• For more information about creating a data reference, see Creating fields for capturing data.
• For more information about viewing data models, see Exploring the data model.

Use a data page directly in your case

Use a data page without a data reference to show a read-only list of all the available instances of a particular type of data. For example, you work at a veterinary office, and a pet owner calls to schedule an appointment for their pet. You open a case to record their information. The first screen displays a table containing a list of all the possible pet owners in your system so that you can search for the person who is calling. This example does not require you to define a data reference because you are displaying a list of all pet owner accounts in your system that do not apply to the current case.

Use a data page with a data reference in a case

Use data references to access related fields from other case types or data objects that you want to reuse in the forms of your case. The data page populates those fields with the required information by connecting to the data in the specified system of record.

Defining a data reference with a data page is useful for updating data from your case or for capturing a one-to-many relationship between fields. For example, after you identify the person who is calling to schedule an appointment for their pet, you select the pet owner's account. The case displays fields that are populated with information that is specific to the caller's pet. In this example, you define a data reference to the pet owner's account from the case so that you can reuse the fields from the pet owner's account in your case. Add a data page to the data reference to store the information that you want to use in the fields of your case, such as the pet owner's name, the pet's name, and the date of the pet's last appointment.

Additionally, if the pet owner moves to a new address, you can update the address in the pet owner’s account from the case by using a data reference.