Object Structures
- [Object Values] Populating the object with data
- [Object Pairs] Defining relationships between objects
- [Object Tree Mappings] Configuring rules to automatically map child objects in an object pair
- [Parent Attributes] Defining parent-child attributes used to build structures within an object
To make decisions, often data must be aggregated to a higher level to be able to translate the data to valid information. The main objective of object structures is to configure relationships between objects and within an object to create different kind of object hierarchies. These hierarchies can later be used in reports and forms to aggregate data.
There are two different types of hierarchies that can be defined:
- Object trees
- Parent-child structures
An object tree creates a hierarchy between two objects, such as account and account groups. This "object pair" is always only in two levels – the child and the parent object. However, it’s possible to create another object pair that creates even more levels of objects. For example, ‘products’ can be grouped into ‘product groups’, which can be grouped into ‘product lines’, etc. The object tree cannot be "unbalanced", meaning, all parts of the structure must have the same depth.
A parent-child structure defines a hierarchy within one and the same object. For both kinds of structures, one child can only be attached to one parent. It’s not possible or allowed to create bill-of-material BOM-like structures where one and the same child can belong to two parents. If this kind of structure is needed, then two object values must be created and each assigned to their separate parent. For example, if an employee is employed by two departments, there must be two object values representing the employee. But there can be an extra attribute, such as ‘employee no.’ attached to these two object values identifying that it’s one and the same employee.
To configure an object tree – go to [Object pairs] and define the parent and child objects in the structure.
To configure a parent-child structure – go to the [Parent Attributes] and assign a parent attribute to an object.
From here, you can build and maintain hierarchies.
Access Object Structures by selecting Client administration > Objects > Object Structures.
Any object defined as a child in an object tree, or any object that has a ‘parent attribute’ will show up in the Client administration > Object Structures area. Click on the object to access the administration function to maintain the actual hierarchies. The structures can be viewed and maintained using two different views:
List View: Displays a list of the ‘child’ object values and associated parent object values as columns (both object trees and parent-child hierarchies).
Tree View: Displays more of a graphical view of one structure at a time. On the left side, you see the structure and on the right side you see any object value still not assigned to any parent (both object trees and parent-child hierarchies).
List View
Use the drop-downs in the parent attributes or object tree parent columns to assign these to the object values. Click the Save button to save.
To export and edit the data in Excel, select the Export button. Then, select the Import button to import the data back into Bizview.
Select Include inactivated object values to display object values currently marked as inactive in the [Object values].
Below is a list of List View fields:
Field | Description | Example | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
Object Value | Read-only field showing the object values for the selected object. | ||
Description | Read-only field showing the description of the object value. | ||
(Each parent attribute or object tree) | Displays as separate columns in the grid. |
Tree View
You can only view one structure at a time in tree view.
Select the structure you want to edit using the ‘Change Tree View’ drop-down in the right-top area of the window.
Drag one or more object values from the right-side grid to the appropriate part of the hierarchy on the left side.
Re-organize the structures using drag-and-drop in the left-side tree structure.
Select Save to save the changes.
To see a short demonstration of how to use the tree view, select the ? Show demo button above the right-side list of unattached object values.
Additional Information
Both object trees and parent-child structures are version managed using [Object Versions]. In the list view mode, you will see the version controlled columns with a yellow cell background colour. If the object has multiple versions of the structures (multiple sets), you will also see an extra drop-down in the top-right area of the window where you can change what set you want to work with.