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How can I add a subgrid (related table) without needing to save the parent form first?

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Posted on by 190

I have a main form, and i added a subgrid of a related table.  Currently i have to save the main form first before the subgrid form shows.  Is there any way to show the subgrid as the main form loads?  

I also want to avoid a user abandoning the form, after filling and saving the main form, which will leave the child form empty.  

Thanks

  • Gagandeep Singh Profile Picture
    Gagandeep Singh 587 on at
    RE: How can I add a subgrid (related table) without needing to save the parent form first?

    Hi,

    I cannot say about the canvas app as I haven't explored that area. Would be interesting to know if that works in your case.

    As per users reaction on the sub-grid experience, I guess it's more of an understanding issue. What we do is to approach such scenarios as opportunity to tell users that this is where you need to be trained how to use the system. While you may be used to using in a certain way on your previous applications but, CRM works this way.

    It helps to take certain experienced users to speak on your behalf. By experience I mean who have worked on different systems. They can confidently explain other inexperienced users how different systems work. Hence in D365 CE, this is the way it works.

    Trust me, it works :)

    If you customize it to make it easier for the user here, you will have to go that extra mile every time in the future because the user can always say, it works on the other form, then why not here.

  • bp3378 Profile Picture
    bp3378 190 on at
    RE: How can I add a subgrid (related table) without needing to save the parent form first?

    Thanks Gagandeep.  This is a clever idea.  But for me I have a purchase request form as the parent table, and the purchase details as the child.  So if i wanted to fill out the purchase details first, i need a way to find out what the next purchase order number should be, auto fill it.  As this would be the lookup to purchase request.  Then use workflow to copy fields back to purchase request.  Not sure if it would work in my scenario.  

    I tried using a quick create form for the purchase details, but user have to manually select the purchase request number to lookup back to parent record.  So this is not very user friendly.  

    Would adding a canvas app into the purchase request form work?  The canvas app would be the purchase details?  

    Aside from these scenarios, if user has to save parent form first in order to see subgrid, what was your experience with user feedback on this?  

  • Gagandeep Singh Profile Picture
    Gagandeep Singh 587 on at
    RE: How can I add a subgrid (related table) without needing to save the parent form first?

    Hi,

    The sub-grid is where the child information is captured. The child info can only be entered when you have created the parent record. So to answer your question, it is not possible to enter the child records without saving the parent record.

    One suggestion that I could give is to see if the user can enter the child record directly where the parent record would be a lookup. You can make this parent record as mandatory. In this case the user creates the child record first and since the parent record (lookup field) is mandatory, they are forced to enter that too.

    You might have to tweak the process but also ensure a good fit for the business logic you want to achieve.

    For example, one of our customer wanted to create a quote directly without going through the Lead -> Opportunity -> Quote Process. What we did is allowed them to create the quote and added most of the fields from the Account into the quote itself. So while creating the quote the user enters the details of the Account too on the quote. While the user could enter all these details using the customer lookup on Quote, but they wanted these details not while creating the quote but before converting it into an order. So while creating the quote user quickly enters the account name (from the customer lookup -> Create new account) and save the quote. It's only before converting into order we ask other information (Like: Phone Number, Primary Contact, Mobile, Email, Billing Address etc.) and we have written a workflow to copy these details into the related account . This way we are avoiding the creation of Account first and then the Quotes below. We ask them to create the Quote directly and populate the Account details based on the info provided on Quote.

    Hope this helps you some way!

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