Related list issue with Problems and attached Incidents

[Tom Alday]

So we have a Problem that has a few Incidents have been manually attached to it from the related list on the Problem record

The way I believe it should work is that if I go into one of those Incidents (ex INC0025026) I should see this Problem in its Related list under "Problems", but I'm not seeing it

It does this the other way too, if I add a Problem to an Incident using the related list on the Incident record that Incident doesn't show up in the related list in the Problem record. Am I doing something wrong? It seems like they should be connected, but they don't seem to be...or I'm doing something wrong, which is possible.

[geoffcox]

This may be a symptom of one to many vs. many to many relationships. Here's how to test:

In your first image, if you click on the little reference icon under the gear icon, does it open a many to many record? Or does it open an actual incident?

If there is a many-to-many table, clicking on this link will open a many-to-many table record which simply relates a problem to an incident.

If not, then the each of those five incidents must have a related field that references the problem. In other words, the problem is the parent, and the 5 incidents are children.

However, In your second image, the related list seems to be looking for problems where the parent is an incident. But the Problem is the parent, not the incident. Instead, you will probably find an actual field on the form that references the problem parent directly.

If you want related lists to work both ways, you must set up a many to many relationship between problems and parents, and then show a related list from the many to many table on both the incident and problem forms. And the related list will not be looking for a "parent".

If you already have a many to many relationship established, then in your second image you are looking at the wrong related list, as the one shown is related by a parent incident, rather than by a many to many incident. You should just personalize the related lists, remove that one, and choose the correct one.

I hope this is clear and helps!

Cheers,

                    Geoff.

[Tom Alday]

Thanks for the help with this.

I didn't have a m2m relationship, so I created one

I then add the "Problems" related list to the Incident form and it displays nothing. I also don't see a corresponding related list I can add to the Problem form. Do I need to create another m2m relationship from Incident to Problem?

this is so confusing

[geoffcox · Accepted solution]

m2m can be confusing at first, but it's a key concept.

You should already see a new related list available when personalizing related lists on the problem form as well. It should appear by the name you gave it above ("Incidents").

You won't see anything in the related list until you relate the incidents to the problems (thus populating your new m2m table). If you select Edit on the related list on the problem form, you can select the incidents to relate to the problems, or vice-versa on the incident form.

If you have some kind of meeting maker and want to call me to discuss sometime, we can schedule something.

Cheers,

                Geoff.

[Tom Alday]

That worked perfectly, and I learned how to use related lists effectively for future reference. All around a good discussion, thanks!