Parent-Child Relationship Limitations

Note:

This section describes some limitations to the types of parent-child relationships you can create by customizing records. However, through scripting, you can enforce the type of relationship described here.

An administrator cannot enforce an exclusive parent-child relationship, where:

One child record belongs exclusively to one parent record, and
The child record cannot exist without the parent record

This means that the child record is indivisible from the parent record and can exist only if the parent exists. On its own, the child record has no meaning.

For example, you cannot have a serial number child record belong exclusively to an item number parent record. The serial number is considered an essential part of the item number and has no meaning without the item number. You cannot load the serial number record without the context of the item.

The following behaviors must be possible:

You can modify the parent field on the child record
The child record exists only with its parent
The life cycle of the child record is the same as the life cycle of the parent record.
You can access the child record only from the parent record (the child record does not have its own entry form)
The child record is deleted when the parent record is deleted

You must use scripting to enforce the behaviors required for exclusive parent-child relationships. For more information, see SuiteScript 2.x Scripting Records and Subrecords.

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