---
title: Create bidirectional relationships
description: Define PingIDM bidirectional relationships using reverseRelationship and reversePropertyName so objects can be queried from either side
component: pingidm
version: 7.5
page_id: pingidm:objects-guide:reverse-relationships
canonical_url: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingidm/8.1/objects-guide/reverse-relationships.html
llms_txt: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingidm/llms.txt
docs_for_agents: https://developer.pingidentity.com/build-with-ai/docs-for-agents.md
keywords: ["Data Object Model", "Relationships"]
superseded_by: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingidm/8.1/objects-guide/reverse-relationships.html
---

# Create bidirectional relationships

In most cases, you define a relationship between two objects *in both directions*. For example, a relationship between a user and his manager might indicate a *reverse relationship* between the manager and her direct report. Reverse relationships are particularly useful for queries. You might want to query jdoe's user entry to discover who his manager is, *or* query bjensen's user entry to discover all the users who report to bjensen.

You declare a reverse relationship as part of the relationship definition. Consider the following sample excerpt of the default managed object configuration:

```json
"reports" : {
    "description" : "Direct Reports",
    "title" : "Direct Reports",
    ...
    "type" : "array",
    "returnByDefault" : false,
    "items" : {
        "type" : "relationship",
        "reverseRelationship" : true,
        "reversePropertyName" : "manager",
        "validate" : true,
        ...
    }
...
```

The `reports` property is a `relationship` between users and managers. So, you can *refer* to a managed user's reports by referencing the `reports`. However, the reports property is also a reverse relationship (`"reverseRelationship" : true`) which means that you can list all users that reference that report.

You can list all users whose `manager` property is set to the currently queried user.

The reverse relationship includes an optional `resourceCollection` that lets you query a set of objects, based on specific fields:

```json
"resourceCollection" : [
    {
        "path" : "managed/user",
        "label" : "User",
        "query" : {
            "queryFilter" : "true",
            "fields" : [
                "userName",
                "givenName",
                "sn"
            ]
        }
    }
]
```

The `path` property of the `resourceCollection` points to the set of objects to be queried. If this path is not in the local repository, the link expansion can incur a significant performance cost. Although the `resourceCollection` is optional, the same performance cost is incurred if the property is absent.

The `query` property indicates how you will query this resource collection to configure the relationship. In this case, `"queryFilter" : "true",` indicates that you can search on any of the properties listed in the `fields` array when you are assigning a manager to a user or a new report to a manager.

To configure these relationships from the admin UI, refer to [Manage relationships using the admin UI](ui-relationships.html).