Note: Starting today and continuing over the next few Tech Tips, we will be previewing new features coming in Laserfiche 8.2. Since this is a preview, note that the details and appearances of certain elements may change between now and the final release.

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Laserfiche 8.2 introduces dynamic fields, which allow you to link fields together such that selecting a value in one field determines what values are available in another. Dynamic fields are especially useful if you have templates with fields whose information naturally relates to each other.

For example, Gary is a hiring manager for Roth Equity and he uses Laserfiche to organize applications submitted by prospective hires. When an application comes in, he assigns a template that includes fields for the applicant’s name, address, and telephone number, as well as the department and position the application is for. Rather than select from the long list of Roth’s open positions each time, Gary creates a set of dynamic fields that will populate the Position field’s list values based on what he selects in the Department field. If he selects the accounting department, for example, only the available accounting positions are listed:

However, if he selects the legal department, the list changes to display only the available legal positions:

Note: If two fields are part of a dynamic fields set, the child field’s values will not be populated until you have selected a value for the parent field. In the example above, the Department field is the parent field and the Position field is the child field.

Searching with Dynamic Fields

Dynamic fields also carry over to template searches. If a template contains a dynamic fields set, the link between those fields will apply when entering your search criteria. For example, if Gary wants to run a search with his Employment Application template, when he enters a value for the Department field, the search will automatically restrict the Position field criteria to positions in that department.

Note: If a field is part of a dynamic fields set, you can still perform a search using only that field and its values will not be constrained by its relationship to the other fields in the set.

The User Education team at Laserfiche consists of the technical writers responsible for all Laserfiche software documentation, including help files, white papers, and instructional videos.

• Topic(s):
• dynamic fields,
• Laserfiche 8.2