Relationship properties

Ideas & Features
21

Until native relationship properties are available, here’s a quick explainer about the use of ‘helper databases’ as an alternative

1 Like
22

Is it possible to get some explanation on how it works under the hood if not with a junction table? Thanks!

23

I don’t know the details, and I won’t try and convince our devs to come on here and explain.

1 Like
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The Problem
Every once in a while I run into a limitation in the UI where I need 3 databases all working together.

I will give an example:

I have 3 databases Account, Contact, and Role (think of this as their title or position).

A Contact can be associated with multiple Accounts. An account can be associated with multiple Contacts. Every Contact has a role associated with it per account that it is associated with.

e.g.
Account 1: Random Company, INC; Contact: John Smith; Role: President.
Account 2: Another Company, LLC; Contact: John Smith; Role: Consultant.

In the UI the only way to display this is to have the Role Table be the table to display on the Account and Contact Entities. The problem with this is that when I am on the Account Entity I want to add a contact to the Account (not a role). Even though I would still like to add a role to the contact. Again, when I am on the Contact Entity, I would like to add the Contact to an Account. And specify the Role.

This is further desired because when I am on the Contact and Account Entity I often want to open the Contact or Account entity side by side. The Role is just extra data that is relevant but I don’t need an Entiy view for it.

A solution
This can be solved with multiple related fields. Meaning that within a many-to-many relationship, fields can be defined on an entity to be associated with that relationship.

25

Is this the same (similar?) to this?

26

Yes, I believe we are speaking to the same issue.

Basically the issue is that in a many-to-many relationship, we have fields that need to be multiple-response and associated with the Relationship field.

e.g.
When Entity 1 is linked to Entity 2 fields A, B, C can to be answered, but must be associated with Entity 2.
When Entity 1 is linked to Entity 3 fields A, B, C can to be answered, but must be associated with Entity 3.