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Data Field Settings

This article covers the following data field settings:

The Data Field Edit page shows all information related to the data field. Below are explanations of each one of the data field settings in detail.

Caption

The caption is the title of the data field and will be the word / phrase shown on the left hand side of each view page in PPO as well as at the top of each column on tables on list pages and reports. 

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List Pages:

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Description

The description places the field in context and provides an indication of the information that should be provided. The description can be seen from the front-end of PPO when you hover over the field caption (tooltip function). The tool tip is limited to 255 characters.

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Category

Categories are used to group data fields together, for example, showing all data fields relating to basic issue information together and those relating to issue classification together.

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Categories can be created on the Data Field Edit page by clicking on the Add button next to the category field.

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The listed category will disappear and the user will be able to enter a new category.

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Once the name of the new category has been entered, click on the apply changes (check) to save the new category as shown above.  Once a category has been added it will be available in the category drop-down list.

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To rename the category for multiple fields.  Simply select the fields where the new Category should apply.  Once selected, you will notice Rename Category option under the Actions button as shown in the below screenshot. .

Then just provide the new name and Submit.

To move a category, rearrange the sort order of the fields on the entity. The categories will keep the fields grouped together but will still maintain the overall sort order of the fields on the entity.

To delete a category, simply move all fields out of the category. Once a category has no fields allocated to it, it will disappear and will no longer be available from the category drop-down list. 

Calculated

PPO allows you to define fields that do not require manual input by a user. These fields can be defined by a calculation or formula, based on other data, within PPO. 

When the calculated field is added, a box for the formula will be available underneath the calculated check box.

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For more information on calculated fields and how to implement them, please access the following knowledge base article.

Field Type

PPO allows for different types of data to be captured by using different types of data fields.

For more explanations on all the different types of data fields access the following knowledge base article.

Color Styling

For Date fields, PPO allows you to apply Color Styling.  The options are either No Styling (no color will be applied) or styling to Highlight upcoming or overdue dates.  

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If No Styling is selected, no colors will show on dates.

Where Highlight upcoming or overdue dates are applied, dates are shown as below:

  • RED if in the past 
  • AMBER if its due in the next 7 days 
  • No color where the date is in the future.

Once you have applied Color Styling then you can also decide on which items to apply the styling by using the Apply Color Styling To option. This will allow you access to apply styling to all records or to a filtered list, in the example below, the Only Open Tasks filter is applied and thus color styling will only apply to open tasks and where the task is completed (actual progress = 100%) no color styling will apply.

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Default value

You have the ability to set default values for all field types with the exception of the consecutive number field. Below is an example of a Status custom list with a default value set to Open status.

Auto Clear

For Free Text type fields you can select Auto Clear which means that each time a user edit a record, the previous value in the field is cleared and makes way for a new value. 

Number of Decimals

For Currency, Decimal, and Percentage field types you have the ability to specify the number of decimals. The maximum decimal places allowed is 11.

Required

The required check box shows whether a field needs to be populated before the user can submit the record or whether the fields may be left blank.  Required fields will be shown with a grey background (rather than the white background for non-required fields).

If a user neglects to specify a value for a required field, they will see a front end validation in red indicating that those fields should be completed before the record can be submitted.

Note that certain standard data fields are by default required and cannot be made non-required without the assistance from the PPO Support Team. The reason they are by default required is, because they are used on standard reports and dashboards, and also in certain calculations.

Hidden

If required, calculated fields can be hidden. This means the field will no longer appear on the front-end of PPO. This can be used where calculated fields are required for event handlers or validation rules.

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In Use

For a field to become active, available and visible from the front end of PPO, the In Use field must be checked. If the In Use field is unchecked, the field will not appear on the front end and will not be able to store any data.

Also note that if a field is taken out of use, all data stored in that field up to date, will be lost. It is therefore a good idea to check where a field is being referenced before it is taken out of use.  PPO has functionality to help you understand where a field is being used.

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To take a field out of use, uncheck the In Use check box on the Data Fields Edit page.

Include in List

The include in list setting indicates whether the field should appear as a column on the list page by default.

Note: the setting above is only to provide a default setting to all users on the instance. The user can set their own list preferences by clicking on the Settings icon.

Sort Order

The sort order defines the order in which the fields appear within the entity. The sort order can be specified manually from this field, or by using the Fields Sort Order icon.

More information

For more information on Data Fields you can refer to this knowledge base article.

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