Nate Montgomery @ SmartSuite
Merged in a post:
Add Sub-Items Field Type to Forms for Managing Complex Data like Family Members
K
Kulbir
We request the addition of a Sub-Items field type to SmartSuite forms. This feature would greatly enhance our ability to manage complex, nested data structures directly within forms, particularly for scenarios like tracking family member information.
Use Case: As an immigration consultant, I often need to collect detailed information about an applicant's family members. Currently, the form structure doesn't allow for efficient capture of this hierarchical data.
Jon Darbyshire
Hey Kulbir, thanks for your feedback! I have a few more questions for you:
- Can you provide more details on the type of information you need to capture about each family member?
- How many levels of nested data do you typically need to capture for each applicant?
- Are there any specific challenges you're facing with the current form structure when capturing hierarchical data?
K
Kulbir
Hi Jon Darbyshire,
Thank you for your prompt reply and follow-up questions. I'm happy to provide more details:
- Regarding the type of information we need to capture about each family member:We typically need to collect the following details:This list may vary slightly depending on the specific immigration program or application type.
- Full Name
- Date of Birth
- Place of Birth
- Current Address
- Occupation
- Marital Status
- As for the levels of nested data:In most cases, we would need 1 level of nesting (i.e., the applicant and their immediate family members). However, in some complex cases, we might need up to 2 or 3 levels, especially when dealing with extended family applications or multi-generational families.
- Regarding specific challenges with the current form structure:The main challenge we face is the variability in family sizes among our clients. Some may have no dependents, while others might have several. The current structure doesn't allow for this flexibility without creating multiple separate fields that often go unused. Sub-items would solve this problem by allowing us to add as many family members as needed for each client.
Additionally, I'd like to provide another use case that would benefit from sub-items with formula capabilities:
Travel History Tracking:
We often need to capture a client's travel history, which can vary greatly in the number of entries. For each trip, we typically need to record:
- Country visited
- City
- Start date
- End date
- Reason for travel
- Number of days
Ideally, if SmartSuite had
Formula fields inside sub-items
, we could automate the calculation of the number of days (End date - Start date = days). This would not only save time but also reduce the risk of manual calculation errors.These enhancements would significantly improve our ability to manage complex client data efficiently and accurately. We appreciate your consideration of this feature request.
Please let us know if this feature is possible and if it will be implemented in the near future. We are currently building our app in Bubble.io, which is proving to be very difficult and time-consuming compared to SmartSuite. We wish SmartSuite had more robust features like those found in other form apps such as JotForm and Zoho Forms.
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.