Recursive Business Modules

Recursive modules make it possible to define parent/child relationships between entities within the same business module.

General use cases for this could be defining subsidiaries under parent companies or relationships between a project and sub-projects.

The Recursive Business Modules feature requires that your solution runs Modern UI.

The configuration of recursive business module is done partially on the business module list, and partially in the WorkPoint Administration.

In this example, we will configure the Companies business module to support relationships between parent companies and subsidiaries.

The first thing we need to do is to define a lookup field for the parent company on the business module list which points to the same business module. In this example, we will create a lookup field on the Companies business module of a Project Management solution:

1. On the Companies business module, we click the "Settings" icon to open the settings side panel.
2. In the side panel, we click "List settings".

3. In the list settings page, under "Columns", we click "Create column".

4. For "Column name" we type in "wpParentCompany". Best practice is to name columns so that they best reflect the usage of the column. WorkPoint generally prefixes all columns with "wp" on creation and then removes the prefix afterwards. This is to have the internal name of the column with the prefix while the display name is without it.
5. For column type, we select "Lookup".
6. In the "Additional Column Settings" section, we select the Companies module for where to get information for the column from. All other settings are left at their default values.

7. In the bottom of the page, we click "OK" to save the column.

Next, we remove the "wp"-prefix from the column:

8. In the columns overview, we locate the newly created column and click the title of it.

9. We remove the "wp"-prefix from the name.
10. We then scroll to the bottom of the page and click "OK" to save the settings.

The column should now simply be called "Parent Company":

Next, we need to define the "Recursive lookup field" in the business module settings:

11. On the solution, click the "Home" button.
12. In the bottom of the side panel, click the cog icon to access the WorkPoint Administration.

13. In the WorkPoint Administration, we click the header of the business module we wish to enable recursive business module for. In this example, that is the Companies module.
14. In the drop down menu, we click "Companies General Settings".

15. In the business module settings page, for "Recursive lookup field", we select the lookup field we created before, called "Parent Company".
16. For "Recursive Title", we type in the opposite of the lookup field name. If the lookup field name is "Parent Company", the recursive title would be "Subsidiary". Another example could be a lookup field title of "Main project" and a recursive title of "Sub-project".
17. Optionally one can create translations of the recursive title. In this example, we have created a translation into Danish.

18. In the bottom of the page we click "Save" to save the configuration.

We can now create a new company as a subsidiary of an existing company. In this case, we use the Create Entity wizard to create a subsidiary of the company Quaxo Inc.:

19. In the Create Entity wizard, we can put the necessary meta data for the company in.

20. In the selector for "Parent Company", we select the Quaxo Inc. company.
21. When all information has been put in, and the parent company has been selected, we click the "Save" button to create the new company.

Once the subsidiary entity is created, on the entity site, the relationship to the parent company can be inspected from the breadcrumb:

In the breadcrumb we can see that Concretely Inc. is a subsidiary of the Quaxo Inc. company. Keep in mind that these company entities reside in the same business module.

Through the breadcrumb, we can view all subsidiaries of the Quaxo Inc. company:

22. Click the parent company in the breadcrumb.
23. In the drop down menu, click "Subsidiary".

This takes the user to a list of subsidiaries under the parent company:

24. In the list filter, we can see that we are looking at a list of subsidiaries of the company with an ID of 2 in the companies business module. In this case, that is the Quaxo Inc. company.
25. There is a single item in the list of subsidiaries, the "Concretely Inc." company.

For a user guide for Recursive Business Modules, please visit this article.

Note that if e.g. a project is registered under a company, which is a subsidiary of a parent company, the breadcrumb on the project site will show only the immediate parent company of the project and not the parent of the company. In the following example, the project "Development of Machine PW-376" is a project registered under the company "Concretely Inc", which is a subsidiary of the company "Quaxo Inc.":

Notice that the breadcrumb does not show the relationship between the "Concretely Inc." company and the "Quaxo Inc." company.

Another example could be the following arrangement:

In the image from above, the blue arrows represent a relationship between entities. Consider the following:

1. Project 1 is registered under Company 1.
2. Project 1.1 is registered as a sub-project of Project 1 but Company 2 as company.
3. Project 1.1.1 is registered as a sub-project of Project 1.1 but Company 3 as company.
4. As Project 1.1.1 refers to the chain of projects first, and then eventually a company, the company of Project 1 is displayed in the breadcrumb: