Working with user-defined fields

To create a user-defined field of any type other than enumeration:

1. On the User Defined Fields page, click Create User Defined Field. The appropriate Add User Defined Field page appears.
2. Enter a descriptive name for the user-defined field in the Name field.
3. Specify the type of the user-defined field - 'Integer', 'String', etc - in the Field type field.
4. For string-type user-defined fields, the following optional fields appear. These fields enable you to configure a pre-defined format for the field, which may be useful if you are using the field to record a code that must follow a particular format:
   • Prefix - Enter an alphanumeric prefix of up to five characters, to be applied to the user-defined field automatically. If you specify a prefix, it appears to the left of the field as a read-only section:
     
     
   • Format - If you want to compel users to enter the string in a particular format, specify the format in this field. Use the following characters to specify the format, with a maximum of 15 characters:

   Character	Represents	Examples
   0	A number from 0 to 9.	000 would enable users to enter a three-digit number, for example '109' or '830'. 00 would enable users to enter a two-digit number, for example '10' or '83'. 0 would enable users to enter a one-digit number, for example '1' or '8'.
   S	A letter from A to Z.	SSS would enable users to enter three letters, for example 'ABC' or 'FJD'. SS would enable users to enter two letters, for example 'AB' or 'FJ'. S would enable users to enter one letter, for example 'A' or 'F'.
   A	An alphanumeric character: a number from 0 to 9, or a letter from A to Z.	AAA would enable users to enter three alphanumeric characters, for example 'F83' or '5KH'. AA would enable users to enter two alphanumeric characters, for example 'F8' or '5K'. A would enable users to enter one alphanumeric character, for example 'F' or '5'.
   Punctuation character, for example _ - / .	A separator between different sets of numbers, letters or alphanumeric characters. You can use any non-alphanumeric character as a separator. Any separators that you specify are added automatically as users type information into the field.	000/SSS/AAA would enable users to enter a three-digit number, three letters and three alphanumeric characters, separated by slashes which are added automatically, for example '460/VRJ/D45'. 00-00-0000 would enable users to enter a two-digit number, a two digit number and a four digit number, separated by hyphens which are added automatically, for example '20-11-2022'. This format would be useful for dates.

   • Placeholder - Enter a string that indicates the required format of the field to the user. For example, if you have entered a format of '000/SSS/AAA', you could enter a placeholder of '___/___/___'; if you have entered a format of '00-00-0000' to represent a date, you could enter a placeholder of 'DD-MM-YYYY'. If you specify a placeholder, it appears in the field until a user starts typing in the field:
     
     
   • Tooltip - Enter text that explains the required format to the user. For example, you could enter a tooltip such as '3 numbers, 3 alphanumeric, 2 letters'. If you specify a tooltip, it appears when a user hovers the mouse pointer over the field:
     
     
5. Enter the default value that should appear in the field in the Default <field type> value field. This field does not appear for User-type user-defined fields.
6. For integer, string and user-type user-defined fields, a Mandatory check box appears. Select this check box to make the completion of the field mandatory. If you make an Integer-type user-defined field mandatory, users must complete the field with a value other than zero; if you make a string-type user-defined field mandatory, users must enter a string into the field; if you make a user-type user-defined field mandatory, users must select a user in the field - or at least one user, if the field allows more than one user to be selected.
7. For user-type user-defined fields, a Multi Select check box appears. Select this check box if you want to allow more than one user to be selected in this field, which is useful if you need to assign more than one user to a project or programme for the same reason.
   
   If you have selected this check box for a user-defined field, you cannot subsequently clear the check box - to turn the field back into a single-select field - if more than one user has been selected in the field anywhere in your data.
   
8. For project-level, user-type user-defined fields, an Always assign user to project check box appears. Select this check box to specify that whichever user - or users - is selected in the field should be assigned automatically to the current project, or clear the check box to allow users to select one or more users in the field without them being assigned to the project.
   
   Selecting this check box may be useful if you want users to assign whichever users they select in the field to the current project, and they sometimes forget to do so.
   Notes on the Always assign user to project check box

   • Users are only assigned to projects as a result of this check box being selected if the 'Can Be Assigned To Project' security rule applies to their user role.
   • If a user has been assigned to a project as a result of this check box being selected, they are not unassigned from the project if their name is removed from the user-defined field; you must specifically unassign them from the project.
   • If a user has been assigned to a project as a result of this check box being selected, you cannot unassign them from the project by simply editing the project and removing the user; you must also remove the user's name from the user-defined field.
9. For project-level, user-type user-defined fields, a Send project assignment emails check box appears. Select this check box to specify that whichever user - or users - is selected in the field should be sent an email to inform them that they have been assigned to the project - without actually assigning them to the project - or clear the check box to specify that the users selected in this field should not be sent project assignment emails.
   
   This may be useful if, for example, you have one group of users - project managers - who you want to assign to a project and receive project assignment emails, and another group of users - business partners - who you do not want to assign to the project, but that you want to receive project assignment emails nevertheless.
   
   If a user selects the Assigned to me check box, on the Vision section of the Open tab of the Backstage view in Asta Powerproject, the list of Asta Vision programmes is filtered to include any programmes to which the user has been assigned, and any programmes in which the user has been selected in a user-defined field with the Send project assignment emails selected.
   
   This check box is not available if the Always assign user to project check box is selected, as the users that are selected in this field will already receive project assignment emails.
10. For user-type user-defined fields, a User role restrictions field appears. You can use this field to restrict the users that can be selected in this user-defined field to those with specific roles. For example, if you have a user role called 'Business Partner', which you apply to users who work for your various partner businesses, you may want to restrict the users that can be selected in a 'Business Partner Contact' user-defined field to users that have been assigned the 'Business Partner' user role.
    
    To restrict the users can be selected in this user-defined field, click Add Role, then specify the user roles to which the selection of users in this field should be restricted. You can specify more than one user role by CTRL-clicking.
    
    The User role field on the Select User popups that you use to select users in the user-defined field now allows you to select only those roles that you have specified against the user-defined field. For example, if you have three user roles - 'A', 'B' and 'C' - and roles 'A' and 'B' have been specified in the User role restrictions field for a user-defined field, only roles 'A' and 'B' will appear in the User role field.
    
    If you do not specify any roles in the User role restrictions field for a user-defined field, all roles will be selectable in the User role field; if you specify only one role in the User role restrictions field, the User role field will not appear at all on the Select User popup.
11. For user-type user-defined fields, a User Selection Dialogs UDF field appears. If you have created a user-defined field with which to filter the users that appear in the Select User popups that you use to select users in user-type user-defined fields, specify the user-defined field you are using in this field. If you do not want to use a user-defined field to filter the users that appear in the Select User popups, select 'None' in this field.
12. Specify the access that users should have to the field by default in the Default access field:
    • Select 'None' to specify that users should not be able to view or edit the field by default.
    • Select 'Read' to specify that users should be able to view the field but not edit it by default.
    • Select 'Write' to specify that users should be able to view and edit the field by default.
13. If you want users of a certain role to have a different level of access to the field:
    1. Click Add Role Access. The Add Role Access popup appears.
    2. Select the user role to which you want to apply a different level of access.
    3. Click Add. You return to the previous page, where a row appears for the selected user role to the right of the Role access field.
    4. Specify the access that users to which the role is assigned should have to the field in the drop-down to the right of the user role.
    5. Repeat the above four steps as many times as required to give users of other roles a different level of access to the field.
       
       Click Remove to the right of a user role to remove it from the list if required. If you do this, users to which the role is assigned go back to having the default access to the field.
14. If you want the user-defined field to be editable only once, and after that, for its value to become fixed, select the Edit once check box. You may want to do this to enable users to set a value against a programme, project or user which, once set, cannot be changed. For example, you would select this check box for a user-defined field that enables you to specify a company against a project, as once this has been defined, you would not want anyone to be able to change this.
    
    Note that administrator users are able to edit user-defined fields multiple times, even if they are configured to be editable once only. This enables administrator users to change the settings of these fields if their values have been set incorrectly.
15. Some fields present a default value initially. Select the Treat default value as unedited check box to allow users to edit the value that appears in the field by default once, or clear the check box to prevent users from editing the default value that appears in the field, forcing the field's default value to remain unchanged.
    
    For most user-defined fields that are editable once only, you should select this check box, which will allow users to edit the default value that appears in the field once only, then after the initial edit, the value will be fixed. For example, for a user-defined field that enables you to specify a company against a project, selecting this check box would enable you to specify 'None' initially in the field - when the company has not yet been decided - then to specify the company in the field when it has been decided; and after that, the 'Company' field would not be editable.
16. For project and programme-level user-defined fields, a Display in Powerproject check box appears. If you select this check box, users are able to filter on the contents of the user-defined field when filtering the Asta Vision programmes that appear in the list on the Open tab of the Backstage view. For example, if programmes in Asta Vision have a programme-level user-defined field against which this check box has been selected called 'Assistant Manager', users are able to filter for programmes by entering the names of Assistant Managers into the Filter field on the Open tab of the Backstage view.
    
    For user-type user-defined fields in which more than one user can be selected, only one user from the field is displayed in Asta Powerproject.
17. For project-level user-defined fields, Visibility UDF and Visible with values fields appear. You can use these fields to configure user-defined fields to appear only if you select specific values in another field. For example, if you had a Sector project-level user-defined field, offering the values 'Healthcare' and 'Retail', you might want a Healthcare sector field to appear if 'Healthcare' was selected in the Sector field, and a Retail sector field to appear if 'Retail' was selected in the Sector field.
    
    If you want to make the appearance of a field on the Project page dependent upon your selection in another field, select the field in which the appearance is dependent in the Visibility UDF field, and click Add Enum Values in the Visible with values field to select the values that should make the field appear. Only enumeration-type user-defined fields are available in the Visibility UDF field - but not fields based on hierarchical user-defined enumerations.
    
    For example, if you are setting up a Healthcare sector field that should only appear on the Project page if 'Healthcare' is selected in the Sector field:
    • Select 'Sector' in the Visibility UDF field.
    • Click Add Enum Values in the Visible with values field and select 'Healthcare' in the popup that appears.
    If you configure the Healthcare sector field in this way, it will appear on the Project page if 'Healthcare' is selected in the Sector field:
    
    
    
    If any other value is selected in the Sector field, the Healthcare sector field will not appear; in this example, a different field - Retail sector - appears, because 'Retail' has been selected in the Sector field and the Retail sector field has been made dependent on 'Retail' being selected:
    
    
    
    You can select more than one value in the Visible with values field. If you do this, the field you are editing will appear when any of the chosen values are selected.
    
    You cannot select a user-defined field that relates to a hierarchical user-defined enumeration in the Visibility UDF field.
    
    If you have set up categorised user-defined enumerations and corresponding user-defined fields - where the value that you select in one field determines the values that are available in another - you cannot select a field in the Visibility UDF field that is subordinate to the field you are editing. For example, if you have set up a series of categorised user-defined enumerations to represent country, county and town, and corresponding user-defined fields, you cannot select 'County' or 'Town' in the Visibility UDF field when editing the 'Country' field; and you cannot select 'Town' in the Visibility UDF field when editing the 'County' field.
18. For user-level user-defined fields, a UDF applies only to roles field appears. You can use this field to specify that the field should be available only when creating or editing users with specific roles. For example, you might configure a 'Sector' user-defined field to be available when creating or editing users with 'Sector Lead Planner' or 'Junior Planner' user roles, but to be hidden when creating or editing users with any other role.
    
    If you have entered information into a user-defined field that is configured to appear only for users with a specific role, then change a user's role to one for which the field does not appear, the field is reset to the default value when the user record is saved.
19. Click Create. You return to the appropriate User Defined Fields page, where the new user-defined field appears in the list.

To create an enumeration-type user-defined field:

1. On the User Defined Fields page, click Create User Defined Field. The appropriate Add User Defined Field page appears.
2. Enter a descriptive name for the user-defined field in the Name field.
3. Select 'Enumeration' in the Field type field.
4. Select the user-defined enumeration that you want to use in the Enum definition field.
5. If this user-defined field relates to a categorised user-defined enumeration, select the user-defined enumeration that determines what values will be offered to you in the Category UDF field.
   
   For example, if you have set up a series of categorised user-defined enumerations to represent country, county and town, and you are setting up a series of project-level user-defined fields - 'Country', 'County' and 'Town' that correspond to the user-defined enumerations:
   • For the 'Country' field, select 'None', as this field corresponds to the top-level user-defined enumeration and the values in this field do not depend on what you have selected in another field.
   • For the 'County' field, select 'Country', as the values that are offered to you in the 'County' field should depend on the value you select in the 'Country' field. For example, if you select 'Wales' in the 'Country' field, you might be offered the choice between 'Anglesey', 'Caernarfonshire', 'Denbighshire' and 'Flintshire' in the 'County' field.
   • For the 'Town' field, select 'County', as the values that are offered to you in the 'Town' field should depend on the value you select in the 'County' field. For example, if you select 'Anglesey' in the 'County' field, you might be offered the choice between 'Beaumaris', 'Holyhead', 'Menai Bridge' and 'Niwbwch' in the 'Town' field.
6. For project-level user-defined fields, a Initialise from logged in user field field appears. In this field, you can select any user-level, enumeration-type, user-defined field. If you select a user-defined field here, when a user creates a new project, the value that has been entered against the user in the selected user-defined field will be entered into the field.
   
   One example of where this might be useful is if you work in a number of regions - for example north, south, east and west - and you want to restrict users to creating projects relating to their region only. To do this, you could:
   • Create a user-defined enumeration called 'Region', and populate it with values relating to the regions in which you work - north, south, east and west.
   • Create a user-level, enumeration-type, user-defined field called 'Region', selecting the 'Region' user-defined enumeration in the Enum definition field.
   • For each user, use this user-defined field to specify the region in which they work.
   • Create a project-level, enumeration-type, user-defined field called 'Region', selecting the 'Region' user-defined enumeration in the Enum definition field and selecting the 'Region' user-level user-defined field in the Initialise from logged-in user field field.
   This would mean that when a user created a new project, the value in the project's 'Region' user-defined field would be taken automatically from the value that had been entered into the user's 'Region' user-defined field - so if the user was associated with the north region, any projects created by the user would automatically be associated with the north region.
7. Select the default value that should appear in the field in the Default enumerated value field.
   
   If this user-defined field relates to a hierarchical user-defined enumeration, click Change to view the Select Value popup in which you can select a default value from the hierarchy.
   
   If you want to clear a default value that has been specified for a hierarchical user-defined enumeration - so that no default value appears in the field - click Change to view the Select Value popup then click Clear.
8. If this user-defined field relates to a hierarchical user-defined enumeration, a Leaf selection only check box appears. Select this check box to limit selections in this field to values at the lowest level of the hierarchy, or clear the check box to enable users to select values from any level of the hierarchy.
   
   For example, if the field relates to a user-defined enumeration that defines the location of a project in terms of country, county and town, you would select this check box to limit users to selecting a town in this field; you would clear the check box to enable users to select a country, county or town in the field.
   
   Regardless of whether this check box is selected or cleared, you can select values from any level of the hierarchy when using this field to create field rules for security, workflow or email rules.
9. Specify the access that users should have to the field by default in the Default access field:
   • Select 'None' to specify that users should not be able to view or edit the field by default.
   • Select 'Read' to specify that users should be able to view the field but not edit it by default.
   • Select 'Write' to specify that users should be able to view and edit the field by default.
10. If you want users of a certain role to have a different level of access to the field:
    1. Click Add Role Access. The Add Role Access popup appears.
    2. Select the user role to which you want to apply a different level of access.
    3. Click Add. You return to the previous page, where a row appears for the selected user role to the right of the Role access field.
    4. Specify the access that users to which the role is assigned should have to the field in the drop-down to the right of the user role.
    5. Repeat the above four steps as many times as required to give users of other roles a different level of access to the field.
       
       Click Remove to the right of a user role to remove it from the list if required. If you do this, users to which the role is assigned go back to having the default access to the field.
11. If you want the user-defined field to be editable only once, and after that, for its value to become fixed, select the Edit once check box. You may want to do this to enable users to set a value against a programme, project or user which, once set, cannot be changed. For example, you would select this check box for a user-defined field that enables you to specify a company against a project, as once this has been defined, you would not want anyone to be able to change this.
    
    Note that administrator users are able to edit user-defined fields multiple times, even if they are configured to be editable once only. This enables administrator users to change the settings of these fields if their values have been set incorrectly.
12. Some fields present a default value initially. Select the Treat default value as unedited check box to allow users to edit the value that appears in the field by default once, or clear the check box to prevent users from editing the default value that appears in the field, forcing the field's default value to remain unchanged.
    
    For most user-defined fields that are editable once only, you should select this check box, which will allow users to edit the default value that appears in the field once only, then after the initial edit, the value will be fixed. For example, for a user-defined field that enables you to specify a company against a project, selecting this check box would enable you to specify 'None' initially in the field - when the company has not yet been decided - then to specify the company in the field when it has been decided; and after that, the 'Company' field would not be editable.
13. For user-level user-defined fields, a Display in grid check box appears. If you select this check box, the field appears as a column on the Users page, and you can use this field to filter and sort users on that page, making it easier to find the user you want. For example, if you have different teams of people who work in different business partner companies, you could set up a user-defined field called 'Company', populate this with the different companies with which you work, and use this field to assign the appropriate company to each user. You could then configure the 'Company' field to appear as a column on the Users page, and use this field to filter and sort users on that page, making it easier to find the users that work in a particular company.
    
    This may be particularly useful if you have a large number of Asta Vision users.
14. For project and programme-level user-defined fields, a Display in Powerproject check box appears. If you select this check box, users are able to filter on the contents of the user-defined field when filtering the Asta Vision programmes that appear in the list on the Open tab of the Backstage view. For example, if programmes in Asta Vision have a programme-level user-defined field against which this check box has been selected called 'Assistant Manager', users are able to filter for programmes by entering the names of Assistant Managers into the Filter field on the Open tab of the Backstage view.
    
    For user-type user-defined fields in which more than one user can be selected, only one user from the field is displayed in Asta Powerproject.
15. For project-level user-defined fields, Visibility UDF and Visible with values fields appear. You can use these fields to configure user-defined fields to appear only if you select specific values in another field. For example, if you had a Sector project-level user-defined field, offering the values 'Healthcare' and 'Retail', you might want a Healthcare sector field to appear if 'Healthcare' was selected in the Sector field, and a Retail sector field to appear if 'Retail' was selected in the Sector field.
    
    If you want to make the appearance of a field on the Project page dependent upon your selection in another field, select the field in which the appearance is dependent in the Visibility UDF field, and click Add Enum Values in the Visible with values field to select the values that should make the field appear. Only enumeration-type user-defined fields are available in the Visibility UDF field - but not fields based on hierarchical user-defined enumerations.
    
    For example, if you are setting up a Healthcare sector field that should only appear on the Project page if 'Healthcare' is selected in the Sector field:
    • Select 'Sector' in the Visibility UDF field.
    • Click Add Enum Values in the Visible with values field and select 'Healthcare' in the popup that appears.
    If you configure the Healthcare sector field in this way, it will appear on the Project page if 'Healthcare' is selected in the Sector field:
    
    
    
    If any other value is selected in the Sector field, the Healthcare sector field will not appear; in this example, a different field - Retail sector - appears, because 'Retail' has been selected in the Sector field and the Retail sector field has been made dependent on 'Retail' being selected:
    
    
    
    You can select more than one value in the Visible with values field. If you do this, the field you are editing will appear when any of the chosen values are selected.
    
    You cannot select a user-defined field that relates to a hierarchical user-defined enumeration in the Visibility UDF field.
    
    If you have set up categorised user-defined enumerations and corresponding user-defined fields - where the value that you select in one field determines the values that are available in another - you cannot select a field in the Visibility UDF field that is subordinate to the field you are editing. For example, if you have set up a series of categorised user-defined enumerations to represent country, county and town, and corresponding user-defined fields, you cannot select 'County' or 'Town' in the Visibility UDF field when editing the 'Country' field; and you cannot select 'Town' in the Visibility UDF field when editing the 'County' field.
16. For user-level user-defined fields, a UDF applies only to roles field appears. You can use this field to specify that the field should be available only when creating or editing users with specific roles. For example, you might configure a 'Sector' user-defined field to be available when creating or editing users with 'Sector Lead Planner' or 'Junior Planner' user roles, but to be hidden when creating or editing users with any other role.
    
    If you have entered information into a user-defined field that is configured to appear only for users with a specific role, then change a user's role to one for which the field does not appear, the field is reset to the default value when the user record is saved.
17. Click Create. You return to the appropriate User Defined Fields page, where the new user-defined field appears in the list.

To specify the order in which user-defined fields appear on the Create Project from Template, Project, Create User and Edit User pages:

1. On the User Defined Fields page, click Project UDFs Order, Programme UDFs Order or User UDFs Order - depending on the type of user-defined field you are dealing with. The appropriate UDFs Order page appears.
   
   All user-defined fields of the appropriate type appear on this page in a vertical list. The user-defined field at the top of the vertical list will appear first on the appropriate page, followed by the second, the third, the fourth, and so on. Users may not see all of the user-defined fields in the list on the Project or Create User and Edit User pages; the individual user-defined field settings and each user's role determines which user-defined fields are visible.
   
   An additional 'Priority' list appears at the top of the page for project and programme-level user-defined fields.
2. Click the user-defined field that you want to move.
3. Holding down the left mouse button, drag the user-defined field up or down the list:
   
   
4. When the user-defined field appears in the correct position, release the left mouse button. The user-defined field now appears in its new position in the list.
5. Click Save.

Each time you create a new user-defined field, it is added to the bottom of the list on the appropriate UDFs Order page. You should check the order of user-defined fields each time you create a new field and move the field to the appropriate position in the list.

To edit a user-defined field:

1. On the User Defined Fields page, click the name of the user-defined field that you want to edit. The appropriate Edit User Defined Field page appears.
2. Edit the details of the user-defined field as required. You cannot edit the Field type or Enum definition fields.
3. Click Save Changes. You return to the appropriate User Defined Fields page.

To delete a user-defined field:

1. On the User Defined Fields page, right-click the user-defined field you want to delete and select Delete. A popup appears, asking you to confirm whether you want to delete the user-defined field.
2. Click OK to delete the user-defined field and return to the appropriate User Defined Fields page.

You cannot delete a user-defined field that is currently in use - for example, one that is referenced by one or more security or workflow rules.