Allowed Value Considerations

Not all fields are valid combinations as parents and children in allowed value relationships. The following is a list of valid combinations:

Parent Display Type Valid child display types
List List
Pop-up
Tab
Radio button
User
Pop-up List
Pop-up
Tab
Radio button
User
Tab List
Pop-up
Tab
Radio button
User
Radio button List
Pop-up
Tab
Radio button
User
User List
Pop-up
Tab
Radio button
User

Note: Other display types (Date, Log Area, Print Text, Text Area, and Text Field) are not supported in Allowed Value relationships.

Allowed Values with Repeating Rows

There are some restrictions on the use of allowed value relationships with repeating row records. These are as follows –

  • JavaScript refresh for the allowed value relationship must be used for the child values to be populated correctly in the child list
  • Both the parent and child fields must be UDF's
  • The mass update feature within repeating row fields with allowed values right is not supported at this time.

Allowed Values and the Radio Button Display Field Type

Due to limitations within browsers with HTML and JavaScript, it is only permitted to use server refresh on field combinations where the child field is a radio button.

Allowed Values and Different Refresh Types

Allowed values are applied upon each refresh, with the following priorities:

  • Page refreshes have the highest priority
  • Ajax refreshes have next highest priority
  • JavaScript refreshes have lowest priority

These priorities are applied, irrespective of what has caused the refresh. The refresh cause can be triggered by the allowed value relationship, by a business rule being triggered, by a layout cell attribute, custom code or some other trigger. If any relationship causes a Page refresh, then everythng is refreshed by the Page refresh.

If you have a chain of allowed values, say Field_A ==> Field_B ==> Field_C and the refresh between the first and second pair of fields is of a different type, then only one refresh type is used during processing, according to which allowed value definition has the highest of the above priorities.

It is strongly recommended that you define and use Ajax refreshes as much as posssible and that you do not mix the refresh types within a chain of allowed values. The exception to this is when the parent field in a relationship is either AREA or PROJECT. These fields always imply the use of a Page refresh. This will offer the highest performance, except in the case of simple allowed value relationships with a single parent and child where there are a relatively small number of combinations of allowed values. In this case, JavaScript refreshes are more efficient.

Allowed Values Types with the Same Parent and Child Fields

You may create multiple allowed value types with the same parent field and child field. However, if you do, only one of the allowed value types may be active at one time. All inactive allowed value types are ignored.