Visualization Formats for Flexible Hierarchies
Discover how to leverage Graph and Grid views, navigate via exploratory and search modes, and use advanced viewing capabilities to gain intelligent insights from Flexible Hierarchies.
Required Editions
Available in: Lightning Experience Available in: Unlimited and Agentforce Editions |
View Options
Users can visualize flexible hierarchies by using the Graph and Grid views.
- Graph View: Visualize your data as an interactive network of nodes designed for active hierarchy management. As the primary workspace for modification, it’s the only perspective that supports full search functionality alongside real-time editing of nodes and relationships. This dynamic environment helps you to navigate complex connections and update the structure instantly as business requirements evolve.
- Grid View: Provides a structured, read-only perspective optimized for comprehensive data review and analysis. Unlike the Graph View, expanding a node in this interface automatically reveals all descendants by using clear indentation to visualize hierarchical depth. Because these perspectives operate independently, switching between them resets the focus to the root node, ensuring a clean, consistent starting point for your analysis in either format. The Grid view shows up to 2,000 nodes per-page load.
When you switch from Graph view to Grid view or vice versa, the display is reset to the root node. Any expanded branches or specific nodes currently in focus are cleared.
Use the Graph View to make real-time updates, and switch to Grid View for a comprehensive, nested look at the entire structure. Together, these perspectives provide the flexibility required to manage your data effectively.
Navigation and Interaction Modes
The flexible hierarchy interface operates in two distinct modes to help you navigate and locate data efficiently.
- Exploratory Mode: It’s the default state used for manual browsing. It focuses on one
branch of the hierarchy at a time to maintain visual clarity.
- Contextual Highlighting: When you select a node, the system highlights its specific context, moving up the view one level and one level down.
- Single-Branch Expansion: To prevent the graph from becoming cluttered, only one parent's children can be expanded at a time. Expanding a sibling node automatically collapses the previously opened branch.
- Search Mode: Activate this specialized state by searching for a specific node by name to
identify its precise location within the hierarchy. This mode is designed to isolate the
target record and highlight its path, showing its exact position relative to the broader structure.
- Lineage Visualization: Shows the searched node alongside its direct ancestors and immediate children, providing critical context without overwhelming the user with the entire dataset.
- Focused Results: Provides visual clarity by isolating the searched node and its immediate children while keeping parent and sibling branches collapsed. This mode makes sure that the interface remains centered on your specific search result, preventing the distraction of unrelated data paths.
- Default View: Exit search mode by clearing the search bar or manually expanding a different node. This action returns the view to its baseline configuration, showing only the root node and its immediate children.
Editing Hierarchies in Hierarchy Builder
Editing a flexible hierarchy is a controlled process limited to specific users and views.
- Access and Requirements: Editing capabilities are reserved for Hierarchy Admins and
Hierarchy Managers with the appropriate permissions.
- The Edit button only appears for users with the necessary access levels.
- Editing is exclusively supported in the Graph View.
- Scope: When modifying the hierarchy, it is important to understand the distinction
between the structure and the record.
- You can add or edit nodes within the hierarchy, but changes are limited to relationship records.
- Users can’t change the overall hierarchy logic or edit the reference fields of a specific node through this interface.
- Deleting Nodes: Deleting a node is a permanent action that affects the branches beneath it. When you remove a node, that node and all its child nodes are removed from the hierarchy recursively.
