Add an item to a linked table field, and the item inherits all its up level links

[Joey1]

I made this nested structure of linked tables:

• 1. Annual Goals
  • 1.1. Quarterly Goals
    • 1.1.1. Monthly Goals
      • 1.1.1.1. Weekly/ Daily

I expected that I could add an item to any linked table field, and the item would inherit all its up level links:

For example:

While in the Annual Goals table I made these entries:

Annual Goal called “99 Annual Goal item”. Then (in the linked Quarterly Goal tables’ field ), I created it’s …

Quarterly Goal –“99’s quarterly goal made at Annual Goals table”. Then (in the linked Monthly Goal field ), I created it’s …

Monthly Goal - “99’s monthly goal made at Annual Goals table”. Then (in the linked Weekly/ Daily field ), I created it’s …

Weekly/ Daily task- “99’s weekly/daily goal made at Annual Goals table”

Here is the grid view- and it looks great:

It’s even more (deceptively!) implied (or mis-inferred by me…) in a nested view:

What am I misunderstanding here?

How can I achieve what I want?: I add an item to any linked table field, and the item would inherit all its up levels.

Thanks!

[Justin_Barrett · Accepted solution]

You don’t actually have the structure that you created at the top of your message. What you want is this (quoted poorly by the forum software):

Joey1:

• 1. Annual Goals
  • 1.1. Quarterly Goals
    • 1.1.1. Monthly Goals
      • 1.1.1.1. Weekly/ Daily

Based on the link structure you created, what you actually have is this:

• 1. Annual Goals
  • 1.1 Quarterly Goals
  • 1.2 Monthly Goals
  • 1.3 Weekly/Daily

In other words, the links aren’t actually nested. Because they’re all being made directly inside the [Annual Goals] table in separate fields, they’re all technically at the same level, so you don’t have any higher link levels to inherit.

To create a true hierarchy, you need to build the links between tables, not all on a single table.

Here’s a simple setup I made. I’ve got the same four tables, but each one only links directly to the tables representing the next/previous levels in the hierarchy. For example, the [Annual Goals] table only links directly to [Quarterly Goals]:

[Quarterly Goals] shows the “other end” of the links from [Annual Goals], plus links to the [Monthly Goals] table:

[Monthly Goals] is similar, linking to [Quarterly Goals] and [Weekly/Daily]:

On the end, [Weekly/Daily] only links directly to [Monthly Goals]:

Going forward, I’m going to hide the “other end” link fields just to avoid confusion (it’s going to be confusing enough just looking one way).

It sounds like you want to see any level from any other level. This is done by using lookup fields. For example, if I want to see the collected weekly/daily goals in the [Annual Goals] table, I first need to add a lookup field in [Quarterly Goals]. Lookup fields can only see related data for direct links. Quarterly is linked to Monthly, and one of the fields in the Monthly table contains links to Weekly/Daily, so from Quarterly I can look up the Daily goals visible on the linked Monthly records.

Once that’s done, I can return to [Annual Goals] and add two lookups using the links to the [Quarterly Goals] table: one pulling in the “Monthly Goals” info, and another pulling in the lookup field I just made to see the weekly/daily goals. This lets me see everything in one place.

I won’t do any more screenshots, but the same could be done in reverse, to see the annual goal tied to any weekly/daily goal using lookups coming from the other direction.

Does that make sense?