SharePoint 2013 online Parent/Child relationship - A step by step demo

SharePoint uses lookup fields to represent the Parent-Child relationship. For child list items it is OK as you can trace back to its parent from the lookup field. For parent the OOB forms are not good enough as they are not displaying the children belong to it. In real world it is often required that when view the parent list item it also displays its children, further more it is great if user can add child list items directly from the parent.

In SharePoint on-premise we can use visual web parts and code the parent/child logic and use web part pages to replace the parent item forms. In SharePoint online we can't do server model code and visual web parts, so the solution is almost NO CODE and just a little bit client side scripts, and they work beautifully!

Here I will do a step by step demonstration to explain the ideas:

 

Step 1: Create a parent list called "Category" and a child list called "Product", in Product list add a lookup field to reference Category parent item, And then create some dummy list items




Image 1.1 - Category List



 





Image 1.2 - Product List



 

Step 2: Add child list items to parent view form

View any of the list items in "Category" list, click "Settings->Edit Page", and then press "Add a Web Part"

 

Press "Insert->Related List", and then click "Product"

 

 

After that you will see a list of related children list items show on the bottom of the main item

 

As in display view we just want user to view related items but don't want user to edit child items directly, we need to do the following changes for the newly added web part:

- Set Toolbar type to "No Toolbar"

- Set Chrome Type to "None"

 

Here we go, now when user open a category item, he can also see all its children, nice!

 

 

Step 3: Add child list items to parent edit form

Open any of the list items in "Category" list and switch to Edit, click "Settings->Edit Page", and then press "Add a Web Part"

 

 

Press "Insert->Related List", and then click "Product"

 

 

As in Editing view we not only want user to view related items but also to Add/Edit/Delete child items, we leave the toolbar on.

 

Now when user edit a category item, he can also see all its children too!

 

 

 

Step 4: Make it possible to add child list items directly

Now we can display child items in parent item views, but it will be even more handy if we can make it happen that user can create a new child directly from its parent edit view without specifying the lookup. This is especially useful for a big lookup list.

 

First of all, you need to include jquery in your page header. There are multiple ways to do that and I leave this to you.

 

Also in my script I use a 3rd party js file called Querystring to parse the query string, it is free:-)  You need to include this js in your page header as well. alternatively you can use or write similar functions for your own choice.

 

Change Category Edit Form

 

Now go to category item edit form, click "Settings->Edit Page", and then add a "Script Editor" web part.

 

Put the following script and save the page

 

This script overwrites the "New item" link in the form to let it open the adding form in modal dialog, and it refreshes the parent view when new item added. It also passes the current category item ID to the child form so it can set the parent lookup value by default.

 

Change Product NewItem Form

 

Go to product list and click "New Item", click "Settings->Edit Page", then add a "Script Editor" web part and put the following script in. After that save the page.

 

This script will set parent automatically by using the passed in ID and lock the selection. 

 

Job done! Now when you edit a category you can add/edit/delete its children easily!