Overview
Reference property allows you to establish connections between related objects (tables) within your database. By linking objects, it enables you to pull data from one object into another, ensuring data consistency and preventing duplication.
For example, consider two objects: Department and Employee. Using a reference property, you can link a department to employee data. When adding a new employee, users can select the relevant department from a list.
Core Settings
Data
Data Source
This setting allows you to select the specific object to retrieve data for the reference field. For example, if you want users to select departments within the form, you would choose the Department table as your data source.
Multiple
When enabled, this setting allows you to select multiple records, creating a many-to-many relationship between objects.
Note: While Engyn does not fully support many-to-many relationships in Automation or Calculation, this option still allows users to select multiple records from the linked data source.
Min and Max options are available for defining the minimum and maximum number of records that can be selected
Unique
When enabled, this setting updates a one-to-many relationship to a one-to-one relationship. This means that once a source record is linked to a record in the current dataset, it cannot be linked to any other records within that same dataset.
Computed Property
Define a value for the property using the formula, map data or text template.
Duplication Behavior
This setting controls whether children records should be duplicated when the parent record is duplicated. For example, if you have a Project with multiple Tasks and enable duplication for Tasks, duplicating the project will also duplicate all associated tasks.
Deletion Behavior
This setting controls whether children records should be deleted when the parent record is deleted. For instance, if a Project is deleted and the deletion for Tasks is enabled, all tasks associated with that project will be deleted automatically.
More information about duplication and deletion here.
Show in List: Control how the data appears in the table view:
Auto (Default): The system automatically determines its visibility in the table view based on the data type.
Summary: The field is visible in the table view.
Detailed: The field is hidden from the table view but visible in detailed form views.
Queryable
When enabled, the field’s data can be queried or filtered.
Sortable
When enabled, the field’s data can be sorted.
Default Value
Empty: No default value is applied.
Pre-Selected: Choose a value that will be automatically selected when the form is opened.
Column Display Settings
The Column Display Settings control how the Reference Field is presented in table views. These settings allow you to customize the appearance of linked data, enhancing both readability and user experience.
You can access these settings by opening Query Setting and selecting the reference field you want to format.
Plain Text
This option displays the text representation of the data without any styling. By default, the reference field is shown as plain text in table view.
You can customize the displayed text in the View Designer by clicking Add/Edit Options to create an additional Plain Text option.
Styled Text
This option allows you to display the text representation with applied styles.
Cell View
This option displays the data using a predefined table cell view. You can customize the cell display in the View Designer by clicking Add/Edit Options to create another Table Cell option.
The available settings include:
Show Border: Option to show the cell border, with choices between line or shadow.
Additional settings
Alignment: Adjust the alignment of the text within the reference field