Information
User Defined Fields (or UDFs) are custom fields that can be added to Issuetrak by Administrators to allow additional information to be provided in:
- Issues
- Organization records
- User records
- Products/Services records in the Billing Module (if licensed)
If you are an Administrator in Issuetrak, you can find the menu to edit UDFs by navigating to the gear icon in the upper right corner and then choosing User Defined Fields along the lefthand side. This menu has three sub-menu options corresponding to where they will appear in Issuetrak: Issue, Organization, and User.
Issue UDFs
The Issue Fields screen allows User Defined values to be specified as types:
- Text
- Large Text
- List (Table Driven)
- Date
- Decimal
- Integer
- Yes/No
- Hyperlink
- Issue Association
Once created, any fields will be available to be included on any custom screen. Fields are automatically included on the Issuetrak Screen, but must be manually included on any other created screens. Only users with the Can view and enter content in Private Optional Fields permission will be able to view and maintain fields with Private selected.
Additionally, the selections and content from these fields are copied over to new issues when:
- Cloning issues
- Using Quick Picks
- Recurring Issues are configured to use specific values or Quick Picks
- Submitting multiple new issues via Global Issues
- IEM is configured to use Quick Picks that contain user defined fields with values pre-selected
Text
Text UDFs can contain free-form text up to a limit of 250 characters.
Large Text
Large Text UDFs can contain free-form text up to a limit of 7800 characters.
List
List UDFs are a form of table-driven fields that can contain entries with up to 50 characters each.
Date
Date UDFs simply allow users to set a date from a calendar.
Decimal
Decimal UDFs allow users to enter a decimal value from -2147483647.99 to 2147483646.99. A secondary limitation is that this field is limited to 250 characters.
Integer
Integer UDFs allow users to enter an integer value from -2147483648 to 2147483647.
Yes/No
Yes/No UDFs allow users to set the field to Yes or No.
Hyperlink
Hyperlink UDFs allow users to enter a hyperlink into the field, up to a limit of 250 characters.
Issue Association
Issue Association UDFs allow users to link other isues that are related to the issue they are currently working in.
Issue Association UDFs are displayed in either single or dual columns, depending on the information relevant to the current issue.
- The first column is entitled "Associated Issues", and it can display either None or a list of issues that have been added to the current issue from the Edit Issue screen. The issues listed here have been linked from the current issue.
- The second column is entitled "Listed On", and it will only display if there is relevant data. When this column is displayed, it shows a list of issues that the current issue has been associated with. The issues listed here have linked the current issue from the issues listed.
Some additional information about Issue Association UDFs:
- Users require "Can Edit Issues" permission in order to add or remove issues to associate with this field.
- Issues linked in this field will open in a new browser tab.
- This field is reportable in Report Writer via the following columns in all Issue data sets:
- [UDF Display Name] Associated With Number
- [UDF Display Name] Associated With (All)
- [UDF Display Name] Listed On Number
- [UDF Display Name] Listed On (All)
Steps
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Navigate to Administration > System > System Settings > User Defined Fields > Issue Fields.
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Click Add New UDF and then select the type of field from the dropdown list.
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Give the field a name in the Display Name field and check the Private box if necessary.
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(Optional) For Text, Decimal and Integer fields, define how wide you want the box to appear on the screen. Sizes range from Tiny – 75px to 5XL – 700px. If not adjusted, the default of XL – 300px will apply.
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(Optional) You may set a Tooltip to appear when hovering over the field.
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Click Add UDF, and the popup window will disappear and your field will appear on the list, organized by type.
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For any List (Table Driven) fields, the values to appear in the drop down selection list need to be defined. Click on edit by the appropriate field and for the List Data section, click add new and enter the Display Name and Display Order for each dropdown value. Click Add Item to save the value.
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Continue to add additional values by clicking add new and once all values are defined, click Update.
Organization UDFs
Organization UDFs are fields that will appear on all Organization records in your Issuetrak site. These fields appear in your Organization records based on their activation by a System Administrator(s) in Administration > System > System Settings > User Defined > Organization. Once activated, corresponding values for these fields can be maintained by users with Can access and maintain Administration functions from Organizations > User Defined Fields. The custom fields configured on the User Defined Fields – Organization Record screen will display on all organization records.
Keep the following things in mind:
- The Label defined on this screen will be used throughout Issuetrak when referring to the User Defined Fields you create.
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Any field that is checked will appear in your Organization records with the label you define.
Table Driven fields are fields with Administrator defined selectable values. Once activated, a User Defined menu option will appear in the Administration menu. From this menu, the corresponding tables can be populated with appropriate values. Text Fields are fields with no pre-determined values. These fields will appear as free fields in Organization records. Date Fields will require a date value which can be entered or selected from a popup calendar in an Organization record.
User Record UDFs
The custom fields configured on the User Fields screen will display on all user records.
There are pre-programmed fields for user ID, password, first and last name, phone, email, pager email, mailing address and time zone.
You may define additional information needed on user records (as well as issue and organization records) through System Settings > User Defined Fields > User Fields. This can include fields that are:
- Table-driven – selected from a drop-down list
- Text-based – entered freely
- Date-based – entered in date format or selected from the calendar search
However, there is a limit to how many of these fields you can create in each format.
Steps
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Navigate to Administration > System > System Settings > User Defined Fields > User Fields.
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Select and enter a Label for each field. Note that once activated, value sets for Table Driven Fields may be maintained from Administration > Users > User Defined Fields.
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Click Update.
The message Parameters successfully updated will then appear.
Billing Module UDFs
Customers that utilize the Billing Module have the option of creating UDFs for Products and Services. This requires Administrative privileges. In order to find and maintain these UDFs, navigate to Modules --> Billing along Issuetrak's top navigation bar, click Products/Services along the lefthand side, then choose User Defined Fields.
Three UDFs can be defined for the Billing Module, and they are all Text UDFs. These cannot be changed to Date or Table-driven UDFs.
To activate one of these UDFs, simply enter a value in the field and then click Update. The field will then be added with the label you entered on the Products/Services screen.
To inactivate a UDF, remove the corresponding label you set for it and then click Update. The field will be removed from the Products/Services screen.
