Field Dependencies

Set up field dependencies for independent Single Selection, Single Relational, and User fields on the Dependencies tab in the field Property Editor. On the Dependencies tab, you define auto-populated fields that tailor the selection lists for dependent Single Selection, Multi-Selection, Multi-Group, Multi-User, Single Relational, Multi-Relational, and User fields. When a user selects a value from the independent field, the values available in the dependent field are limited to those specified.

For example, you can create a Single Selection field called Product that has a selection for each product your company develops and a Single Selection field called Version that has a selection for each product version. You can set up dependencies for the Products field that tailor the selections available in the Versions field. When a user selects a product from the Product field, only applicable versions are available in the Versions field. In this case, Products is the independent field, and Versions is the dependent field.

You can set up a similar dependency using a Single Relational field. For example, you can create two auxiliary tables, Products and Versions. You can then establish a relationship between the two tables that allows specific version records in the Versions table to be available for each product in the Products table. For example, if Version 1 and Version 2 apply only to Product A, those are the only available selections when Product A is selected in the Product field.

Important: You must use both SBM Composer and SBM Application Administrator to set up certain field dependencies. See the "Field Dependency Tutorials" section for tutorials that demonstrate this process.

The following table lists the available independent field types and the field types that allow dependencies.

Independent field type	Allowable dependent field types
Single Selection	Single Selection, Multi-Selection, Multi-Group, Multi-User, User
Single Relational	Single Relational, Multi-Relational
User	Single Selection, Multi-Selection, Multi-Group, Multi-User, User

Note: Multi-Selection, Multi-Group, Multi-User, and Multi-Relational fields can be used as dependent fields, but not as independent fields. Also, field dependencies do not work for Multi-Selection, Multi-Group, Multi-User, and Multi-Relational fields that are displayed as check boxes on forms.