It would be amazing to be able to create a column/line that corresponds to the entities that link to the current entity. This is exactly like the shots/assets/parent assets/sub assets style columns, just available for entity links that we create.
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Rob Blau I haven't seen any movement on this request. What'cha guys think? I've been hit up by a bunch of requests that boil down to this functionality. For example, in one training session yesterday I was asked if we could add columns to a shot spreadsheet view for tasks in the shot, for assets broken down by type (char/prop/set), and for notes broken down by type. With something like I'm imagining this feature being, we could create those links ourselves. As an alternative, if we could have roll up columns for linked entities that can filter based on type, that would replace the need to create multiple multi_link fields to represent these relationships.
The ideal resulting view would look much like the assets column for shots, just representing a relationship defined by us (except for the ability to show the tasks linked to a shot... that seems like it would need to be done in the same way that asset links are currently treated).
-r
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Joe Frayne This seems like something we would want to be able to utilize, as well...
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Don Parker Hey guys, we think this would rock. We're about to work on something in the next sprint that will allow us to experiment with this type of query and display (showing task fields in a shot/asset grid instead of only the task status summary). Rob, this is actually exactly what your first use case is I think, and we're hoping this can be a general solution to be used in other ways too. I'm going to post some screen designs on this w/in the week so you can check out what we're thinking. We're actually not sure how tricky this will be for the grid to handle, but we'll know a lot more in 3 weeks.
If you have time, more use cases or examples (spreadsheets, mock-ups,etc.) would also be really helpful as we work through this.
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Rob Blau To make this really address the use cases we've seen, we'd need the ability to create a field that was a list of links to a given entity type, not just to a single entity. Ideally that field could include a restriction based on the value of Type on the target entity. Given that, this would be amazing. A specific use case is below, but hopefully you can see how it is just an example of a pretty common usage pattern:
We'd like to break up the linking of assets to shots. Having one field that lists all the assets doesn't let the different departments easily track the assets that they're responsible for. We can add a couple of entity fields to shot such as 'Sets', 'Props', 'Puppets', which would be multiple entity links to an entity type of asset and types restricted to corresponding asset types. On the asset side we'd like to map these set of fields into the 'Shots' field on the asset. That way we could have the information easily broken out when looking at a listing of shots and still be able to see that link when looking at a listing of assets.
I don't think the grid would have any problems displaying this kind of info (it already does it), or the UI for adding multi_entity links (maybe a new checkbox on the create field page, with the same entity restriction, and when you restrict it to a given entity type you get a selection box for the Types configured on that entity if you want to filter), the harder part seems to be the GUI for setting up those fields that represent the reverse look up. Again, that seems like another checkbox on the new field page and then a selection box that displays all the fields configured that can be an entity link to you.
This would address one of the major frustrations that people have had, that they can't get at all the link information from whatever view they happen to be in. I hate having to give the answer that the only way to see a certain list of linked entities is to go into the details page for a given entity and configure a tab with the right query.
-r
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Don Parker Hey Rob, that makes sense. We've been thinking about embedding grids inside the grid, so you can see, say, task columns for tasks tlink to a shot instead of just a list of tasks. But I think you are saying you'd be fine with the list of entities showing up in a single field. Right? Seems like maybe that is then query based, like the tabs. So you can make a field on Shot called "Props" that is querying for all assets linked to [current shot] where the type is [prop]. Then, the field should also filter the auto-complete for adding new assets to only props. Adding a new one would then create the link between the asset and shot.
Is that right?
You could then also have a field called "Latest Version" on a Shot, which filters versions linked to [current shot] and limits the results to the latest based on [date created]. Or "Animation Versions" that shows all versions linked to [current shot] where department is [animation] (or where [name] [contains] [anm_]).
So it's really about building a field that does what the tabs do but only displays the name of the entity as a link? Teach me.
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