Creating user-defined fields for your own use
An Asta Powerproject project that is saved in Asta Powerproject's .PP format is essentially a database. You can add your own user-defined fields to tables in the database. For example, you might want to add fields for country codes or national insurance numbers.
User-defined fields are particularly useful when combined with OLE automation. For example, you might want to integrate a stock control system with Asta Powerproject and have part numbers from the stock control system stored in your project with resource properties. To do this, you could write a macro invoking OLE functions to read the part numbers from the stock control system and write them into your Asta Powerproject project once the user-defined field has been set up.
Macros are not available in Asta Powerproject SaaS.
You can use user-defined fields to link objects, for example tasks and resources, to external documents. You do this by creating 'URL'-type user-defined fields. You can then enter hyperlinks to external documents, or to webpages on the internet or an intranet, into these fields in your projects.
To create user-defined fields for local projects (.PP files), you use the User Field Manager dialog in the Asta Powerproject client.
To create user-defined fields for projects that are stored in a data source on the server, use Server Admin, which is supplied with Asta Enterprise. Refer to Server Admin Help for details of creating user-defined fields in Server Admin.
Creating user-defined fields for a local project
A local project is one that has been saved as a .PP file, as opposed to a project stored on a server-mounted data source. You can create user-defined fields for local projects within Asta Powerproject, and use them to store any information that you cannot store in Asta Powerproject's standard fields.
You can use user-defined fields to link objects, for example tasks and resources, to external documents. You do this by creating 'URL'-type user-defined fields. You can then enter hyperlinks to external documents, or to webpages on the internet or an intranet, into these fields in your projects.
To create user-defined fields for a local project:
- Open the project for which you want to create user-defined fields.
- On the Project tab, in the Properties group, click User Field Manager. The User Field Manager dialog appears (the User Field Manager command is unavailable if the project contains any unsaved changes, if a Properties dialog is active, or if the project is stored on a server-mounted data source).
The tables in the database are listed in the Object type field. When you select a table, any user-defined fields created for that table are displayed in the field below. - Select the table to which you want to add a user-defined field in the Object type field, then click Add. For example, if you want to create a user-defined field for which you can enter information for each bar, select Bar. The Add User Field dialog appears.
- Select the type of field that you want to create:
- String - a text box, for example for a name or comment field.
- Integer - a field for whole numbers.
- Float - a field for decimal numbers.
- Boolean - a true/false field, for example for an option that can be on or off. Boolean fields are shown as check boxes.
- Date - a date/time field, to record the date or time.
- Duration - a field for durations that are recorded using a combination of numbers and time units. For example, you could store durations such as "2d" or "3w 2d" in a duration-type user-defined field.
- URL - a field in which you can enter hyperlinks to external documents, either as path and file names or as URL links to webpages on the internet or an intranet.
- Enter a name for the field in the User Field Name field. To avoid possible naming conflicts with future versions of Asta Powerproject, prefix the user-defined field name with a unique string such as your company name or a non-English word.
- Click OK to confirm the dialog and create the new user-defined field. The user-defined field appears in the User Field Manager dialog.
- Click Apply to apply the new user-defined field to the database, Close to apply the user-defined field and close the User Field Manager dialog, or Cancel to abandon the new user-defined field. When you click Apply or Close, any views onto the active project are closed so that the database can be updated.
Once you have created a user-defined field, that user-defined field is normally available on an object's Properties dialog (a User Fields tab is available on the Properties dialog when user-defined fields are available for the selected object), or as a separate column in the Library Explorer list view. Some user-defined fields might be found elsewhere in the Asta Powerproject interface.
You can specify the number of decimal places that are displayed for float-type user-defined fields:
- Use the Decimal places for user fields field on the Format tab of the Options dialog to specify the number of decimal places to display when they appear on Properties dialogs and on the properties view.
- If you display a float-type user-defined field in a spreadsheet column, you specify the number of decimal places by formatting the spreadsheet column and - with Number selected in the Category field - entering a number in the Decimal places field on the Number tab of the Format Cells dialog.
You can enter information into your user-defined fields from within Asta Powerproject, or by editing the project in a compatible database program.
You can filter on user-defined fields. For example, if you create a user-defined field called Part Number, you can filter your project to concentrate on particular part numbers.
To remove a user-defined field from a local project
- On the Project tab, in the Properties group, click User Field Manager. The User Field Manager dialog appears.
- Select the user-defined field you want to remove.
- Click Remove. A dialog appears, asking you to confirm the action.
- Click Yes to confirm the deletion, then close the User Field Manager dialog.
If you remove a user-defined field from a project, any information that was stored in the field is also lost.