4. Linking Tipos

How to link a tipo within another tipo

 

 

Did you know you can link a tipo with another tipo? Once you create a Tipo it will be add in the list of Tipo Objects in the type section of a field.

To understand linking tipos in detail, let's use the Course Tipo that was added, as outlined in the Adding Tipos to App article.

Course

• Name: Course
• Description: Course Tipo
• Tipo type: Simple tipo

Ensure that the Name field to the Tipo has the following values:

• Field: Name
• Type: Simple String
• Show in List View: Yes
• Mandatory (from Expanded View): Yes
• Mark as Dropdown Label (from Expanded View): Yes

Ensure that the Units field has the following values:

• Field: Units
• Type: Unit (selected from the Tipo Objects section)
• Allow Multiple Values (from Data Settings section of the Expanded View): Yes

Setting a field as Multi-valued/Array will allow the field to hold several values. This means one course can have multiple units.

Now, if you check the Course object, you'll see the Unit object linked to it. 

You can click on the Unit link to have a look at that specific Unit's details.

Another example of linking Tipos is with a Student Tipo. Having added the StudentTipo in the Adding Tipos to App article, ensure the the Tipo has the fields and meta data below.

Meta Data

• Name: Student
• Description: Student Tipo
• Tipo type: Simple Tipo

First Name

• Field: First Name
• Type: Simple String
• Show in List View: Yes
• Mandatory (from Validations Tab in Expanded View): Yes

Middle Name

• Field: Middle Name
• Type: Simple String

Last Name

• Field: Last Name
• Type: Simple String
• Show in List View: Yes
• Mandatory (from Validations Tab in Expanded View): Yes

Date of Birth

• Field: Date of Birth
• Type: Date/Time
• Mandatory (from Validations Tab in Expanded View): Yes

Gender

• Field: Gender
• Type: Simple String
• Show in List View: Yes
• Mandatory (from Validations Tab in Expanded View): Yes
• Allowed values (from Data Settings section of the Expanded View): Male, Female, Other

Adding Allowed values to a field will add a drop down menu to that field in the Tipo creation form, populated with the values you insert here.

Note

Do not separate the options with commas, instead press the Return key after every option entered. This will ensure that every value entered before Return is a separate option. If you use commas, then the value Male, Female, Other will be taken as a single option. If you use Return, then your options should look as shown below. 

Address

• Field: Address
• Type: Address (selected from the Tipo Objects section)
• Mandatory (from Validations Tab in Expanded View): Yes
• Relationship Type (from Relationship Settings section of the Expanded View): embed

Each Student will have an address. Instead of adding address-related fields to the Student tipo, we instead separate them out into another Tipo: Address. TipoTapp is modelled on Object Oriented Programming principles and one concept that we encourage is the separation of concerns when building your Tipos. Your Tipos should follow the single responsibility principle in that, a Tipo should have responsibility over a single part of the functionality provided by the software.

Having address-related data in a separate Tipo also encourages object reuse. If we decided to add a Teacher or Staff Tipo to the application, we could reuse the AddressTipo here instead of creating address fields in these Tipos.