New Custom Fields Type - Derived/Mapped Fields
I'd like to propose a new custom field type that would be very helpful. A field that can be derived or mapped between another field. Think of it like custom field > sub custom field. These dependencies would allow users to better manage tasks/forms as well as speed up data entry, reducing double entries, and allow for better reporting.
For example, I currently have a custom field called "Deliver to" which contains a list of stakeholders certain tasks are beholden to. Let's say the list contains the names, "Mark, Mary, Steve, and Josie"
I want to create a field called "Department" which tells me which Department any of the "Deliver to" names map to. For example:
- Mark belongs to the Sales Dept
- Mary belongs to Tax Dept
- Steve belongs to HR
- Josie belongs to Sales Dept.
When I select Deliver To: Mary on my task or form, I want the "Department" field to automatically know that she belongs to "Tax Dept" and populate that field based on mapping that would be setup at the time of creation.
Currently there isn't a way for me to roll up my data to see how many tasks are pending each dept since they're all at the "Deliver to" level. Adding standard new field called "Department" and just punching in the values every time is going to cause a lot of bloat on entry when it could easily be derived.
Hey Joseph Bruley! I'm wondering if this can be accomplished with automation? If it's not a massive list of names, you can create an automation for "If Deliver to field has X name" "then populate Department with Y"
I do something similar with a field that populates a from the request form that then auto-fills in a secondary rollup field. The biggest pain was needing an automation for 7 different rollups. (So, Wrike folks, it'd be cool if automations could have variables!)
Hi Joseph Bruley this is also something that could potentially be managed using datahub. I'm not sure what level of account you have, but it may be worth investigating: https://help.wrike.com/hc/en-us/articles/26974198775703-Wrike-s-Databases#UUID-70993a6e-f401-a37e-1fc0-7fb68eb40227
Joseph Bruley I just wanted to confirm Ali's remark. If you have access to Datahub, when you create a custom field that references an entry in the database, and tell it to mirror other fields in that row of data. So if you had a data table with employees names and department, your Deliver To field would link to the name and you can mirror the deptment in a second custom field that would display that info.
See in the example below I select the account contact, and the Contact Email automatically fills in.