Manage References in Steppers

Reference Selection

If a form step contains Reference fields, then it is possible to configure the selection of these references.

This selection is performed using one of the following components:

  • An auto-complete field that lists selectable records filtered by a search expression as you type in.

  • A reference selection dialog that shows a collection of selectable records. This second option is better if you need to have a detailed view of the records to select.

Auto-completes fetch records as you type in a search expression. To limit the number of fetched records, configure the Autocomplete Max Results property in the global applications configuration.

To configure reference selection:

  1. In the Stepper editor, scroll down to the Steps tree table.

  2. Select the form step containing the references.

  3. In the Properties view, select the References Selection finger tab.
    This tab shows a table with the list of references managed in the step.

  4. Click the Refresh References Refresh References button in the table toolbar to refresh the list with new references.

  5. Configure the references:

    • Reference Picker Type: Select None if you do not want the reference to be selectable. Auto-Complete displays an auto-complete component to select the reference. Collection displays the list of selectable records in a reference selection dialog.

    • Picker Filter: This filter restricts the possible selection for both the auto-complete and reference selection dialog. Such a filter is used for example when selecting the Customer referenced by a Contact, to filter only those of the Customers located in the same country as the Contact.

    • Sort Expression: This sort expression orders the data in the selectable records.

  6. If you choose the Collection type, you must configure the following options:

    • Picker Collection View: Select the collection used to show the selectable records in the reference selection dialog.

    • Search Configurations: Click this cell to select and order search methods that appear in an optional search step preceding the collection of selectable records. If no search method is selected as Available, then this search step does not appear before the collection.

    • User-Defined Sort: Check this box to allow users to customize the sort in the reference selection dialog.

The Picker Filter allows creating functional dependencies between fields. For example, when creating a product, the user must select a Family and then a Sub Family, which are both references. In the stepper definition, you can filter the Sub Family reference using the Picker Filter to only show the sub-families attached to the selected family.

Picker filters are not enforced when performing a mass-update. For example, if mass-updating multiple records belonging to multiple families, all the sub-families available would appear.

Many to Many Creation

If a child collection step points to a child entity that represent a many to many relationship, then it is possible to configure selecting the record at the other side of the many to many relationship to create the child records in the many to many entity.

For example, a ProductStepper stepper has a child collection step to create ProductMarkets. ProductMarket is an entity representing the many to many relationship between Products and Markets. When the user creates ProductMarkets, he wants in fact to select Markets, and have ProductMarkets created. This configuration aims at giving this capability.

To configure many to many creation:

  1. In the Stepper editor, scroll down to the Steps tree table.

  2. Select the collection step that manages an entity representing the many to many relationship.

  3. In the Properties view, select the Many to Many Relationship finger tab.

  4. Select the Many to Many Relationship checkbox, and then configure the Many to Many Creation options:

    • Target Foreign Attribute: Select the foreign attribute that representing the other side of the many to many relationship.

    • Picker Collection View Select the collection to use to display the selectable records at the other side of the many to many relationship.

    • Picker Filter: SemQL condition pre-filtering the selectable records at the other side of the many to many relationship.

    • Search Configurations: Select the type of search used to filter the selectable records at the other side of the many to many relationship.

    • Customized Sort: Select this option to sort the selectable records according to the Sort Expression.

    • Sort Expression: Sort expression applied to the data in the selectable records.

    • User-Defined Sort: Check this box to allow users to customize the sort.

    • Default Display Type: Default view type used for the collection showing the selectable records.

    • Allow Table, Allow List, Allow Grid: Select the views available for the collection. These must be supported by the selected Picker Collection.