Child Object Subtabs

A child object subtab lists records from a child object that are related to its parent.

A parent child relationship is a one-to-many relationship: one parent record can have many children records. When you create a child record, it's created specifically in the context of its parent. The child object's records are deleted if the parent object record is deleted. A child object doesn't have its own work area, and exists only as a subtab on the parent object's details page.

An example of a parent child relationship is the relationship between the Opportunity object, and its children, such as Opportunity Contact and Opportunity Partner. In this example, contacts and partners are created in the context of the parent opportunity record. At runtime, when your users review a particular opportunity record, they can see all the contacts and partners that have been created for that opportunity. They can edit or add new contacts and partners directly inline, in each subtab.

For custom child object subtabs that you create, your users can create or edit records inline in each child object subtab. But, you can also configure the subtab so that your users can create or edit records in a full-sized dialog window, in addition to inline editing. This is more usable if there are a large number of fields for users to fill out. This setup is described below.

To add a child object subtab to an existing details page:

1. From any custom details page layout, click the Add icon, which displays under the existing subtabs while editing the layout.

2. Select Child object, then Next.

3. On the Create Subtab page:

   1. Select the child object that's to be exposed on the subtab, and enter the subtab display label.

      The list of child objects includes those objects that:

      • Are already related to the current object in a parent child relationship.

      • Don't yet have a subtab.

        After the subtab is created, you won't be able to create a second subtab for that same child object again.

   2. Specify a display icon for the subtab.

   3. In the Configure Summary Table region, select which fields to display on the subtab summary table at runtime.

   4. In the Configure Summary Table: Search Region, add a default search filter to apply to this subtab. This setting applies to all existing details page layouts with this subtab.

   5. In the Configure Summary Table: Default Sorting region, configure the default sorting field and its order, either Ascending or Descending.

   6. In the Configure Summary Table: Buttons and Actions, optionally hide the Create, Edit, and Remove actions on the subtab at runtime.

      In a child object subtab, you can hide these actions, or keep them available. If you keep these check boxes selected, then your users can:

      • Create a child object record inline.

      • Edit an existing child object record inline.

      • Delete a child object record inline.

   7. (Application UI only) If more than one details page layout exists, then click Next to optionally select other details page layouts that will display this subtab.

   8. Click Save and Close.

   9. (Application UI only) If you want your users to create or edit new records in a full-sized dialog window in addition to inline editing, then after creating the subtab, complete these additional steps. This is more usable if there are a large number of fields for users to fill out.

      1. On the details page layout where the child object subtab appears, click the subtab that you want to configure.

      2. Click the Edit pencil icon.

      3. Click the Enable Separate Create Pages and Enable Separate Edit Pages check boxes.

         Note: The drill down column appears, but you can't change it. It's usually the child object's record name. If the child object's record name is configured as an autogenerated number, then the drill down column is removable. However, don't remove it if you want to enable separate edit pages for this subtab.

      4. Click Save and Close.

      Once completed, your users can create child records in a separate full-sized dialog window. To edit existing child records, they can click the record name to drill into a full-sized edit page.

      Even after you enable this full-sized record creation and editing capability, your users can still opt to do their record creation and editing inline, if they choose to. Both options are now available to them.

      This feature is available for child object subtabs based on custom child objects.