Database Reference
In-Depth Information
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION: PORTAL OR RELATED FIELD?
So far I've used a portal and a merge field to display related data on a layout. How do I know when
to use each one?
It's pretty simple, really. Remember that most relationships are one-to-many. To keep it straight,
think of the one side as the parent side of a relationship, and the to-many side as the child side. On a
layout that shows the parent record—Customers, for example—you used a portal because you
wanted to show the to-many line item records from the child table—Jobs.
Over on the child side, you wouldn't use a portal back to Customers, because there will only ever be
one Customer related to any one Job. So there, you'll just use a related field or a merge field, as you
This rule of thumb is true for any parent-child relationship: Invoice to Line Item, Jobs to Expenses,
or Jobs to Timeslips. You'll almost always use a portal on the parent layout and a related field on the
child layout.
