Need to show data a column view from a related record for a N:1 relationship

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Posted on by Ben T

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For all our Contacts, we have a "Car" entity that lists all the cars they own. Each month, we send the Car records into a queue to be reviewed.

In the queue item view, it looks like I can only pull fields off the Car record itself to show in the columns. What I want is to be able to display fields from the Contact related to that car record. What we've been doing is mapping over the fields from Contact to the Car record whenever the latter is created. However, the problem arises when those fields change on the Contact form and the Car record has already been sent to the queue. It'd be much better if we just get data straight off the Contact form. The Car records all have a lookup for a contact, but I can't seem to get that data in the view no matter how I've tried. Is there anything I'm missing?

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Kokulan 18,054 on at

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Hi Ben

I have had a similar scenario in one of the recent projects I worked on and here is what I did to get fields from parent records of the queue item

01. I created a Workflow on Queue Item entity that triggers on Create or Field Change (Queue change).

02. I also added a few new fields to Queue Item entity to copy data from Contact

03. The workflow on the queue item copied the data from Contact to Queue Item

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Ben T 803 on at

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Thanks. I have a few questions - I also realized we don't actually use the queue item entity. I am actually pulling fields from the entity itself. In the "Record Type" drop down I am selecting Object (Car entity). What controls what Entities show up in the "Record type" drop down?

From what I understand, the workflow is triggered when the Queue item fields change, and when those fields change the workflow is triggered to map data from the Contact to the queue item? We need something the other way around, so that when the Contact changes the corresponding fields on the Queue item are updated. Is this possible?

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David Jennaway 14,065 on at

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You could use calculated fields to map data from the Contact to the child Car entity, but you can't then map them down to the queue item , but you should still be able to reference them in the queue item view.

Alternatively, as you say you're don't 'actually use the queue item entity', could you just use views of the Car entity, and ownership of the Car entity, maybe with some flag or date fields to indicate which cars need to be reviewed ?

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Dynamics365 Rocker 7,755 on at

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To handle it, Create a workflow that execute on field update of contact entity and update same field value in Car entity.

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Ben T 803 on at

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Thanks Rocker, my first thought as well, but not a solution. A workflow can't loop through all the child (Car) records of the parent (Contact).

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Ben T 803 on at

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David - THANK YOU! This was the exact solution we needed. I forgot calculated fields can be used like this, to map data across related records.

In respect to not using the queue item entity - I am probably mispeaking, because I don't really understand how the queue item entity works. I create the view for the queue item entity, but all the columns for the view are from the "Object (Car)" entity. Also, when we send car records to the queue, the record and form and everything appears identical to the Car form - I never see the "queue item form" that I see if I go into customize it. Anyways, I need to read up more on queue items - if you have any resources to recommend that'd be great. Thanks again for the solution.

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