Field Types: Related Items

Among the types of fields we can create, we have the related item field, which, as its name indicates, allows us to establish a relationship between one reference and another, whether they belong to the same table or a different one.

This type of field offers several possibilities and allows us, for example, to associate products that are similar or that are usually purchased together. In this way, it facilitates the creation of cross-selling strategies or the grouping of products into bundles within your sales channel.

It also helps us manage product information more quickly by linking complementary data found in another table with several products without the need to repeat the same information in each one. For example, a quality certificate, an instruction manual, shipping conditions, a list of compatible spare parts for that item, etc.

By being able to establish a relationship not only within the product table but also with categories, variants, points of sale, or custom entities, it offers us a lot of flexibility to manage complex data structures more easily.

To work with a related item field, the first thing we need to do is create a new field of type Related Item. We can do this from Reshape Form, and by selecting this option in the dropdown menu:

How to add a related items field

Then it’s time to indicate which table you want to relate it to. To do this, click on the Configure button and select the desired table. In this example, we link it to the products table:

Field configuration with a table

When selecting the table we want to relate, we can also choose up to 4 fields we want to display for each item:

Note: The fields that can be added to the view are of short text or number type. The default selector will show only these types of fields to be selectable for the view and will ignore other types that may exist in the related table.

Within the Configure option, we can also customize the title of the references linked to the field that we can see in “selection” mode in the dropdown. We can choose up to 5 fields to create the title for each item:

And it would look like this in the field:

Once this step is completed, click Save, and you will be able to either import the references you want to relate or select the item(s) manually.

To do this, we have two options:

• Open the dropdown and directly select the items to relate one by one or use the search bar, keeping in mind that it only appears when the related table contains at least one item. 
• Or use the Manage Items button.

Through this option, a new window will open to allow a more precise search for the items you want to relate, either by entering the reference directly into the search bar or using the available filters by attribute set, categories, status, tags, etc.

If no results appear when filtering, make sure that the parameter is set to all so that all items are shown, and then search using the desired filter:

Once the desired items are selected, click Apply to save the changes.

You will then be able to see the selection of products within the field:

In addition, once the linked items are selected, you can enter the preview of each one’s form by clicking on the following icon:

The modal window that appears when clicking on Manage Items, in addition to helping search for the items you want to relate, also offers other options to manage the linked articles quickly and easily.

In addition to the fields we selected in the previous configuration step, it also shows their quality percentage and modification date.

We can reorder the related items using the arrow controls located on the left. The selected order of elements will be maintained in data export through connectors.

When the number of selected items exceeds one page, sorting can only be done per page.

If you click on the pencil icon on the right of each item, you will access its form directly, which will open in another tab.

By clicking the icon next to the pencil or on the item reference, we can see the complete product sheet.

Remember that you can relate items from different tables. You can check the custom entities section and thereplace from table formula section to get the most out of this feature.