How to implement Sub Projects with Sub Tasks in the Projects starter solution

[Miss A!]

Hi There,

 

Can somebody please assist me on extending the projects starter solution to implement on the existing Projects, Sub projects with Sub Tasks - This is for the reason that some Projects are very broad and there is need to break them down into sub projects which also will constitute sub tasks.

 

Will appreciate all guidance and thoughts shared,

 

Many Thanx,

Miss A!

 

[eos]

Assuming that each sub-project belongs to a single super-project (one-to-many), consider adding a foreign key id_project to the Projects table.

Thus a project that itself has a foreign project id is a sub-project; a project that has related projects via Project::id = Projects_sub::id_project is a super-project.

This has the advantage that you don't need to change any interfaces to the Tasks table; a task doesn't need to know or care if its parent project is of type sub or super (except when you must apply business rules where that status matters).

Edited June 22, 2015 by eos

[Miss A!]

Thank you Eos for your reply,

 

How do i implement that what you have suggested and how do i present the sub projects and the tasks belonging to them layout wise

 

In the attachment, while i thought i knew what i was doing, please advice on the additions in blue highlight - am not sure it is what you are talking about.

 

Many thanx.

[eos]

What you did should not be necessary.

Add a TO of Projects so the super can list its subs (in a portal), and another for the sub to display its parent (which is not even required if you use a popup for super selection).

As far as managing tasks is concerned, you would simply use your existing structure .

[Miss A!]

Am sorry but i am not catching.....

 

I have the TO named Projects_Sub, related to projects by new defined ID(__id_SubProject), when i add the portal for records in Projects_Sub, i can't get the separation between the projects and the sub projects, everything is all together, when i try to add a sub project, it reflects among the super projects as well.

 

More Help please,

Many more Thanks.

[eos]

Have a look into the attached file.

SuperAndSubs_eos.fmp12.zip

[Miss A!]

Hi Eos,

 

I still struggle - how do i enable the relationship link for a one to many, when i am joining my TO's i still get only a one to one relation - How does the structure define a one or a many relationship for which side?

[Wim Decorte]

In FM you don't explicitly tell FM whether a relationship is one-to-many or one-to-one.  The data (and the context) determines that.

If you have relationship between Project and Tasks and you are on the context of Project then it can have zero, one or many tasks.  If you are on Tasks then the exact same relationship will show the Task's Project (or nothing at all if it is an orphan task).

So don't overthink it.  A relationship is a relationship.

[Miss A!]

Hello,

 Please explain to me this piece of my problem - attached screen short.

 

In the relationship captured, i would like to represent the Sub projects in a portal on the MainProjects layout - If i set the mainID field in Subprojects to be auto entered (number), the Fork end disappears, but when i remove this condition, the fork end is there but also the portal does not show the subs - How do i enable this condition such that through that relationship, there will be many sub projects in the subProjects table that i can represent on a portal on the main projects layout?

[eos]

What do you mean by ”auto-entered”?

If MainSubID is the foreign key that denotes the parent “super” project, it cannot be auto-entered, but must be set by you to that parent project's primary key (see below).

How do i enable this condition such that through that relationship, there will be many sub projects in the subProjects table that i can represent on a portal on the main projects layout?

If there are any related records in ProjectSub, they will show up in that portal; but to have these related records, you will have to create them in the first place – presumably by selecting a projectID to set into MainSubID.

I'm not sure what your reason is to have introduced a “MainID”; you could simply use the Project's table primary key; after all, what you want to express is “this project is a sub-project of that project” – where this project is the current record, and that project is the one whose primary key you wrote into a designated foreign key field (MainSubID).

This means you should only need one additional field to model the relationship of main and sub: a project that has a value in MainSubID is a sub-project, a project that has related records via primary = MainSubID is a super-project, and a project for which both is true is a super and a sub project (if your business rules allow/require that).