Parent/Child control

Use a parent/child control to set up a form that enables users to link associated records. The parent/child control is used with REFERENCE_LIST field type.

Note: To improve performance when opening records, you can defer the loading of reference list fields until the user requests the associated data by clicking a button in the control. For information on controlling deferred reference list loading, see technote 1976572.

A parent/child control has a list view control and three push buttons, which are associated by means of a unique list view ID. If you change the ID of the list view, you must also update the push buttons.

Note: To enable the List View Query feature to run user-defined queries on the list view control, see technote 1990415.

To determine which fields of a referenced record are displayed in a parent/child control, you must add columns to the list view, as follows:

  • Right-click in the header bar and click Add Column.
  • Right-click a column and click Properties to edit the column name and the field that it references. Each column refers to a particular field of the referenced records.

The property sheet for a parent/child control has three pages: General, Extended, and Context Menu Hooks.

General page

The following table lists the properties of the General page.

Property
Description
Field Name
Select the field to associate with the control.
Label
Enter a label for the control. By default, the label is the name of the selected field.
X
The horizontal starting point of the control in pixels.
Y
The vertical starting point of the control in pixels.
Width
The width of the control in pixels.
Height
The height of the control in pixels.

Extended page

The Extended page contains a single field for entering the ID of the parent/child control. This ID must be unique among any other list view or parent/child controls in that page and must be the same as the list view ID for the associated buttons. If you change the ID of the list view, you must also update the push buttons.

Context Menu Hooks page

The Context Menu Hooks page displays the list of available record hooks and the hooks that are currently associated with this control. To associate a hook with the control, select the hook in the Available column and click Add. To dissociate a hook, select the hook in the Selected column and click Remove. Hooks that are associated with this control are displayed in the control pop-up menu in the HCL Compass Client. To run one of these hooks, users must right-click the control and select the name of the hook.