Creating dependent field groups

To direct users across multiple fields to narrow down options as they make selections, FootPrints uses the following methods:

• Category tree
• Dependent field group

Category trees are used in knowledge bases and service portfolios in which users need to view field values, but not change them (browsing but not editing). For more information, see Creating-category-trees.

Dependent field groups are used in workspaces and CMDBs to direct users to specific fields in which they select or enter values (browsing and editing). In a dependent field, the available choices are restricted by the value selected in the preceding field (parent field) or a field that controls the values in the dependent field. This feature helps users to select an appropriate value (required fields, selection lists, and so on).

Dependencies are defined at the field level and then added to the appropriate forms. For parent fields, you may use only Boolean (for check boxes) and Single Select fields. Child fields can be any field type.

You can configure multiple dependency groups in each container, and create multilevel dependency groups that funnel users to categories and subcategories quickly to provide detailed information for the agents working on the tickets.

Dependency order

If some fields in a dependency group are required and some are optional, the higher-level (earlier) fields in the group should be required because those are selected earlier than the lower-level (later) fields. Otherwise, users might not select values in an earlier optional field, resulting in a later required field that contains no values (because there was no previous value on which to base the options). In this case, the ticket cannot be submitted because required information is missing.

Show Dependency Tree (2020 Release 02)

To display all parent fields and their dependent fields, click Show Dependency Tree.

Prerequisite

Create the fields (and their values) that will be included in the dependency group. You need a parent field to act as the starting point and child fields to group under the parent.

This section contains the following topics: