Relationship types define how two records are associated in Slate. When creating relationship types, consider the kinds of connections records can have. Common examples include family relationships such as Spouse, Child, Parent, Sibling, or Guardian.
Relationship types can also link person records to non-person records or datasets. For example, a person may be related to a fund as a Steward or to a company as a Primary Contact. These relationship types help structure data, control reporting, and support downstream workflows and communications.
Creating a new relationship type
Prompts that you create under the relationship_type prompt key appear as a relationship type.
Go to Database → Prompts.
Select
relationship_type.Select New Prompt.
Configure the following settings:
Value: Provide the name of the type you want to have. For example,
Guardian,Sister, orBrother. With default settings, the relationship name appears for administrators and constituents.Category: Enter an optional prompt category.
Order: Enter an optional number by which to order the prompt.
Select the XML Configuration tab.
If the relationship type should get an interaction or soft credit by default, or if it should not be suggested for an interaction or soft credit, insert the appropriate PKV code in the XML section—we cover this in more detail below.
Select Save.
When finished with creating prompts, refresh your prompt tool cache and update your configurable joins library in the database (Database → Refresh Configurable Joins Library).
Prompt category
While not required, assigning each relationship type prompt a category value is highly recommended. The value for the prompt category should be a value that groups together similar relationship types. For example, Son and Daughter relationship-type prompts can both have a Child category. Likewise, the inverse of Mother and Father can have a category of Parent. Lastly, the Husband, Wife, and Spouse can have a category of Spouse.
Give relationship-type prompts a Category value. The relationship type category enables accurate joins in Configurable Joins, and assists with the head of household and salutations calculations.
Prompt order
The database ranks relationships on a record. Relationships without a relationship-type prompt category will be ranked together. Relations with a relationship-type prompt with a category are ranked in that category. A record can have multiple rank category 1 relations, but just one per relationship type category. For example, if a record has two relationships with the type of mother and a father, and both of these relationship types have the category parent, one will be assigned rank 1, and the other will be given rank 2. If this record has one other relationship with a type of husband, and the category for husband is configured as spouse, that relation record will be assigned rank 1.
When no relationship type prompt order exists, the ranking of the relationships is determined alphabetically by the relationship type prompt value. When a relationship type prompt order exists, the relationship rank will be determined numerically by the relationship type prompt order value.
The other use for a prompt order is to change the order of appearance in a list. By default, a list of prompts will appear alphabetically when no order is provided. To display a list of prompts in a specific order, provide a numeric value in the order section of the prompt. Prompts with an order will appear in numerical order.
Interactions and related records
When you create a new interaction on a record that has a relationship to other records, those other, related records can, depending on the relationship_type prompt’s settings:
Appear as suggestions that you can select to Apply to—that is, to also receive the interaction alongside the original record. In an Advancement context, this is known as a soft credit, suggested when a hard credit is entered on a related record. All related records appear this way unless you configure it otherwise.
The same as above, but pre-selected.
Not appear as a suggestion.
The XML Configuration tab of the relationship_type prompt determines whether or not records related by this type of relationship are suggested to receive the same interaction.
Paste the following code snippets in the XML field to dictate these behaviors in the following contexts:
Interactions
Always hide a type of relationship from new interactions:
<p>
<k>interaction</k>
<v>0</v>
</p>Default this relationship type as selected on new interactions:
<p>
<k>interaction</k>
<v>1</v>
</p>Gifts
Always hide the relationship type from appearing as a suggested soft credit:
<p>
<k>soft</k>
<v>0</v>
</p>Select the related record’s soft credit checkbox by default:
<p>
<k>soft_default</k>
<v>1</v>
</p>