Record Hierarchy

​

The following video is a short introduction to Record Hierarchy.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

What is Record Hierarchy?

​

Some records are defined to show a single independent event. Those records are created as individual, independent records, typically as Events (which is the default configuration). Alternatively, some records are defined to cover large events that span over a long period. Multiple other records can be used to show detailed events of that larger common event. Hierarchy is a mechanism that will attach those detail events to the main, larger event. The detailed events will be the Children of the main event which will be the Parent event.

 

An example describes the hierarchy design in a better way. Let’s consider the timeline shown in the figure below. 

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​

The example shows the Creek War as a Parent event. However, the Creek War consisted of a number of battles. The timeline shows each of those battle as a separate event. Those individual battle events are the children of the Creek War parent even.

 

There are numerous advantages to this approach. The Parent record, the Creek War event itself can cover the overall aspect of the war, its origin, main players, consequences, etc., while each battle event can cover the details associated with each battle.

 

On the practical side, the app allows you to expand (expose) or collapse (hide) the children events of a parent. In the example shown, the children events of the War of 1812 are hidden, letting use the screen space to focus on the Creek War events only. As the number of events in a database increases, structuring the events in a hierarchy provides a mechanism to view the timeline in a more efficient way, starting with the high level events (parents) and exposing the detail events (children) as needed.

 

A record can be a Parent, a Child or both at the same time (i.e., a record can be a Child of some record while a Parent of other records). Hence, a timeline can be created as hierarchical events, each hierarchy showing more details than the previous one.

 

In the aforementioned example, the US Wars is the main parent for all wars that occurred on the US soil. Both the Creek War and the War of 1812 are children of the US Wars event and at the same time parents of their individual battle events.

 

There is no limit to the length of the hierarchy chain.

 

Note: The app will ensure that you are not creating loops within the hierarchy, i.e., making a record a Child of another record to which it is a Parent (or grandparent). Hence when selecting the parent of a record, all the records that are part of the record’s children list will not be displayed as an option to be the parent.

​

Parent Records

 

Configuring a Parent Record

​

Configuring a record as Parent is made when adding or editing the record. This is made simply by activating the ‘Is a Parent' checkbox in the Extra group of attributes of the Record Components Window.

 

Note: All records created as Heading will be configured by default as ‘Parent’. This configuration cannot be changed.

 

Deleting the Parent status of a Record

​

Deleting the parent status of a record is made by editing the record and deactivating the ‘Is a Parent' checkbox.

 

Note: Removing the 'Parent' status of a Parent record that has children will modify the 'Child' status of those records. A warning will be provided before the change is made.

​

Children Record

​

Adding a Child Record to a Parent

​

Making a record a Child of a Parent record is made when adding or editing a record.

 

To make a record a Child, check the ‘Is a Child' checkbox in the Extra group of attributes of the Record Components Window​.

​

A record can be made a Child of an existing Parent record. A dropdown list of existing and valid Parents is provided to select one from. If no record has been already created as Parent, the “Is a Child” checkbox will be disabled.

​

A record Child can also be added to a Parent record by right-clicking on the Parent record and selecting the 'Add a Child' option from the displayed menu.

​

When creating a Child record, please note the following: 

​​

• A record can be a Child of only one Parent record. 

• A record cannot be a Child of itself. The app will not show the record you are working on in the Parent list.

• A record cannot be a child of a record that is in its list of children and grandchildren as this will create a loop in the hierarchy chain. The app will not show in the Parent list any record that is a child or grandchild of the edited record.

​

Finally, when selecting a Parent for a child, you are given the option of viewing all the Parent records in the database or only the Parent records that are currently part of the filtered records. If you want to select a Parent from only the filtered set of Records, check the 'Show filtered Parents only' checkbox. The latter configuration will reduce the number of records listed in the drop down menu of the Parent records.

​

Removing the Child relationship to a Parent

 

Removing the relationship of a Child record to its Parent is made when editing a record.

 

Simply deactivate the ‘Is a Child’ checkbox.