Entry links
An entry link connects two entries with a named, typed relationship, such as a contact who works at a company or a contact involved in a deal. Unlike a reference field, a link can carry a role, a label, and a primary flag, and it is read from both sides. The link types come from a fixed set.
An entry link connects two entries with a named, typed relationship, such as a contact who works at a company or a contact involved in a deal. Unlike a reference field, a link can carry a role, a label, and a primary flag, and it is read from both sides. The link types come from a fixed set.
Requirements
None to read. To create links: a role that can edit the entries involved.
What an entry link is
An entry link (elsewhere: association) is a connection between two entries that is not stored in either of them as a field. It has a type that says what the connection means and which way it points. Four types are available:
| Link type | Connects | Can carry a role |
|---|---|---|
| Company of | A contact and the company they work at | Yes, such as Buyer or Decision maker |
| Deal contact | A deal and a contact involved in it | Yes, such as Champion or Signer |
| Reports to | A person and the person they report to | No |
| Attached note | A note and the entry it is about | No |
All four are many-to-many: a contact can work at several companies, and a deal can involve several contacts.
What a link can carry
- Role: what this connection is, on types that allow it. A consultancy links three contacts to a deal as Sponsor, Evaluator, and Signer.
- Primary: one link of a type can be marked primary, such as a contact's main company. Marking a new one primary clears the old one.
- Label and position: a free label and an order among links of the same kind.
Link or reference?
Use a reference field when one side owns the pointer: an order has its customer, a placement has its client. Use an entry link for a relationship between peers that carries its own facts, such as the role a contact plays on a deal. A link is not a field on either entry, so it does not appear in the entry's columns; it appears alongside the entry, in both directions.
Notes and limitations
- The set of types is fixed. You cannot add your own link types. For a relationship the four types do not cover, use a reference, or a collection for the relationship itself; see Modeling compatibility between products and equipment.
- No duplicates. Creating a link that already exists does not create a second one.
- Automations can create links with a create-entry-link step, for example linking a new deal to the contact who submitted it. See Steps and actions overview.
- Filtering. You can find the entries linked to a given entry by a given type, from either side.
Related
For the model around it, see Understanding the Sonta data model.