Consider two DBs, Parent and Child:
- Parent DB has a [Children] collection of Child entities
- A Child has only one Parent, and it has a [Parent Id] field for specifying its Parent
- The relation uses an auto-link Rule:
Child [Parent Id] = Parent [Public Id]
In order to link a Child entity to a Parent, the Child’s [Parent Id] field must be set to the Parent’s [Public Id].
In the simpler case where there is no auto-linking Rule (i.e. just a regular one-to-many relation), if we create a new Child entity within a Parent’s entity view, via its [Children] collection “New” button
, then Fibery will magically link the new Child to this particular Parent. Automatic context!
However, in this case where an auto-linking Rule is used to connect Children to Parents, this automatic linking does not happen; if they should be linked (which in this context is obvious) then the user must manually set the new Child’s [Parent Id] field in order to make the link (if the user has manually created the new Child entity).
Meanwhile the newly created Child entity shows up in the Parent’s [Children] collection as if it was linked, though it is not. When the view if refreshed it will be gone!
In this simple case (i.e. the Child entity is created in the Parent’s entity view, in its [Children] collection) the creation context makes it obvious that this linking really should be done, and Fibery COULD certainly do this for us, which would be GREAT
I do understand that an auto-linking Rule could be much less obvious, and more difficult for Fibery to automatically link. But this seems likely the most common and easiest case (maybe 90%+ of all auto-link Rules?) that just use Public Id.
Another possibility: Using a Form. Forms are not currently smart enough for this either , but if Forms were enhanced to allow the new entity’s field values to be set from Formulas, then the Form could set the new Child’s [Parent Id] to be the Parent’s [Public Id] using a Formula.
TL;DR Using an auto-linked relation means losing Fibery’s very cool capability to use entity creation context to automatically link a new entity to its context, and this is sad . But hopefully this situation will be improved.