Limit available column values based on other column value

Question

I have a list of applications containing the following columns: Vendor, Application, Version. I am trying to make this list easy to use for those looking for information and those entering information. To do this, I plan to create a term set and convert the columns to Managed Metadata columns and enable metadata navigation for easy searching/filtering.

I plan to create a term set that looks like this:

• Vendors
  • Vendor 1
  • Vendor 2
  • Vendor 3
  • Vendor 4
• Applications
  • Application 1
  • Application 2
  • Application 3
  • Application 4
• Version
  • Version 1.2
  • Version 1.3
  • Version VI
  • Version VII
  • Version IX
  • Version A

I want to make it so that when a user specifies a Vendor only the relevant Application values are available in the Application column. The same would then apply for application when choosing the value for the Version column. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to do this.

I thought about using a heirarchy for the term set, but that seemed problematic because it would mean that each field (Vendor, Application, and Version) in the managed metadata area would present a full tree view. I want each field to be limited to the correct values (for simplicity and to avoid the possibility that when creating list items, someone could possibly choose a Vendor for the Application column). Also, if two applications had nested Version values that were the same (e.g. - both used roman numerals for versions like Adobe does, filtering by a value of IX would only return the value for one of the Apps and not both since there are two of the same terms).

Does anyone know how I can limit available column values based on other column value? I am also open to other suggestions of how this could be better set up. It will work as I currently have it, but because there are so many values it won't really help very much.

I should mention that I do not know much coding.

Answer 1

You could create 3 lists. One for each Vendor, Application and Version. The lists Application and Version could include a lookup column to the Vendor. Therefore all applications and Versions are mapped to Vendor. Create custom views for Application and Version data.

Then create a new page. Then add the List filter webpart and the two custom views to the page. Connect the custom views to the List filter based on Vendor Name.

This will give you a selection of Vendor and then display only the application and Version information related to that vendor and based on your custom views.