In order to properly distinguish between similar foreign key values, it would be useful to be able to add more information to the display value on foreign key dropdown items.
For example, let's take the following examples:
There is an orders table, which also contains a foreign key to a positions table and that position's table has a foreign key to a locations table.
When editing or adding a order, the user needs to specify the position for the order, and in order to accurately select the position they need to use both the name and location for the position, since position names are not unique across locations.
In this case it would be useful for the position foreign key dropdowns to display the following information:
  • Position's primary attribute value
  • Position location's primary attribute
Currently we only display the position's primary attribute (as well as it's primary key), but that is not enough information to easily identify correct values from the foreign key dropdown.
Yes you could look up the position by it's primary key, but that requires you to navigate to the position table and filter by the primary key to find the additional information you need.
Created by Robert Cooper
November 19, 2021