you also choose from a list, except its contents come from the register of people or contractors, not from a list built for the company.
Limitations of a relation
A relation does not copy data. If on a ticket form you see the client's name coming from the contract, that is a preview of the value from the related record, not a copy of it. Changing the client's name changes it everywhere, and that is the point.
A relation also grants no permissions. If you do not have access to contracts, pointing to a contract in a field will not open its form.
Numbers and computed fields
Skąd bierze się numer rekordu, dlaczego pojawia się dopiero po zapisaniu i czemu części pól nie da się edytować, choć widać w nich wartość.
Subordinate tables
Tabela podrzędna to lista wierszy wewnątrz jednego rekordu: pozycje oferty, etapy trasy, składniki wniosku. Wypełnia się ją razem z rekordem, który ją zawiera.