Lookup List

A lookup list allows you to create a data table. For example, you can store departments along with related data such as department head, area of responsibility, etc.
You can also store the number of vacation days per person, budgets per department, or similar data. Lookup lists offer a wide range of use cases.

The following configuration options are available for a lookup list:

• Name:
  The name helps you find and reference the lookup list. It can be freely chosen and is only intended to make the entry easier to identify.
• Columns:
  Using the Add column button at the top, you can add a new column to the lookup list.
  For each column, you can configure the following values:
  • Column display name:
    This name helps you reference the column. For example, it could be department name, budget, or number of vacation days.
  • Column data type:
    This defines the type of data that is stored in the column. This is also relevant for the placeholders of the lookup list. You can choose from the following types:
    • Text:
      Simple text values are stored in this column. This is useful, for example, for names or keys to identify entries.
    • Number:
      Numeric values such as budget amounts are stored in this column.
    • Date:
      Date values such as validity periods are stored in this column.
    • Person:
      Persons or groups are stored in this column. For example, you can store responsible persons and later assign them as processors.
    • Option list:
      This allows you to reference a shared option list. For example, you can display different selection options in a dropdown depending on a previous selection.
    • File:
      With this data type, you can store files such as images in the column. This can be useful, for example, if you store a list of products in the lookup list and want to add a product image for each item.

Storage Locations

By default, linqi automatically stores the data of a lookup list in the linqi internal database. This makes creating new lookup lists very easy.
However, there may be cases where you want to manage data from an external data source in a lookup list. For this purpose, linqi offers the option to select a storage location when creating a lookup list.
The type of the external storage location cannot be changed later—only the table and column mappings.

External SQL Database

note

This option is only available if the SQL Connector feature is enabled for the tenant.

Using this option, data is loaded from and stored in an external SQL table. If you select this storage location, the following additional configuration options are available:

• Connection:
  Select the connection that linqi should use to connect to the external database. Details can be found here.
• External table name:
  Enter the name of the external database table. You can also select a view; however, in this case, actions that write or delete data may fail.

For each column, you can additionally configure the following data:

• External column name:
  Enter the name of the column in the external database table from which data is loaded or to which data is written.

For this storage location, only the data types Text, Number, and Date are available.

Edit Values

This function allows you to view the entries of a lookup list. If the data is stored in the linqi database, you can also edit the data here.
Using the buttons at the top, you can create a new entry as well as delete or copy a selected entry.
In addition, you can import and export data via CSV files.

When importing a CSV file, you must upload the CSV file and then define which column of the CSV file should be written to which target column. The first row of the CSV file is used as the column names.
You can also define one or more primary keys. This allows linqi to determine whether an entry already exists and update it accordingly. If you do not define a primary key, all rows will be created as new entries.