Dependent Custom Fields

Dependent Custom Fields Overview

Dependent Custom Fields are a new type of Custom Fields that allow you to establish a parent/dependent relationship between two fields within your organization. This functionality is helpful when there is information that you want to collect on tickets, accounts, and contacts where selections are dependent on the selection of another field. An example of this would be when you want to collect the State and City, selecting the State first could then only display relevant City options for the state selection.

Setting Up Dependent Fields

To manage your Custom Fields, go to Settings > Org Settings > Custom Fields. This will pull up a list of the fields you have set up within your org. Note, that if a field is a dependent field, it will have it's parent field listed in the column with a direct link to the parent field.

Standard vs Dependent

There are two field dependency types that we support, Standard and Dependent. 


Standard

A standard custom field can both be a standalone field or used as a parent field to a dependent field. A standard custom field allows for distinct usage settings across accounts, contact, ticketing, and our interfaces. Most fields will fall into this type.

Dependent

A dependent custom field will require you to establish a relationship with a standard custom field as its parent. It will require mapping of field value associations from the dependent field to the parent field. Dependent custom fields inherit the usage settings of the parent and cannot be selected independently.

  1. When you select a Dependent field, you will be presented with a dropdown that will allow you to select a Parent field from a list of any independent Standard fields that exist in your organization. NOTE: A Standard field cannot be used more than once as a parent field.
  2. Depending on the type of Standard field you select (e.g. dropdown, single-line text, numeric, checkbox, etc.) you may see an additional checkbox display. This will only display for Parent fields that are of a list type (checkbox, dropdown, radio) and will allow you to indicate that you want to map unique dependent field values to each of the parent field values. This is optional. If you uncheck the box, then the Dependent field value list will be the same for all of the Parent field values. Further details are provided in the Managing Field Values section.
  3. Select your field type for the Dependent field. This indicates why type of input the Dependent field will be. NOTE: If you have selected a Parent field that is a list type and have indicated that the value mapping must be unique between the parent and dependent, then you will only have the options to select a list field type for the dependent field as well, e.g. checkbox, radio, dropdown.

Field Type Considerations

As noted above, when connecting a standard field with a dependent field, the field type of the Parent/Standard field has an impact on how the Dependent field type and values can be configured.

Non-List Types

When Standard fields are any of these types:

  • Boolean
  • Datetime
  • Numeric
  • Single-line text

Then the Dependent custom field can bet set as any of the available field types. This is because there is no option to map unique values between the parent values and the dependent values.

List Types

When Standard fields are any of these types:

  • Checkbox
  • Dropdown
  • Radio

The user will have the option to denote via a checkbox, if the Dependent field values need to be unique for each parent field value. This box is checked true by default. This means that each parent field value in the list, should have its own set of unique dependent field values to be selected. For example, if State is a parent field, selecting a a specific State should then only present City options in the dependent field that are available to be selected for that State.

Unchecking this box will mean you are only defining one list of values for the dependent field. 

Managing Field Values

Once you have configured your dependencies and field types, you can now define your values. If the dependent field is any of the non-list types, then you will not need  to define values as they will be inputs to be populated by the user.

List field types will require you to define the list of acceptable values the user can select in either the checkbox, dropdown, or radio list. 

If the Dependent field values need to be unique for each Parent field value:

  • You will have the ability to select the parent field on the left and then define the dependent values on the right
  • You will also have the ability to import values via a CSV


If the Dependent field values are not unique and are just a single list:

You will have the ability to define your list, just as you would any other standard field.

NOTE: Field values can be edited post-field creation.

Editing Dependencies

As mentioned earlier in the document, once you have saved your dependent field and it's relationship with the parent, the dependency relationship can no longer be edited. We do not allow for the changing of parents or dependents once set. This is due to data collisions, orphaned data, and invalid dependency value data issues when such behavior is allowed. If you want to break the relationship between a parent and a dependent, you do have the ability to delete the custom field and then create a new one if that is necessary. Field values for both the parent and dependent fields can be edited after creation, just not the dependency relationship between the parent and dependent.

To delete a custom field, you can hover over the field in the Custom Fields list and click on the delete icon.

Field Usage & Display

Field Usage & Required Field Enforcement

Dependent custom fields inherit their field usage settings from their Parent custom field. We do not allow for a dependent field to be required but not the parent or vice versa. If you want to update how the fields are used across Accounts, Contacts, and Helpdesk projects, you can edit it at the Parent field level. For more info, please read our Required Custom Fields article.

Display in Ticketing & CRM

Helpdesk

Custom fields display in two places within the Helpdesk:

  • the form when creating a ticket in a project that has custom fields
  • in the side panel of an individual ticket where the custom fields are available to be defined

When displaying the fields, the parent field will be displayed first and if selected, the dependent field will display immediately beneath the parent.

  • If the parent and dependent fields are required for creating a ticket in a project, they will be displayed in the form with an asterisk. You will not be able to create the ticket if the required fields are not populated. 
  • If the parent and dependent fields are required for closing a ticket in a project, they will be displayed in the side panel of the individual ticket with a red asterisk and you will not be able to move the ticket to a terminal status without populating the fields.
  • If the fields are optional, they will display in the side panel of an individual ticket with the option to select them. 

Accounts & Contacts in CRM

Custom fields display in two places within the CRM (Accounts & Contacts):

  • the form when creating an account or contact that has custom fields
  • on the individual account or contact page

When displaying the fields, the parent field will be displayed first and if selected, the dependent field will display immediately beneath the parent.

  • If the parent and dependent fields are required for creating an account or contact in the CRM, they will be displayed in the form with an asterisk. You will not be able to create the account or contact if the required fields are not populated. 
  • If the fields are optional, they will display within the individual account or contact page, available to be defined.
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