Working with user-defined fields
You use the UDFs page to manage a data source's user-defined fields.
You can add your own user fields to data sources. For example, you can create your own edit boxes, numerical fields and check boxes. This might be useful if you are integrating Asta Powerproject with other systems. For example, you might have a stock control system and want part numbers from the stock control system to be stored in your project with resource properties. Or you might want to provide additional information in your project so that it can be referenced by the stock control system. You specify the Asta Powerproject object to which a user field relates by associating each field with an object type. For example, if you want to enter information relating to tasks into a user-defined field, you associate it with the Task object type.
User-defined fields can be associated with more than one type of Asta Powerproject object. For example, you may want a 'Quality_Certificate' user-defined field to be associated with both tasks and consumable resource allocations, to enable users to add quality certificate references to both tasks and consumable resource allocations in a project.
To access the UDFs page, either:
- In the sidebar, click a data source, then click UDFs.
- On the Datasources page, click UDFs underneath a data source.
Creating user-defined fields
If you baseline projects from one data source into another and you add a user-defined field to one data source, you must also add it to the data source into which you baseline projects, as both data sources must have the same user-defined field structure.
To create a user-defined field:
- Click Create New. The Create New UDF page appears.
- Enter a name for the field in the User defined field name field. Try to give the field a name that describes its use. It is good practice to prefix the names of your user-defined fields with, for example, your company name. This prevents any user-defined fields from having the same name as fields that already exist in Asta Powerproject.
- Specify the Asta Powerproject objects with which the user-defined field should be associated by dragging and dropping object types from the Available object types column to the Associated object types column. For example, if you want this user-defined field
to be available for entering information relating to tasks and milestones, click and drag 'Task' and 'Milestone' to the Associated object types column.
If you change your mind, you can drag object types from the Associated object types column back into the Available object types column. - Select the type of field you want to create, for example 'Integer' or 'Boolean', in the Field type field. To enable users to link objects to external documents using this field, select 'URL'.
- Click Create. The user-defined field is created in the data source and you return to the UDFs page, where the new user-defined field appears in the list. If you have associated the user-defined field with more than one object type, one field is created for each object type.
Once you have created a user-defined field, it is normally available on an object's Properties dialog (a User Fields tab is available on the Properties dialog if user-defined fields are available for the selected object), or as a separate column in the Library Explorer list view. However some user-defined fields might be found elsewhere in Asta Powerproject. You can enter information into your user-defined fields from within Asta Powerproject, or by editing the project in a compatible database application.
Deleting user-defined fields
Deleting a user-defined field is a way of removing the field and any data that has been entered into the field. If you delete a user-defined field, the Asta Powerproject Enterprise system's link to the field is removed, and the field and any data that has been entered into the field is removed from the database. Therefore, you cannot access the information that was entered into the field.
If you baseline projects from one data source into another and you delete a user-defined field from one data source, you must also delete it from the data source into which you baseline projects, as both data sources must have the same user-defined field structure.
If you delete a user-defined field that is referenced by an OLE automation routine, an error message will be displayed when you try to use the OLE routine.
To delete a user-defined field:
- Click Delete to the right of the user-defined field that you want to delete. A popup appears, asking you to confirm whether you want to delete the user-defined field.
- Click OK. You return to the UDFs page and the user-defined field is deleted.
Enabling users to link objects to external documents
You can enable users to link objects in their projects, for example tasks and resources, to external documents. You do this by creating 'URL'-type user-defined fields, or adding 'URL'-type fields within user-defined tables. Users can then enter hyperlinks to external documents, or to webpages on the internet or an intranet, into these fields in their projects.
For example, if you want to enable users to create links between individual tasks and documents stored on your network, giving more information on the task to be carried out, you would create a user-defined field that is linked to tasks, and give it a type of URL. When users open a project from the data source to which you added the user-defined field, they can enter the path and file name of a document in the field for each task. Users can enter this information in the spreadsheet, in an annotation, in Library Explorer or in the User Fields tab of the task's Properties dialog (or the appropriate user-defined table tab, if the field has been added to a user-defined table). Once a link has been entered into the field, users can click the hyperlink to open the document it refers to. Note that to open a document from a hyperlink in the spreadsheet, users must ALT-click the hyperlink.
Users can enter links to documents into 'URL'-type user-defined fields in the following ways:
- As path and file names to documents in a specific location on the network, for example T:\Documents\Task49.XLS. In order for such links to work, all client PCs must have the appropriate drive mappings set up.
- As references to webpages on the internet or an intranet, for example http:\\www.website.com\documents\task49.htm.
You use Server Admin to create user fields for projects that are stored in a data source on an Enterprise server. You can also create user fields for local projects (.PP files). For this you use the User Field Manager in the Asta Powerproject client (refer to the Asta Powerproject Help for further details).