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Relationships

Relationships are associations between objectsSalesforce says, "An object allows you to store information in your Salesforce organization." that retrieve data that you can use in the documents that you generate. Different types of relationships between objects in Salesforce determine how they handle data deletion, sharing, and required fields in page layouts.

To view video tutorials on how to use this Nintex capability, take the Nintex Drawloop DocGen for Salesforce - Intermediate course in Nintex University.

What can you do with relationships?

Relationships send the data within objects to your DocGen PackagesA customizable package that consists of your Salesforce data, documents, and delivery configurations for documents you want to generate. to create documents. The Field Tagger shows tagsA prefilled word block that DocGen selects for fields in your DocGen Package. The tag is a placeholder for the value being retrieved from Salesforce and it gets replaced with the relevant information when the document is generated. that represent what data is available for that DocGen Package.

You can use relationships to:

Types of relationships

There are five different types of relationships. You can combine relationship types to get the data you need for your DocGen Packages.

Relationship Type Description
Relationships from Starting Objects Starting Object Relationships are known as the basic relationships. We recommend you use this option first.
Relationships from Other Objects Relationships from Other Objects are the same as Starting Relationships. Use these when you want to create a relationship from an additional standard objectObjects that are in a Salesforce org by default e.g. Account, Contact, Lead, Opportunity..
Stand Alone Data Relationships Stand Alone Data Relationships are used when you don't know what object to use or has the data you need for your DocGen Package.
SOQL Query Relationships SOQL Query Relationships are perfect for users who are comfortable with SOQL or if there is a complex relationship that would be hard to express using another relationship type.
Apex Data Relationships Apex Data Relationships are perfect for users who are comfortable with Apex. You can extract and process data in one step.

Relationship Limits

30,000 Row Limit

  • There is a maximum of 30,000 rows of data allowed from all relationships combined.

Repeat By Limit

Each repeat by option has their own limits. You can use repeat by options to build replication tables, groups of tables, or duplicating document sections.

Section Copies a specific section in your document that has unique data.
Table Copies tables. Each table has unique data.
Row Copies rows that have unique data in each row.
Group Duplicates tables that are grouped by field type.
Hierarchy Creates slides with a hierarchy of relationships based on field type.

The Default value is row.

Group as a repeat by type is only available with the following relationship types:

  • Starting Object Relationships: You can only group with parent relationships.
  • Apex Data Relationships: Select Group as the Repeat By option.
  • Stand Alone Data Relationships: Select Group as the Repeat By option.

Grouping is only available with Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint templates.

  Word PowerPoint PDF/Excel/Excel as Middleware
Section X    
Table X X (Slide Replication)  
Row X X X
Group X X  
Hierarchy X X  

The default value is row.

  Starting Object Other Object Stand Alone SOQL Query Apex Data
Section X X   X X
Table X X   X X
Row X X   X X
Group X X     X
Hierarchy X X   X X

The default value is Row.

  Word PowerPoint Excel/PDF
Row X X X
Table X X (Slide Replication)  
Table + Row X X (Slide Replication + Row)  
Section X    
Section + Row X    
Section + Table X    
Section + Section X    
Section + Table + Row X    
Section + Section + Row X    
Section + Section + Table X    
Section + Section + Section X    

Common relationship fields

Many relationships use the same fields (eg Alias) when creating or managing relationships. The table below shows common fields shared between relationships types:

Section Field

Description
Information Alias

This field helps you differentiate filtered relationships from one another. Also, a new tag is created using the name that you enter for the Alias field.

Alias Requirements:

  • Can only contain underscores (_) and alphanumeric characters (a - z, A - Z, 0 - 9)
  • Must be unique and not match the names of Salesforce Custom or Standard Objects (e.g. lead, account, opportunity), or stripped Custom Object API names with namespace and suffix removed, including those within installed packages
  • Here are a list of words that may not be used for an alias:

    • Opportunity_LineItem

    • Quote_LineItem

    • Product
    • Org
    • OCR
    • ACR
    • CCR
    • CACR

    • Important: This applies to all current and future objects that you create.

    Example: For example, Namespace_ObjectName__c would be stripped to ObjectName; therefore, you cannot have an alias of ObjectName

  • Must begin with a letter
  • Not start or end with an underscore and not contain consecutive underscores
  Repeat By

Determines how records within your related object will be merged into your document.

  • If "Row" is selected, a row will be created within a table for each record in your related object.
  • If "Table" is selected, a new table will be created for each related record in your related object.
  Delete Table, Chart, Section (if no records) The entire table/chart/section will be deleted if your related object contains no recordsSalesforce says, "A single instance of a Salesforce object. For example, “John Jones” might be the name of a contact record.".
Order By Criteria Unnamed Drop-down box

Specifies the field which determines the order in which your related object records will be inserted into the document. Based on the field selection, the records are sorted alphabetically within your related object. If None is selected, records are sorted by Name.
  Add field A new field is added to order fields by.

 

Ascending

Specifies the field should use ascending order.

 
  Descending Specifies the field should use descending order.
Filter By Criteria Numbered filter rows Enter field criteria. You must select a field on your related object to filter by, a criteria and a value. You can have one to several filters on a relationship.
  Field The field that is getting filtered.

 

Operator

Determines how the field and value will be filtered.

 

 

Value

The keyword used by the operator to filter the data.

 

 


Removes a filter line.

 

 

 Add Filter A new filter row will be added.

 

 

Advanced Filter

Refines filter by using Boolean logic expressions in Advanced Filter Conditions. For more information, see Add Filter Logic in the Salesforce documentation.

 

Filter a relationship

You can use filters in a relationship so tags that are generated from that relationship will only show the filtered information.

For example, say you want to connect a custom objectSalesforce says, "Custom records that allow you to store information unique to your organization." to a standard objectObjects that are in a Salesforce org by default e.g. Account, Contact, Lead, Opportunity. using a Starting Object relationship, but you only want certain details from your custom object to appear in the output.

Some filters are only available for some relationships, while others have limitations.

Relationship Description
Starting Object This is an optional field. Filtering is only available for child relationships.
Other Objects This is an optional field. Filtering is only available for child relationships.
Stand Alone Data This is an optional field. Filtering is only available for child relationships.
Apex Data This is an optional field.
SOQL Query Filtering for SOQL Query relationships is done in the SOQL query.
  1. Navigate to the App Launcher by selecting the in the upper left corner, select Nintex DocGen.
  2. Select the DocGen Packages tab.
  1. Open the DocGen Package you want to filter.
  2. In the Relationships window, create a new relationship based on the type of relationship you want to create.
  1. Select the drop down arrow next to the object you want to filter.
  2. Click Add Child +.
  • Select the standard Object you want to create the relationship for.
  1. Select the Related By option:
    • None: Always available and resets the user interface.
    • Lookup from what you have: This option is dependent on the object you selected.
  2. This field is optional. In Alias, type in a short name or keyword that will differentiate a relationship to identify the tagsA prefilled word block that DocGen selects for fields in your DocGen Package. The tag is a placeholder for the value being retrieved from Salesforce and it gets replaced with the relevant information when the document is generated. from that relationship in the field tagger.
Section Copies a specific section in your document that has unique data.
Table Copies tables. Each table has unique data.
Row Copies rows that have unique data in each row.
Group Duplicates tables that are grouped by field type.
Hierarchy Creates slides with a hierarchy of relationships based on field type.

The Default value is row.

  1. Click + Add Filter.
  2. Select the Field, Operator, and Value you want to filter your relationship.
    1. For example, say you want to filter your relationship to show a list containing only contacts with the name Bob.
    2. You would input the following:
    1. Field: Name
    2. Operator: is equal to
    3. Value: Bob
  3. You can use the Advanced Filter for Boolean logic expressions to refine your filter even further.
  4. Click Save.
  1. Navigate to the App Launcher by selecting the in the upper left corner, select Nintex DocGen.
  2. Select the DocGen Packages tab.
  1. Open the DocGen Package you want to filter.
  2. Navigate to a child relationship that is already linked to the master object and click Edit .
  1. Click + Add Filter.
  2. Select the Field, Operator, and Value you want to filter your relationship.
    • For example, say you want to filter your relationship to show a list containing only contacts with the name Bob.

    You would input the following:

    1. Field: Name
    2. Operator: is equal to
    3. Value: Bob
  • You can use the Advanced Filter for Boolean logic expressions to refine your filter even further.
  1. Click Save.