Field Dependencies

By default, all Project fields in a FootPrints Project are displayed in the Issue Information section of the Create Issue and Edit Issue pages.  Depending on your needs, you may, for example, prefer to have some fields only appear depending on the problem type selected, or you might want to have the list of choices in a drop-down restricted by the choice made in the preceding drop-down.  Both of these options are available in FootPrints and can be used alone or in combination.  Multiple dependencies can be configured per Project, and multi-level "dependency groups" can be created to funnel the user to categories and sub-categories with different choices, depending on what is selected for each drop-down.

There are two kinds of field dependencies supported in FootPrints:

• Pop-up Window Containing Dependent Fields—Designate a drop-down choice field as a decision field which, depending on the user's choice, displays a pop-up window with fields that are specific to that choice.  For example, a field called Error Message can be displayed in a pop-up window only if the user selects Software Error from a Problem Type field.
• Dynamic Drop-down Dependency Groups—Designate a set of drop-down choice fields to create an unlimited number of categories and sub-categories for which the available choices are restricted in each field based on what was selected in the previous field.  This feature can be used for simple two-field dependencies (e.g., a software application with dependent version numbers), or complex, multi-level groups of dependent fields that guide the user to drill-down and select more and more granular data to define the problem.  For example, if a user selects Hardware from a Problem Type field, the next drop-down displays a list of hardware types (PC, NIC, Mouse, Keyboard, etc.)  If the user picks NIC, the next drop-down lists known network card problems, etc.