Create a User-Defined Field (UDF)

You can create any number of user-defined fields (UDFs) for a given entity; however, the total number of characters for all UDFs cannot exceed 20,000. When a new UDF is created or a change is made to an existing UDF, the ODBC Dictionary file and other system files are updated automatically to reflect the changes.

The UDFs defined for a table are defined for all companies; different sets of UDFs cannot be created for each company. You can, however, use the Customizer module to create panels containing different UDFs for each company. The field name, control type, and other attributes that determine the type of information to store in the field can be specified for each UDF.

Note Panels in the Customer Relationship Management module cannot be customized, and UDFs cannot be created for Customer Relationship Management tables.

Use one of the following methods to create a UDF:

To create a UDF for modules other than Job Cost, Material Requirements Planning, Payroll, TimeCard, and Work Order
To create a UDF for the Job Cost, Material Requirements Planning, Payroll, TimeCard, and Work Order modules

To create a UDF for modules other than Job Cost, Material Requirements Planning, Payroll, TimeCard, and Work Order

Select Custom Office Main menu > User-Defined Field and Table Maintenance.
Select the table to add the UDF to.
In the User-Defined Fields window, click Add.
In the Add Field window, enter the field name and description. For more information, see Add Field - Fields.
To copy the UDF definition and data from another field, select Business Object and select the data source and column. To enter all UDF data manually, select Manual Entry.
Click OK. A second Add/Edit Field window appears.

Note If the field properties are based on a business object selected in Add Field, [Sourced] appears next to the field, and the field properties cannot be changed.

In the second Add/Edit Field window, change the description if desired. Select a control type. For more information, see Add Field/Edit Field - Fields.
Click the Attributes tab, and enter the UDF attributes.
Click the Validation tab, and enter the data validation types. To validate the UDF against an existing user-defined table (UDT) whose key field length is the same as that of the UDF, select User-Defined Table. Click OK.
In the User-Defined Fields window, click OK.
When you are prompted to update the ODBC data dictionary and UDF data files, click OK.

The UDF is created. After you have created the UDF, you can add it to a panel or a Crystal report. For more information, see Add a User-Defined Field (UDF) to a Panel.

To create a UDF for Job Cost, Material Requirements Planning, Payroll, TimeCard, and Work Order modules

Select Custom Office Main menu > User-Defined Field and Table Maintenance.
Select the module and table you are adding the UDF to. Click the Edit Fields button at the top of the User-Defined Field and Table Maintenance window.
In the User-Defined Fields window, click Add.
In the Add Field window, type the field name and description. Select a control type. For more information, see Add Field - Fields.
Click the Attributes tab, and enter the UDF attributes.
Click the Validation tab, and enter the data validation types. Click OK.
In the User-Defined Fields window, click OK. When you are prompted to update the ODBC data dictionary and UDF data files, click OK.

The UDF is created. After you have created the UDF, you can add it to a panel or a Crystal report. For more information, see Add a User-Defined Field (UDF) to a Panel.

When a change is made to a UDF, the ODBC Dictionary file and other system files are updated automatically to reflect the changes. If a UDF is deleted, all existing UDF data files for the entity are updated to remove the data field. The update process is performed for all UDF files for all defined companies.