Add Ancestor Columns to Dependent Layouts

When you create a dependent layout, you can choose to include columns from parent or higher layout. Columns from these higher-level layouts are referred to as "ancestor" columns.

You might choose to add at least one column from the layout's immediate parent if you want to allow your business users to create rows in the dependent layout. See Add a Parent Column to Support Row Creation.

You might also just add an ancestor column to a dependent layout to help your business users track which child rows are associated with which higher-level rows. See Add Ancestor Columns to Provide Additional Context.

Add a Parent Column to Support Row Creation

When a business user adds a row to a dependent layout, they need to indicate the parent row that the child row should be associated with. To ensure they can do this, include columns from the parent layout to the dependent layouts in the set.

Which layouts need parent columns depends on the type of layout used for your primary layout. Let's start with the Form-over-Table case. Let's suppose you have a business object hierarchy where purchaseOrders is the parent, lines is the child, and schedules is the grandchild. For this hierarchy, you create a Form-over-Table with purchaseOrders in the form and lines in the table, as well as a separate Table layout for schedules.

When you download data for this set of dependent layouts, you download a single purchase order for the form, all associated lines for the Form-over-Table's table, and all schedules associated with these lines in the Table layout.

Now let's suppose you want to create a new line for the purchase order. Because the Form-over-Table layout shows only one purchase order in the form and only associated lines in the Table, any line you create is automatically associated with the selected purchase order. You don't have to enter a purchase order number to associate it with the selected one.

But what if you want to create a schedule and associate it with one of the lines? The Schedules layout may include schedules from different lines in the purchase order. To make sure the schedule you create is associated with the right line, you'll need to specify an existing line for the new schedule. Therefore, you need to have at least one parent column showing in the Schedules layout that uniquely identifies the line (for example, LineNumber).

Likewise for any descendant level below the second level. Suppose our sample hierarchy includes a business object, distributions that is the child of schedules. A Distributions layout will need to include at least one parent column (for example, ScheduleNumber) so that you can specify which schedule a new distribution should be associated with.

Note:

If you have a sibling business object at the second level in this scenario, you don't need to add fields from the parent level. Suppose our sample hierarchy includes an attachments business object that is the child of purchaseOrders and the sibling of lines. If you create a Table layout for attachments that you link to the primary layout, then the add-in only downloads attachment rows that are associated with the selected purchase order. If you create a new attachment, it is automatically associated with this purchase order.

Now let's look at the second case: when the primary layout is a Table layout. In this scenario, the primary Table layout may display multiple purchase orders. The second-level Table layouts (attachments and lines) may then include rows for each of the purchase orders downloaded in the primary layout. Similarly, the third and fourth-level layouts (Schedules and Distributions) will include schedules and distributions from different purchase order and lines.

If you want to create a new line for a purchase order, you'll need to specify an existing purchase order. Therefore, you'll need to have at least one parent column showing in the Lines layout that uniquely identifies the purchase order (for example, the PO Header Id field).

Here are a few things to keep in mind when adding parent columns:

• The parent column you choose must uniquely identify the parent record and must be exposed in the parent layout.
• If no parent columns are configured, the table cannot support row creation and rows inserted into the table are ignored during upload.
• If a desired parent field is already displayed as a column in the child layout, remove that column from the layout and instead add it as a parent column as described in this task.

  Note:

  If a grandparent or higher field is already exposed as a column and is required for create or update, do not remove it.

To add a parent ancestor column to your layout:

1. Open the Table Column Manager from the Layout Designer.
2. Click the Ancestors tab from the Available Fields pane.

   Available ancestor columns are grouped by business object. In this image, fields for the lines business object are shown under lines.

   
   
   
   Description of the illustration dependentlayout_ancestorcolumn.png
   
   

   Note:

   The field must be exposed as a column or form field in one of the higher-level layouts. If you don't see the field you want, you'll need to add it to the ancestor layout.
3. Expand the list if necessary, then select the parent field you want to add to your layout.

   Note:

   To add a parent field before an existing column in the table, select the existing column in Selected Fields list, then select the parent field check box. For example, to display an parent field first in the table layout right after the Status column, select the first column.
4. Click Done to close the Table Column Manager.

Oracle Visual Builder Add-in for Excel redraws the table in the layout to include the parent column. The table header for the parent column uses the format "<field title> (<business object title>)" such as "Line Number (lines)".

Refer to Manage Fields in a Form or Table for more information.

Add Ancestor Columns to Provide Additional Context

You can add an ancestor column to a dependent layout for tracking purposes.

Let's suppose you have a set of dependent layouts where purchaseOrders is the parent, lines is the child, and schedules is the grandchild. When a business user is looking at rows in the schedules layout, it may not be readily apparent which schedule is attached to which line.

To help them sort out which is which, you could add a column from the parent layout (lines) to the child layout (schedules), such as LineNumber.

Note:

The field must be exposed as a column or form field in the ancestor layouts. If you don't see the field you want, you'll need to add it to the ancestor layout.

To add an ancestor column to your layout, open the Table Column Manager from the Layout Designer, then select an appropriate ancestor field from the Ancestors tab.

Tip:

To add an ancestor column before an existing column in the table, select the existing column in Selected Fields list, then select the ancestor column check box. For example, to display an ancestor column first in the table layout right after the Status column, select the first column.

Description of the illustration dependentlayout_ancestorcolumn.png

See Manage Fields in a Form or Table for more details.