Understanding Secondary Fields Related to a Lookup
A dynamic choice list (DCL) field represents a many-to-1 foreign key reference between one object and a another object of the same or different type.
For example, a TroubleTicket object might have a DCL field named
Contact that represents a foreign key reference to the specific
Contact object that reported the trouble ticket.
When defining a DCL field, you specify a primary display field name from the reference
object. For example, while defining the Contact dynamic choice list field
referencing the Contact object, you might specify the Contact Name
field.
When you define a DCL field like Contact, you get one primary field and
two secondary fields:
-
The DCL Display Field
This primary field is named
Contact_cand it holds the value of the primary display field related to the referenced object, for example the name of the related contact. -
The DCL Foreign Key Field
This secondary field is named
Contact_Id_cand it holds the value of the primary key of the reference contact. -
The DCL Related Object Accessor Field
This secondary field is named
Contact_Obj_cand it allows you to programmatically access the related contact object in script code
To access additional fields besides the display name from the related object, you can use the related object accessor field like this:
// Assume script runs in context of TroubleTicket object
def contactEmail = Contact_Obj_c?.EmailAddress_cIf you reference multiple fields from the related object, you can save the related object in a variable and then reference multiple fields using this object variable:
// Assume script runs in context of TroubleTicket object
def contact = Contact_Obj_c
def email = contact?.EmailAddress_c
def linkedIn = contact?.LinkedInUsername_cTo change which contact the TroubleTicket is related to, you can set a new
contact by using one of the following techniques. If you know the primary key value of the
new contact, then use this approach:
// Assume script runs in context of TroubleTicket object
def newId = /* ... Get the Id of the New Contact Here */
Contact_Id_c = newIdIf you know the value of the contact's primary display field, then use this approach instead:
// Assume script runs in context of TroubleTicket object
Contact_c = 'James Smith'Contact_c) uniquely identifies a referenced object, then the
corresponding value of the foreign keyfield (e.g. Contact_Id_c) will
automatically update to reflect the primary key of the matching object.