Documentation forSolarWinds Service Desk

Field dependencies

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Introduction

Use SolarWinds Service Desk (SWSD) field dependencies when you want a pair of fields to work together. For example, field dependencies could be used to add category levels to a form, which would lead requesters to provide more information for improved accuracy in ticket classification.

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Use case

Related to Country and City, when you enter data that is location specific, you would like to automatically offer relevant options. For example, when you open an incident for a new hire in the EMEA region, after you select United Kingdom, the dependent field would include predefined options based on the country selected.

What can you do to collect more detailed information in tickets?

Consider the use of categories and subcategories. Within a subcategory, by entering a Custom Field you can obtain the data you desire. See Custom fieldsfor more information.

For example, in a ticket describing a network issue, you could have:

  • Category: Network

  • Subcategories: Router, VPN, Server

  • Custom Field: A custom field as a third level that would a prompt the user to select the type of routers, VPN, and servers that could affect the issue.

    For example, if the user selects VPN, the custom field could prompt for:

    • EMEA-full-tunnel

    • US-full-tunnel

    • vpn-brno

Field Dependency index table

From the All Dependent Fields index page, you can:

  • See a list of all dependent fields.

  • See which field dependencies are active by looking at the Actions column.

  • See the date of last update to a field dependency.

  • See and edit details of a field dependency by clicking the Name field from the index page. You can see the name, Controlling field and its values, and the Dependent field and its values.

  • You can customize the Field Dependencies index page to a view that best meets your needs. See List view for more information.

Set up field dependencies

Enterprise Service Management (ESM) service providers can create their own service-provider specific field dependencies.

  1. From the Field Dependency index page, click the blue Add icon in the upper right. The New Field Dependency dialog opens.

  2. Provide the required information (indicated by a red asterisk).

  3. If needed, populate the other fields from the dropdown lists.

  4. Click Create to save.

Related topics

Custom fields