Reusing large amounts of values between datafields in different concepts

Clause9 Drafting Clauses
1

We recently received the following question from a user and wanted to share our answer with the rest of the ClauseBase Community:

If we create a datafield in the form concept^state, and then create predefines for all 50 US states, is there any way to reuse that list of 50 predefined when we use concept-2^state?

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This can be done through the somewhat advanced topic of spreadbases. Spreadbases are intended to solve a practical problem facing many users of ClauseBase: some data sets are just a little too large to store as predefined values in a Concept or Q&A Question, while other data sets are just a little too small to be worth the hassle of setting up a full-fledged database outside of ClauseBase. For more information on how to set up a spreadbase, check out this article.

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The spreadbased is great functionality, which I have now successfully used to populate a large number of choices for the user of a Q&A.

As a basic follow-up question, I wonder whether a spreadbase can be used in a similar fashion to populate choices (as predefines or otherwise) into a document in assembly mode.

A couple of use cases:

  • A list of the 50 US states (same as what I did in the Q&A). Could I use the same spreadbase in assembly?
  • Somewhat related to the above, list with pieces of related text. E.g., a 50-state list where each state is associated with other information in successive columns, such as the title of the corporate formation in that state (certificate of formation, articles of formation). I want to then code a datafield such that the user (1) sees a choice af the 50 states and (2) the datafield will automatically insert data from x columns over in the row of the selected state, like the formation document title.

Is this possible and easy enough to do?

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Hi Kenneth,

It’s not currently possible, but this will become part of a new set of functions intended to make the Document Assembly mode more attractive to end-users (instead of mainly targeted at clause authors, as is currently the case). This new functionality should become available by the end of Q1.

5

Good to know.

So currently, if I needed to do the equivalent of “lookups” in Excel, I’d either just need to code several different conditions in document assembly or I’d handle it through the Q&A, right?

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Correct. Assemble Document was not originally designed with this level of “polish” in mind (that’s what the Q&A was designed to do). But we see that legal experts — rightfully — consider Assemble Documents to be the more interesting mode, so they are asking for some more polish in Assemble Document. Accordingly, that’s what we will add in an upcoming release.

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