# Parent-child form settings

With parent-child relationships, you can create an **interlinking and dependencies between forms**. It allows you to use the values of fields in a form as-is in other forms.

Parent and child forms are linked together with a key which is usually an identifier field present in both these forms. The key field in the child form will be displayed as a dropdown field with values of the submissions made to the parent form. 

{% hint style="info" %}
In the child form, the user can only select values that appear in the dropdown for the key field. The user cannot enter a new value. This is the key difference between [**Master** ](https://docs.senpiper.com/form-builder/advanced-concepts/broken-reference)forms and **parent-child** forms.
{% endhint %}

If the parent and child forms have more fields in common, you can also configure the settings such that the data entries made in a particular field of the parent form automatically get reflected in the associated fields of the child form based on the selected key field. 

## What is a parent form?

A parent form is a base form from which a child form can inherit the values of its fields.

## What is a child form?

A child form inherits the values of the fields present in the parent form.

## What is the purpose of parent-child forms?

The main purpose of parent-child forms is to use and auto-fill certain fields in the forms based on the values filled in the other forms. This reusability feature saves time and resources, and connects different forms creating a hierarchy.

## Example

Let's dig deeper into this concept with the help of an example.

Let's say we have a form called **Feature Requirement** with the following fields.

![](https://4216568905-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-Mc6E3BSGr4i8kVdH38k%2Fuploads%2F6703TSLsVv8ZH5dTszem%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=586e6f7b-fa74-4ac9-a92c-e02d6eba189a)

The following entries have been made to the **Feature ID** field of the **Feature Requirement** form:

![](https://4216568905-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-Mc6E3BSGr4i8kVdH38k%2Fuploads%2F5HBWN9vQtjSDbh74eGlG%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=23fb5db0-89e9-41f3-9ed1-d895c2069c99)

We want to use the entries made to the **Feature ID** field as options to a field in another form called **Web Tasks** in the following manner:

![](https://4216568905-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-Mc6E3BSGr4i8kVdH38k%2Fuploads%2Ff7CR4PdbNY5ccInUi58c%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=04851600-bb95-4b03-bfa0-fbe0ded4b7d8)

So here, we will set **Feature Requirement** form as a parent form and select a field that will act as key for the child form, **Web Tasks**.

![](https://4216568905-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-Mc6E3BSGr4i8kVdH38k%2Fuploads%2Fyf6h2BZbwW0yu0PT6U07%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=55d9dd44-c557-48d8-8724-94eed90350e7)

To inhertit the key field values from the **Feature Requirement** form in the **Web Tasks** form, we will set the **Web Tasks** form as a child form and select **Feature Requirement** as its parent form.

![](https://4216568905-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-Mc6E3BSGr4i8kVdH38k%2Fuploads%2FbFNJ2Cn2LHDDEgpdeXLg%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=6cde4e5a-9c9a-41ad-84c2-280a38895894)

The submitter will now be able to see the data entries made to the key field, **Feature ID** of the **Feature Requirement** form as options for the **Case** field of the **Web Tasks** form.

## Hierarchy

Let's look at the details of one of the entries made to child form **Web Tasks.**

![](https://4216568905-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-Mc6E3BSGr4i8kVdH38k%2Fuploads%2Fv6jG5HzRnKukTIQfKK5I%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=fc2dce06-b388-4fa6-9d80-e9bf4db77e28)

You can view the parent-child hierarchy of the form as given in the below image:

![](https://4216568905-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-Mc6E3BSGr4i8kVdH38k%2Fuploads%2FRTKOOT0CAMkKyeZj7F7j%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=c91e67c5-94b1-4f4f-a8a9-ab70f2aa4e8a)

As shown in the above image, the hierarchical path of the child form, **Web Tasks** is as follows: 

`Feature Requirement/Feature - 1/Web Tasks`

where,

* **Feature Requirement** is the parent form
* **Feature - 1** is the value of the key field **Feature ID** of the parent form, **Feature Requirement**
* **Web Tasks** is the child form