Parent data sets are used to create nested data sets. This means that a group of data set values can be associated with a value from another data set. In the client, using parent data sets, the data set values available for one field would depend on the data set value selected in another field. For example, if you have a data set that contains all of the departments in a company, you can link the employees that belong to specific departments. If you have a Human Resources department and you have Sally, Sandy, and Sue as employees, you can configure your data set to only show Sally, Sandy, and Sue in the Employees data set when Human Resources is selected in the Departments data set.
In order to use nested data sets, you must select a Parent Data Set for the data set you want to want link to values. The Parent Data Set is set in the Data Set Configuration dialog box. Only one Parent Data value can be selected for a data set.
Once a Parent Data Set is selected, the values stored in that selected data set are listed in the Parent Data field. The Parent Data field is used to associate data set values with a Parent Data Set value. In our Human Resources example, you would need to do the following in order to achieve the necessary data set nesting:
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While configuring the Employees data set, the Departments data set needs to be selected as the Parent Data Set.
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For the following data set values, a Parent Data value must be set to Human Resources: Sally, Sandy, and Sue.
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Both attributes linked to the Employees and Departments data sets must be placed on the appropriate views.