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Prerequisites

  • A powersheet document containing at least two entity types connected by a relationship in the data model
  • The relationship must define a valid linkRole with storage: linkedWorkItems
  • Your Polarion account must have permissions to create links between the relevant work item types
1

Confirm the Data Model Relationship

Before you can link entities, the data model must define the relationship between them. Open your data model YAML and verify the relationship exists:
PropertyPurpose
from / toThe two entity types being connected
cardinalityRelationship type (many-to-many, one-to-many, or one-to-one)
storageMust be linkedWorkItems to use Polarion link roles
linkRoleThe Polarion link role that stores the association
directNavigation property name on the from entity
backNavigation property name on the to entity
The direct and back properties create bidirectional navigation. In this example, a UserNeed entity exposes a systemRequirements navigation property, while each SystemRequirement exposes a userNeeds navigation property pointing back.
Navigate to Administration > Work Items > Link Roles in Polarion to see all available link role names. The linkRole value in your data model must match an existing Polarion link role exactly.
2

Verify Column Configuration

To link entities visually, your sheet configuration needs a column that displays the navigation property. This is typically a multi-item column bound to the relationship:
The binding path uses dot notation: the navigation property name (systemRequirements) followed by the target entity type in camelCase (systemRequirement). This column displays linked entities and provides the picker interface for creating new associations.
3

Enter Linking Mode

Powersheet offers two methods to create links between entities:
  1. Select a cell in the source row (the entity you want to link from)
  2. Click the Link button in the toolbar
  3. The sheet enters linking mode — the source row becomes highlighted and the sheet switches to row-selection mode
  4. A visual indicator on the sheet confirms that linking mode is active

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Method B: Entity Picker in a Multi-Item Column

For many-to-many relationships, use the inline picker:
  1. Double-click the multi-item cell in the source row
  2. The picker dropdown appears showing available target entities
  3. Use the search field to filter entities by title or ID
  4. Click an entity from the list to create the association immediately
diagram
4

Select the Target Entity

When using the toolbar link command (Method A), click the target row to establish the link. Powersheet validates the operation before creating the association:
  • The target entity type must match the relationship definition in the data model
  • Duplicate links between the same two entities are prevented
  • Self-referencing links (linking an entity to itself) are blocked
Powersheet silently rejects duplicate links and self-referencing links. If you click a target and nothing happens, check whether the link already exists or whether you selected the source row itself.
After selecting a valid target, the cell in the multi-item column updates to show the newly linked entity. The row is marked as modified (indicated by a visual change indicator on the row header) but the link is not yet persisted to Polarion.
5

Review Changes Before Saving

Before persisting the link, review your changes using Powersheet’s review mode:
  1. Click the Review button in the toolbar to filter the sheet to only rows with pending changes
  2. Modified rows display a change indicator on the row header
  3. The review mode filter shows a count of changed rows (format: N/M rows)
  4. Use the dropdown menu to filter specifically by Changed rows or Added items
When creating multiple links across several rows, review mode helps you verify all associations before committing. You can toggle it on and off without losing your other active filters.
6

Unlink Entities (Optional)

To remove an existing link without deleting either work item:
  1. Locate the linked entity in the multi-item column
  2. Click the Unlink action (Unlink icon used in the Powersheet work items tree to remove an association between two work items) next to the entity name
  3. The association is marked for removal — both work items remain intact in Polarion
The unlink operation follows the same save workflow: changes remain pending until you explicitly save.
Both linking and unlinking support undo/redo. Press Ctrl+Z (or Cmd+Z on macOS) to reverse a link creation or removal before saving. The undo stack tracks all link operations alongside other edits.
7

Save the Changes

Click 💾 Save to persist the new links to Polarion. During the save operation:
  1. The sheet temporarily enters a read-only state to prevent concurrent edits
  2. Entities are saved in topologically sorted order — parent entities and dependencies are persisted first to ensure referential integrity
  3. The save operation creates the appropriate link role associations in Polarion’s work item linking system
  4. On success, the undo stack is cleared and the sheet returns to its normal editable state
If an error occurs during save, Powersheet displays an error state. You must resolve the error (or reload the page) before attempting another save. The review mode remains active after a failed save so you can identify and fix problem rows.
8

Verify the Link

You should now see the linked entity displayed in the corresponding multi-item column. To confirm the link was created correctly:
  1. In Powersheet: Expand the source entity’s expansion path to see the linked target entity in the hierarchy
  2. In Polarion: Open the source work item and check the Linked Work Items section — the target should appear under the configured link role (e.g., requires)
  3. Bidirectional check: Open the target work item in Polarion and verify the back-link appears under the reverse link role

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Constrained Linking

When your data model includes constraints (such as applyCurrentDocumentTo), Powersheet automatically scopes new links to the current document context. This means:
  • The entity picker only shows entities from matching document types
  • New entities created during the linking workflow inherit the document scope
  • Multi-level constraints filter through the entire expansion path
For example, in an RTM configuration where SystemRequirement entities are constrained to a specific document type, the picker when linking from a UserNeed only shows system requirements from the correct requirements document.
Constraint behavior depends on your specific data model and project configuration. Test linking with constraints in a sandbox project before deploying to production.

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See Also

Last modified on July 10, 2026