Grouping on connected records and filters

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1

I have an Inventory object. It is connected to a Department and an Area object. Because of the glitch where you cannot group on a connected record field. I’ve created formula fields for each of those two objects and grouping works fine.

The difficulty comes in when the users want to filter the table of on those connected records. Because the grouping is based on the formula field, they can’t get a dropdown. They have to type out the text of the item they are looking for instead of selecting it from a dropdown. A dropdown would provide a much cleaner and less error prone solution.

Does anyone have any ideas for this one? Is there a better way to filter records? Using all fields from the object as a filter is unworkable (30ish fields). A filter menu won’t work because the filter will change.

Until they fix the the connection as a group issue, I need a working solution and I’m out of ideas.

Thanks!

2

Hello!
How is the inventory record captured?
Is it through a form or through record rule?

3

The inventory records are entered through a form. The inventory is a Chemical Inventory for a facility so it is not dynamic but static, with values like count changing every so often. The Inventory data is later displayed for look-up/maintenance in a a table filtered by the facilities connected to the user. The Department and Area are part of the Inventory record. Here is a very simple illustration of the general layout of the table.

Facility: ACME Company

Department 1
Area 1
Chemical A
Chemical B
Area 2
Chemical A
Chemical D
Chemical N

Department 2
Area 1
Chemical B
Chemical N

Thanks!

4

So you have two options;

  1. Create a Search Table where you can add the fields you want as Filters.
    This will enable you to select as dropdown

  2. Use multichoice field or fields to capture the option recorded using a record rule.
    This configuration is quite complex

5

Thanks for the ideas. Can you tell me more about the search table idea? How would a search table work for this instance? I may not be thinking of Search Table in the same way.
In the description above the dropdown fields needed would be Department (approximately 50 records), Area(approximately 200 records) and Chemicals(approximately 700 records). Each of those fields are dynamic with additions and deactivations occurring.
Once I created the table and connected it to the Inventory, wouldn’t it just replicate the same issue which is that there are no drop downs for connected objects but rather free text matches?

Thanks for your help!