Dependent lookups: DS Site forms that only show what belongs to your project

A DS Site form is only as useful as the lists on it. Until now every lookup loaded its whole list: every subbie, every worker and every location across every project the business runs. A builder with 30 projects and 200 subbies saw all 200 on every form, on every project. The only way to get a project-specific list was to build a separate form per project or per subbie, and keep them all in sync by hand. This update makes DS Site forms project-aware. One lookup can now depend on another on the same form. Pick a Project, and Location only lists that project's locations. Pick a Contractor, and Person only lists their people. The lists sync from your Deep Space workspace, so one form now serves every project, and the data that lands in the Deep Space web app is tied to the right project, company and location every time. Features Dependent lookups: pick the project, and every list follows User Story As a site manager filling in a DS Site form, I used to scroll a list of every subbie, worker and location across the whole business, so I can now pick my project and only see the companies, people and locations that belong to it. Before Every Value lookup loaded every row of its list. Location showed other projects' locations, and Contractor showed every subbie the business has ever used. Nothing stopped someone picking a worker from the wrong company or a location from the wrong project. The workarounds were one giant list with type-to-search, one section per subbie, or one form per project, and every new subbie meant a form change. After A Value lookup can now depend on another Value lookup on the same form. Set two things on the child field, Depends on field and Filter column, and its list only offers rows that match the parent's value. Chains go as deep as you need: Project, then Contractor, then Person, or Project, then Building, then Level. Until the parent is chosen, the dependent field is greyed out and says what to pick first, for example Choose Project first. Change the parent and any value that no longer fits is cleared, so a form can't be submitted with a stale combination. If the chosen project has no rows yet, the field says No options for the selected Project. Editing a submission and prefilled links (including project QR codes) keep the right values. Forms that don't use it behave exactly as before. Impact Site teams pick from their project's list, not the whole business. In our testing, choosing one project cut a location list to that project's 98 locations. Adding a subbie, a worker or a location becomes a data change in Deep Space, not a form rebuild, and every submission is tied to the right project, company and location. The child field waits: Location is greyed out until a Project is picked. Pick the project, and Location only offers that project's locations. Change the project and the old location is cleared. No stale values. The same on phones, including offline (DS Site 5.1.0) User Story As a supervisor on a site with no signal, I need the same short, project-specific lists on my phone, and I need to know why a form won't submit. Before Phones showed the full list for every lookup. When a form was blocked by a dependency rule (for example a sign-in that needs a project induction), the message didn't say which form or site was missing. After DS Site 5.1.0 on iOS and Android applies dependent lookups on the phone, including offline and in drafts. Dependent fields wait for their parent, filter from the stored lists while offline, and a blocked form now names exactly what's needed first, for example a Site Induction for Site B. Impact The phone and the Deep Space web app behave the same, so one form design works everywhere, and workers can fix a blocked form themselves instead of calling the office. DS Site 5.1.0: Contractor waits for Project, and Person waits for Contractor. Filtered while offline: only the chosen project's contractors appear. A blocked form now says exactly which induction is needed first. Real user stories Here's what this looks like on a real project. Each story shows the dropdowns you set up, what people actually tap, and the list each one reads from. ITPs signed off against the exact room As a QA manager with a mechanical subbie installing fire dampers across three buildings, I need every Fire Damper ITP tied to the building, level and room it covers, so at handover I can pull every ITP for Building A, Level 3 without opening each one. The chain: Project > Building > Level > Room On site: The installer opens the Fire Damper ITP, picks the project, then Building A, then Level 3, then Room 3.04. Each list only shows what exists under the choice above it. They complete the hold points, add photos and sign. What changes: No more "which riser was this?" or GPS pins that can't tell Level 2 from Level 3. The ITP register filters by location, and the handover pack for a level is a filter, not a week of sorting. What you need: Your Location Breakdown Structure in Deep Space, synced to DS Site. Defect walks that go straight to the right subbie As a site manager walking 40 apartments before handover, I need to log each defect against the right room and the right subbie's supervisor, so the fix request reaches a person who can act on it the same day. The chain: Project > Apartment > Room, then Trade > Subcontractor > Contact On site: In Apartment 12, Bedroom 2, the site manager logs "patch and repaint east wall", picks Painting, then the painting subbie on this project, then their site supervisor. The form emails that supervisor. What changes: No scrolling 200 companies or guessing who looks after this project at the subbie. The defect list sorts by apartment for the client walk and by subbie for close-out. What you need: Your Location Breakdown Structure, plus a subcontractor contact list that carries trade and project. Your Deep Space team can set up that list with you. Site sign-in that knows which project you are on As a project manager, I need the gate sign-in to only accept workers from companies on this project who have done this project's induction, so the on-site list is accurate if there's an incident. The chain: Project (locked by the gate QR code) > Company > Worker On site: A worker scans the QR code at the gate. The project is already filled in and locked. They pick their company from the subbies on this project, then their name from that company's people. If they haven't done this project's induction, the form says so and won't submit. What changes: No "My site is not listed", no signing in to the wrong project, and the evacuation list is right because sign-ins pair up with the right project. What you need: Your projects list (already synced) and your company and worker lists. The induction check uses the dependency rules already on your sign-in form. SWMS sign-on without a form for every subbie As an HSEQ coordinator running six projects, I need workers to read and sign their own company's approved SWMS for this project, without me building and maintaining a separate sign-on form for every subbie on every project. The chain: Project > Company > Approved SWMS On site: Before starting, a worker opens SWMS Sign-on, picks the project and their company, and only sees that company's approved SWMS for this project. They open it, read it and sign. What changes: One form per project, or one for the whole business, instead of dozens. A new subbie is a new row in a list, not a new form. What you need: A list linking each project and company to its approved SWMS. Your Deep Space team will set this up with you as part of SWMS sign-on. Fire watches linked to the right Hot Work Permit As a night supervisor doing the 60-minute fire watch after hot work, I need to pick the permit I'm checking from this project's live permits, not every permit open across the business. The chain: Project > Permit On site: The supervisor scans the permit's QR code, or opens Fire Watch Check and picks the project. The permit list only shows today's live permits on this project, for example PER0030002, Hot Works, Level 4 steel connections. They complete the check and submit. What changes: Every fire watch links to one permit on one project, even with 40 permits open across the business. An auditor can trace the check to the permit in one step. What you need: The live permit list Deep Space already publishes to DS Site. Toolbox talks with the real attendance list As a foreman running the Monday toolbox talk, I need to record which crews and which workers attended on this project, so I'm not typing names or ticking from the whole company directory. The chain: Project > Company > Worker On site: The foreman picks the project, then each subbie crew on the day, and adds each attendee from that company's people only. What changes: Attendance records are accurate, so a missed toolbox talk can be followed up by company and by worker. What you need: Your company and worker lists for the project. Site photos filed in the right album and location As a contracts administrator, I need site photos filed against the right project, album and location, so I can find progress photos for a variation or a delay claim months later. The chain: Project > Album, and Project > Location On site: The site team takes photos, picks the project, then picks an album and a location from that project's lists. What changes: No photos landing in another project's album. Progress photos are ready when you need evidence. What you need: Your Site Photo albums and Location Breakdown Structure, both synced from Deep Space. More possibilities Any list works. If the data is in a spreadsheet, add a column holding the parent's value, upload it to DS Site as a resource, and point the lookup at it. Some ideas builders can set up today: Plant prestarts: Project > Plant item. The operator only sees the plant on hire to this project, from your plant register. Concrete pour records: Project > Pour > Supplier. Pick the pour from this project's pour schedule, and the supplier booked for it. Incident and hazard reports: Project > Location, plus Project > Company > Person involved. Reports land against the right place and the right people, ready for investigation. Hold point releases: Project > ITP > Hold point. The engineer releases a specific hold point on a specific ITP. Handover and practical completion checklists: Project > Building > Unit. One checklist form for every unit on every project. Multi-division businesses: Department > Project. Each division only sees its own projects on HSEQ forms, so reports split cleanly by division. Maintenance and multi-site asset inspections: Region > Site > Asset. Ideal for pump stations, depots or facilities, where inspectors only see the assets at the site they're standing on. Visitor sign-in: Project > Host. Visitors pick the person they're meeting from this project's team, so every visit is recorded against a host. Want help mapping a form? Your Deep Space team will work out the chain and the lists with you. Known limitations Phones need DS Site 5.1.0. Until a phone is updated, it shows the full list for a dependent lookup. Until your team has updated, set up dependencies on forms filled in on the web first. One parent per lookup, exact match. Each lookup depends on one other lookup and matches one column exactly. The child list's column must hold the parent's value exactly as the parent stores it, for example Horizon Dev (5), not Horizon Dev. Checked on the form, not yet on save. The form stops a mismatched pick. A server-side check on save follows shortly. How it fits together Your projects, subcontractors, people and locations live in the Deep Space web app > they sync to your DS Site channel as lists > the parent lookup (Project) reads the projects list > each child lookup filters its list by the parent's value > the submission lands in Deep Space tied to the right project, company and location. How to set it up, step by step Admin, once per form (about 5 minutes) You need two Value lookups on the same form: a parent (for example Project) and a child (for example Location Breakdown Structure). In DS Site admin, go to Content > Forms and click Edit on the form. Check the parent field is a Value lookup with Max. set to 1 (one choice only). The parent field (Project) has Max. 1. Open Advanced on the child field. On the parent, click Advanced... and check it has an Alias (for example project). A brand-new field gets its alias when the form is saved, so save the form once if you've just added it. Still in Advanced, click Value lookup configuration > Edit. Check Data (CSV) is your projects list and Depends on field is None. Close with Cancel. Advanced field options: the Alias, and Edit on Value lookup configuration. The parent reads the Projects list and depends on nothing. Now the child field. Click Advanced... on it, then Value lookup configuration > Edit. Data (CSV): choose the child list (for example your LBS list). Set Value columns and any Additional display columns as usual. Depends on field: choose the parent, for example Project (project). Only Value lookups with an alias and Max. 1 appear here. Filter column: type the name of the column in the child list that holds the parent's value, for example project_name. A row is offered only when its value in this column equals the value chosen in the parent. The child lookup: (1) its list, (2) Depends on field, (3) Filter column. Click OK, OK, then Save the form. For a three-level chain, repeat steps 5 to 9 on the next field down, for example Person depends on Contractor with Filter column contractor_id. Test it: open the form, pick a project, and check the child list only shows that project's rows. Worker or supervisor on site Open the form in DS Site, or scan the project QR code (it fills in and locks the project). The dependent field shows Choose Project first until a project is picked. Pick the project. Pick the project from the list. Pick from the short list that follows: only that project's locations, subbies or people. Picked the wrong project? Change it. The dependent fields clear, so pick again from the new list. Submit as usual. On a phone this works offline too and syncs when you're back in signal. Getting it set up Dependent lookups are live on the Deep Space web app now and come to phones with DS Site 5.1.0. Nothing is switched on for existing forms. Each form opts in when an admin sets Depends on field and Filter column. Your Deep Space team can set it up with you, starting with location (LBS) picking, project site sign-in, SWMS sign-on and subcontractor pickers. Frequently asked questions Will my existing forms change? No. A lookup only filters when Depends on field and Filter column are both set. How deep can a chain go? As deep as you need. Each field depends on one parent, and the chain follows: Project, then Contractor, then Person. Why is my dependent field empty? Either the parent hasn't been chosen yet, or the child list has no rows whose Filter column exactly matches the parent's value. Check spelling, spaces and anything in brackets, such as the project number. Why doesn't my parent appear in Depends on field? It must be a Value lookup with Max. set to 1 and an alias. If you've just added it, save the form once so it gets its alias. Does it work offline? Yes, from DS Site 5.1.0. Earlier versions show the full list. What happens if someone changes the project after picking a location? The location is cleared, so the form can't be submitted with a location from another project. Have feedback or an idea? Share it through the feedback portal in the platform. We read every one.