Feature request: Sub-table/hierarchical view

[Paul_Bettner]

Hi everyone! Loving coda so far. I have a request that I would love to see implemented:

For me and my team, the most natural/automatic way we tend to organize tasks is hierarchical with simple indentation. Like this:

• Area 1
  • Sub Area 1
    • Task 1
      • Subtask 1
      • Subtask 2
      • Subtask 3
    • Task 2
      • Subtask 1
  • Sub Area 2
    • Task 1
      • Subtask 1
      • Subtask 2

Etc.

Now, Coda already has a fantastic text block editor that allows the creation of “checkbox lists” like this by simply typing into any text field and using indenting/outdenting, which works beautifully.

HOWEVER - this feature is currently only supported in the context of an individual text field. What I’m really looking for is to manage/view/edit a TABLE of data this way. So I can use column relationships (parent/child) to manage an existing table of data as an indented (and collapsable) hierarchy.

I’ve seen some pretty clever hacks to do this, such as this one: https://coda.io/d/Project-Management-With-Folding_diXEmfugjRW/Folding-view_su2in#Project-Plan_tuBpR/r1

But that’s a very convoluted and pretty inflexible way of getting what I want, since the end result is view-only, not editable, etc.

I understand many of the arguments against “hierarchical” structures for project management, I’ve read many of the articles. But for myself, and I believe many others, it’s still a preferred way to structure data - especially in the beginning of a project. Recently Monday implemented a version of this in their grids/tables that I like, which you can see here: https://community.monday.com/t/its-finally-here-subitems-alpha-release/5482

Is there anything like this currently on the roadmap or have y’all thought about this before?

Thanks!

Paul

[Paul_Bettner]

Oh, I’m also aware that I kinda-sorta have a version of this already with Coda by using column grouping, but the end result isn’t nearly as clean-looking as a “sub-table” view such as what Monday implemented recently - which is a lot closer to what I’m looking for here…

[Federico_Stefanato]

Hi @Paul_Bettner,
welcome to this Community!

I guess your use case has lots of similarities with @Steve_Yang’s one: How to write formula for turn outline view into Table view?

There is still not a perfect solution, but you can find some useful approaches in the thread.
I hope this helps.

[Alex_Ruiz]

I agree. The ability to see the “hierarchy” of information would be amazing

[Alberto_Delgado]

I’d like to revive this old feature request. I’m trying to build a Work Breakdown Structure as a basis por managing a project, and I want to connect it to other features like schedule, assignments, etc. But without the hierarchical structure I’m sadly starting to look for other software.

Hierarchy is a really important pattern with many use cases!

We need something more intuitive and faster to spin up than self-referencing relations and subtables.

This post has a good explanation of the challenge:

"Serious" Project Management in Coda? (Work Breakdown Structures)

Hoping for some input from the Coda community here. I’ve been struggling with using Coda for more complex projects that involve multiple phases and / or layers of deliverables. Specifically, the challenge I’m running into from a project management perspective is trying to create Work Breakdown Structures in Coda which invariably requires having a hierarchy of deliverables or tasks, as seen below: [WBS%20Image] This hierarchy can sometimes run 4-5 levels deep. And it’s a variable number of leve…

Sorry to pull you in @Eric_Koleda, but you are my favorite Codan.

[Rickard_Abraham]

I’ve got a similar experiment already done with recursive indentation, this one in particular also has an expand / collapse feature, feel free to copy and make your own version

@Alberto_Delgado

We need something more intuitive and faster to spin up than self-referencing relations and subtables.

I agree it’s a little convoluted, but have you tried just making a template out of the core structure?
For example I have this

One issue remains, how to add this core structure to an existing table easily.
For that I believe Coda should come up with a general solution.
Enabling column modification in the API would be a decent start

[Alberto_Delgado]

@Rickard_Abraham

have you tried just making a template out of the core structure?

That’s a great thought Rickard. I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks for the template!

Frankly though, I can get the result I want instantly in Smartsheet or Monday, or even the dreaded MS Project, with the expected downstream behaviour on Gantt charts and so on. I’ll likely be using other tools for “serious” project management for the time being for that reason.

Funnily enough, half of my projects are Coda implementations . It’s still the best thing for sooo many use cases.

Right now I’m likely to just import data from SmartSheet to Coda so it plays nice with the rest of my project docs and tools. And thankfully I can do that with the genius Eric’s Smartsheet pack.

[Eric_Koleda]

@Alberto_Delgado

Sorry to pull you in @Eric_Koleda, but you are my favorite Codan.

Thanks @Alberto_Delgado, that means a lot! I’ll pass this feedback on to the team.