Dynamic Linked Items allow you to create a custom field that links one Workbooks record to another. The field looks like a picklist but the values in it are formed from a list of records that already exist in Workbooks.

The picklist uses a report to build the values available to select from. In addition to populating a field using the picklist options, you can pull through other values from the underlying record.

A Dynamic Picklist is built in the same way as a Dynamic Linked Item, the only difference being that a Dynamic Picklist field doesn't include a button next to it to allow you to link to the item.

Below are two worked examples to step you through how to create a Dynamic Linked Item.

Adding a primary contact to an Opportunity record and populating a field with their telephone number

First create a report based on a Person object that contains the following columns:

• The Person's ID (scroll down to the bottom of the list of fields and choose More Columns  then choose Id).
• The Person's name and Employer concatenated together.  (This makes it easier when using the picklist to make sure you are selecting the right person , especially if you have more than one person with the same name in your database.)
• The Person's telephone number.

You can add other columns and apply criteria to narrow down the people to choose from if you like. Your resulting report will look something like the one in the screenshot below (click to enlarge).

The next step is to create two Custom Fields on an Opportunity record:

The first Custom Field is to hold the telephone number for the primary contact so simply create a text field called Telephone Number. (Start > Configuration > Customisation > Custom Fields > Opportunities > New Custom Field.)

The second Custom Field is for the primary contact in the Opportunity and will be populated using the values in the Person & Employer column in the report already created. When creating the field, call it Primary Contact and choose a Data type of Dynamic Linked Item. Use the dropdown picklist next to Report to select the report that was created earlier. Use the picklist next to Display Column to choose the Person & Employer column from the report.

NOTE: Choosing the Person & Employer column causes the Stored Value checkbox to be greyed out but opens a field called Value Column. Use the picklist next to Value Column to choose Id. (Workbooks has 'recognised' that you've chosen a concatenated field from your report and thus needs to be 'told' how to identify the right person record and uses the Id field to do this.)

Finally, in order to populate the Custom Field called Telephone Number with the relevant number for the primary contact, click the Add mapped Field button and under Report Column choose Telephone and under Form Field choose Telephone Number.  

NOTE: In this example, we've pulled through the primary contact's telephone number and used it to populate a custom field we've created. You can, however, use data from your underlying report to auto-populate standard fields within Workbooks if that achieves your business requirements.

Your Dynamic Linked Item field will look like this (click to enlarge):

Remember to click Save & Close.

Now within an Opportunity record you'll see a Custom Field called Primary Contact. You can select a person from those already on your database and selecting them will auto-populate the Custom Field called Telephone Number with the number stored on your database for that Person, as shown below. NOTE: You can control the order in which these fields are displayed either using the numbers in the Display order field when creating the Custom Field OR using Custom Form Layouts.

Notice that you can click on the button next to the Primary Contact's name to open the relevant Person record.

Adding Partner details to an Invoice and displaying their discount

Some of our customers transact business via their partner network and offer different discounts to different Partners. In this example a Custom Field has already been created on Organisation records to record the percentage discount that the Partner is entitled to. We want to record on an Invoice Line Item which Partner is involved in the deal and having chosen the Partner have the Additional Discount field on the Opportunity Line Item automatically display the percentage discount agreeed for the Partner.

First create your report, based on an Organisation object, showing columns for:

• The Organisation's ID (scroll down to the bottom of the list of fields and choose More Columns  then choose Id.
• The Organisation's name.
• The Percentage Discount field.

To shorten the list to show only Partners you can then apply a criterion to limit the results to Organisations who are Partners.

Here's our report:

Now create your Dynamic Picklist, as follows. Click Start > Configuration > Customisation >