Return expandable records from roll up fields

[Stephen_Orr1]

What is the proposed idea/solution?

Update the roll-up field to return expandable linked record values when rolling up a linked record list

How does this solve the user problems?

The roll-up field currently returns comma-separated text when rolling up a linked record field/lookup. Unlike the lookup field which does return expandable records, roll-up fields can also remove duplicates using ARRAYUNIQUE(values). This is extremely useful when drilling up or down multiple levels of a linked record hierarchy because if any level has a one-to-many/many-to-many linked record relationship, duplication/redundancy will occur at the destination roll-up field (similarly with lookups).

With ARRAYUNIQUE() and a roll-up field, users can remove this unwanted duplication BUT at the loss of expandable record links.

The solution is to make the roll-up field return expandable records, just as the lookup field can.

Some other benefits from this:

• adds the ability to group by rolled-up unique linked records in the timeline view using the split multi-selects group by option
• can quickly count distinct bottom-of-hierarchy items with top-of-hierarchy items using a count field

How was this validated?

Let's say we have the following hierarchy of linked tables:
Departments <-(one-to-many)-> Teams <-(many-to-many)-> Projects
...and I want to know which projects involve each department via the Projects table's "teams involved" field.

Approach A) In Departments, use a lookup field on the Teams table's linked record field to Projects

• this could yield unwanted duplicate project records in the lookup if two or more teams in the same department are involved with the same project. - not good

Approach B) In Projects, use a lookup field on the Teams table's linked record field to Departments 

• this could yield unwanted duplicate department records in the lookup if two or more teams involved with the same project are in the same department. - not good

Approach C) In Departments, use a roll-up field on the Teams table's linked record field to Projects and use ARRAYUNIQUE(values) for the aggregation function

• this returns a comma-separated list, albeit with unique values - better, but not ideal

Approach D) In Projects, use a roll-up field on the Teams table's linked record field to Departments and use ARRAYUNIQUE(values) for the aggregation function

• this returns a comma-separated list, albeit with unique values - better, but not ideal

The solution is to make the roll-up field return expandable records, just as the lookup field can.

Who is the target audience?

Everyone, base builders