The Standalone Parent List function enables the creation of a list that is not connected to a Flex parent list (ie. Account). This list, when added to the setting below, becomes its own Parent – like Accounts and Leads. Additionally, items of a designated Standalone List can use the Flex “Connection Function” in order to be dynamically connected to other Flex items. [See section on Connections to learn how this functionality works.]
A Standalone List can also be configured to use other Flex features and functions such as the Outlook Plugin for processing emails, relating child items such as Tasks, Meetings and Interactions, utilizing macros such as Last Interaction and Next Task Date, and being molded into the New Item Wizard/Quick Search.
Add the Advanced Setting below to configure a Flex List as a Standalone Parent.
Setting Name: StandaloneParentLists (previously called AdditionalTopLevelLists)
Setting Value: [list names, each on separate line]
Note: If you are changing an existing child item (such as a Contract) previously connected to a parent (Account) then you must also change the Account column in the List Settings to a field that the new Standalone List would use. In the example here, change Account to “Contract Name” or similar. The Account column name by default is the Title field and its a mandatory field to creating new items.
Relating Child Items to Standalone Parent Items
In a standard Flex list, such as an Opportunity, Project or Contact, a child item such as a Task, Meeting or Interaction will be related to its Account parent, Main Contact and even its related item, such as the Opportunity. See screen shot below which shows the relationship functions that are available in Flex. The Opportunity is showing based on a Web part direction called “#parentrecord#, the Account is displayed by the use of a macro called “companylinkedcompanyname” and the Main Contact is displayed by use of the “Main Contact” macro (shown below).
Standalone list items must have their own designated method for mapping parent and child items. Because a standalone list could represent a person, such as an Individual, or an inanimate object, such as a Project or a Building, we came up with a method to provide a connection to appropriate information which would be configurable and could adapt to different scenarios.
For example, if you created a standalone list for Individuals and Projects and both needed the ability to utilize child items such as Tasks, Interactions, and Meetings you will need to configure the child items differently for each list item type.
See below for screen shots of Individual and Project items which are related to an Interaction. In the Individual, the primary name field has been designated “Individual” whereas for a Project item the name field is “Name”.
Individual Related to Interaction
Project Related to Interaction
In order to configure different name fields for each standalone list item to it’s related child item such as Interactions and Tasks, the following setup is required.
The first part of this setup is to add the following Advanced Flex Setting which will define the unique field names of the Parent Standalone list items. These are the field names which will be used to map to the appropriate child item in the second part of this setup (explained below).
Setting Name: StandaloneChildColumnNames
Setting Value: [List Name]|Field Name for Child Item
In the above example, there would be a “Full Name” field in the List Columns for Individuals and a “Name” field in the Projects List Columns .
Now that each Standalone list has a designated name field added to the List Setting follow the next steps to complete the setup process for parent and child items to relate properly.
To make this process easy to setup and as automatic and flexible as possible, we have utilized our Copy Down feature combined with a specific macro field called #parentname# to map the designated columns in the parent to the specific child item.
Standalone Individual List
If your Flex system has no Account list and only an Individual list you will need to have both List Mapping Settings as shown below pointing to Individuals
Setting Name: CompanyListMapping
Setting Value: Individuals
Setting Name: ContactListMapping
Setting Value: Individuals
Copy Down & Macros
Next you want to consider what field value will be populated with the parent value. Let’s use an example to understand the process. In an Interaction item you will be copying the value from the designated “Full Name” field (ie. Mary Jones) to a field in the Interaction called “Interacted With” or “Name” or whatever you want.
The important thing in this part of the setup is that you determine for each child item (ie. Task, Activity or Meeting) that will be connected to a parent (Individual or Project) what field will be used to map the two together.
In the below screen shot the Interaction’s New Form Copy Down function maps the Interacted With value with #parentname# so that when it is created from an Individual it will populate with “Full Name” and when it is created from a Project it will populate with “Name”.
Copy Down for New Interaction
Note: If you are not familiar with the Copy Down feature please read the Copy Down section under Configurable Features.
Address Macro for Standalone People List Items
Simply add the macro #Address# shown below in the Web part configuration for the Display form of the Standalone list item to show the address of a Standalone list item. It will display the address in the proper format based on the following Setting.
Setting Name: [ListName]AddressColumnMappings
Setting Value: as defined (see example below)
Note: When the address of a Standalone List item has to be displayed within a child item enter the full address macro name as “#[ListName]:FullAddress#“.
Macros for Child Items of Standalone Lists
When a Standalone list item is presented on the page in relation to child items, such as Interactions, Tasks and Meetings a problem will occur that there are field values not relevant to the Standalone List, such as Account and Main Contact.
Using the macros: #companylinkedcompanyname#/#companylinkedAddress# the values will not be shown if the list item is a Standalone list. This includes Account and Main Contact. If the item is a parent opportunity and the following setting is in place then the appropriate information will be displayed. #Parent List Name:Column Name#, such as #Opportunities;Revenue Potential#. This will display the value of “Revenue Potential” if the parent is an Opportunity.
If in the above scenario we append title= to this it will treat it as a Title column, which will put the action icons after the column value.
Example of this might be: #title=Contact Details|Opportunities;Contacts;Accounts. (Note the separator between the field names is not a comma but a semicolon.)
This will display a section title row with the text “Contact Details” ONLY if the item’s parent is an Opportunity, Contact or Account. This helps in situations such as the item belonging to a Lead or Campaign (or a standalone list item).
Combining the above, we can specify columns like this:
#title=Account info|Accounts;Contacts;Opportunities,
#Accounts:Account;title#,
#Accounts:Main Phone#,
#title=Contact info|Accounts;Contacts;Opportunities, Main Contact,
#Contacts:Email Address#,
#title=Broker Interaction|Brokers,
#Brokers:Broker#
Troubleshooting
If you have created a Standalone list and your child items are not relating appropriately it may be that you have chosen an incorrect setting value. Review the Quick Actions sections to ensure the settings are appropriate for the purpose of the list.