What are Relational fields?
Relational fields are powerful tools in Jodoo that enable you to connect information across different forms—or even within the same form. By establishing these connections, you can make your business data more integrated, easier to manage, and more insightful.
Before you start setting up fields in Jodoo, it’s important to understand what “relationships” are, why they matter, and how you can use them to fit your business needs.
What are Relationships?
In most business systems, different types of information are connected. For example, the Customer form may be related to the Contact form or the Order form. These connections—called relationships—let you easily reference and work with related data. For instance, when you look at a customer’s record, you may want to see who their contacts are or what orders they’ve placed.
Without Relationships
If you don’t set up relationships, forms like Customer and Contact are just separate lists. There’s no direct link between them. To find all contacts for a specific customer, you’d have to search or filter manually, which can be time-consuming and error-prone.
With Relationships
When you create relationships, you build bridges between your data. For example, linking Order and Order Details forms means you can instantly view all order details of an order, right from the Order form. This makes your data more connected, easier to use, and saves you time.
Types of Relationships in Jodoo
Jodoo supports different types of relationships to match your business scenarios:
Relationship Type | When to Use It | How to Set It Up |
Inter-Form Relationship | When two business forms exhibit a “one-to-many” relationship and can each exist independently, like Customer–Contact, Project–Task, or Order–Order Item | Use the Lookup field in the related form to reference the master form. During data entry, select the main form record via the Lookup field to establish the relationship. |
Intra-Form Hierarchical Relationship | When you need a hierarchy within a single form, like parent-child tasks or multi-level product structures (BOM) | Use the Lookup field within the same form to create a tree structure. Reference existing records during data entry to build hierarchical relationships. |
Types of Relational Fields
Jodoo provides several relational field types to help you build and utilize these relationships:
Lookup
Aggregation
Related Form
Lookup
The Lookup field is the foundation for connecting records. It allows you to link one form to another—or even connect records within the same form. This makes it easy to reference and work with related information wherever you need it.
Aggregation
The Aggregation field takes relationships a step further. It lets you automatically pull in data from related records and perform real-time calculations, like SUM or counts. This means you can quickly see summaries and insights without any manual work.
Related Form
The Related Form field visually displays related records from other forms (or the same form) right inside your current form, in a table format. You can even configure it to add or edit both main and related records simultaneously, all in one place.
Why Use Relational Fields?
Implementing relational fields in your business system brings several important advantages:
1. Maintain Data Consistency
Relational fields ensure that connections between related data remain accurate, even as records are updated or changed. This keeps your information reliable and consistent throughout the system.
2. Improve Usability
With relational fields, viewing and accessing related records becomes much easier. This streamlines data entry, management, and review, enhancing overall workflow efficiency.
3. Enable Easy Expansion
Once relational fields are set up, your system becomes more flexible and scalable. You can easily introduce new features like real-time data referencing, summary calculations, and more as your business grows.
4. Support Flexible Data Display and Entry
Relational fields let you present related data from the same or other forms directly within your current form—often in a table. This not only makes it easier to view and manage information, but also allows for simultaneous data entry across multiple forms.
Basic Terminology
To effectively build relationships, it’s important to understand the following terms:
Term | Definition |
Master Form | The primary form in a relationship. This is the form you select as the "master" when configuring a lookup field.
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Related Form | The secondary form in a relationship. This is the form where the lookup field is actually located. |