Beta launch: Subitems

I think yes.

In the FAQ posted by @Sam_Harper, it is possible to know if it is a subitem using the parent property.

If you look closely, you’ll find that under the hood subitems are driven by a pair of linked relation columns (specifying the parent/child rows of a given row). You can specify existing columns to use for this purpose, or we’ll set them up for you when you enable subitems on a table. Since these are just regular relation columns, you can reference them in the formula language just as you would any other column.

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Huge update. Thanks @Sam_Harper and team for the great work here. Still some sharp edges to refine, but I’m loving it.

I tried that. I tried omitting each part and resubmitting and was unable to get it to go.

Hi Lars,

No danger.

Once joined, the “Insert Subitem” option becomes available on tables. If you want to change a table to be able to use subitems, simply use that on any row.

BTW, REALLY nice functionality.

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:rocket: Great news!
I’m very interested to see how the subitems feature will work in the context of other views, such as Cards, Details, and especially Timeline.
Will it appear as a grouping where the child items can be expanded and collapsed?
Will there be any conflicts with data filtering, and will additional filtering options for child items be introduced?
Will it be possible to use an independent set of properties for subitems, similar to how it’s implemented in monday.com? By default, child items inherit all the properties of the parent item, which is not always convenient when, for example, sub-tasks require a completely different set of properties.

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Might be interested but trying to understand how this is different from using grouping in Coda.

Thanks,

Subitems are suitable for complex projects with clear dependencies and stages. They are based on a full-fledged hierarchical principle. The main item can have several subitems, each of which can also contain its own subitems. This creates a data tree. Such an approach is useful in project or task management when it is necessary to break a task into several levels, creating subtasks and specifying their relationships with the main tasks.

Tag grouping is a simpler way of organizing data, which is also a method of classification. Tag grouping allows the same element (e.g., a task or object) to be used in several categories simultaneously while having only one level of hierarchy without the need to create strict relationships between objects. Moreover, groups of objects by tags are easier to use for filtering and quick searches.

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Hello Sam,

Thank you for the invitation to try out subitems. I’ve been wanting this, so it’s really nice.

[Feedback on the form] In the beta subscription form, the last field “Workspace ID” is required, even though it shouldn’t be required based on the previous field.

Greetings,

Benjamin

I already have so much questions :joy:

In a parent item, is it possible to set up some columns based on the subitems, but keeping the subitems as editable column? For example, in a project management, every subtask has its start and end date, the parent task can automatically select the minimum start date and the maximum end date?

If not, is the current solution to run an automation to update the parent dates?
The same could be applied to number, duration, and so on.

Best Regards,
Arnhold

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Hi Felipe

All that the functionality does, is add two columns, a parent and a child, to establish a relationship between two rows. Everything else stays the same. You would need to have two sets of start- and end dates - one at at child level that is editable. And then another at the parent level with a formula to determine the correct end and start dates, depending on your scheduling rule - backwards or forwards scheduling.

R
P

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A time line example:
The picture I shared earlier is incorrect. Timeline view does not support sub-items yet

Detail view is basically a two-level view, so a hierarchy does not present in that.

Yes

Yes, this is so by default. A subitem is linked to a parent row via a parent column. All other fields/ columns in the row is independent. Any other dependencies will have to be coded using the CFL. (See my comment on dates above.)

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Hi Piet.

Got it. Thank you.
The visibility probably will not be the best, since it is not possible to hide the editable columns only for parent rows. These columns would be useless for parent row, and probably will be confusing for the user.

But I will wait for the access to the feature to make some tests and see the best visualization option.

Thank again
Best Regards,
Arnhold

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not working in my workspace after submitting form details

Hello, it seems that subitems only work if the item has one parent. If an item has multiple parents it doesn’t get into any subitems and stays on its own. I would expect items with multiple parents to show up on all the appropriate trees. For the sake of comparison, this is exactly how notion’s subitem system is implemented.

In my vocabulary ,“sub-item” implies a hierarchical structure.

What you describe Notion as having implemented is a multidimensional structure and much more difficult to understand.

And which is still possible in Coda.

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I find multidimensional structures very helpful when constructing complex models. For example, I am currently creating a video game database with multidimensional franchise and genre trees. For example, the Mario & Luigi franchise is a subfranchise of both the Mario and Luigi franchises, which are themselves subfranchises of the larger “mushroom kingdom” franchise. So I know that building such a system is possible within coda, I have been doing it with the relation properties to create these tables. What I am commenting earlier there is that I wanted the subitem feature to be able to represent that in a convenient visual way in order to reduce the clutter of the table by creating collapsible parents that can house multidimensional structures.

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Few thoughts:

  • I really like the Line items feature and would love a similar experience for grouping, as the current setup takes up too much space and is hard to read, especially with long group names.
  • Having sub-items from other table views would be a great improvement since sub-items often need to display different information than the main item.
  • Line items with data from other base tables would be a game-changer for makers and users. It would eliminate the need for buttons that open detail views for each Relation column, making better use of canvas space and significantly reducing the number of clicks for both me as the maker and the users.

EDIT: In fact, if the first bullet is done, the third one would be achieved too :slight_smile: Multi-level grouping, collapsing and data relation - what a bless. So, @Codans it’s up to you to create an alternative feel of the grouping and you will have a huge quick-win.

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Hi guys, any way to bulk collapse/expand parents rows, on a given level
Edit ; also, did someone implement a formula to retrieve row depth ?

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Hi @Quentin_Morel and everyone else,

I’ve already been playing around with the new feature a bit. As soon as it comes out of beta, I’ll integrate it into my project management docs.

Here’s my first draft:

Best regards
Jannis

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