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Configuring Custom Fields

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Overview

All editions of the Order Manager (Standard, Plus and Enterprise) allow the user to create basic custom fields in which to store additional data for the following record types: orders, order details, customer, product, and supplier vendor. These custom fields will be added to the tables of the same name, except for the latter two, which will be found in the Inventory and Supplier Info tables.

In addition to the basic custom fields, the Enterprise edition of the Order Manager offers an Advanced Custom Fields feature for customer and inventory records, which is outside the scope of this article. Refer to the Knowledge Base article in the previous hyper-link for more information on that topic. 

In the basic custom fields feature, each of the five record types can have up to five custom fields of each of the four possible data types: text, integer numeric, date and currency, for a maximum of 100 basic custom fields.

The Custom Field Setup screen synonymous with the Microsoft Access Form Object or user interface. is used to configure the appearance and functionality of the basic custom fields. For example, you can choose to display text and numeric fields either as text boxes or drop-down lists (i.e. combo boxes). Numeric fields can be displayed as check boxes, text boxes, or drop-down lists. Each drop-down can have its own unique list or the same list can be used for multiple fields. The user may select to mouse "left-click" on an object, usually a row in a table, in the context of Order Manager documentation the display format for date fields, as well.

Once configured, the custom fields will be visible on the Custom Fields tab of the main screen of the appropriate record type. For example, if custom fields are configured for order and customer information, the Custom Fields tab of both the Orders screen and the View Customers screens will display those custom fields, respectively.  

The Custom Field Setup screen is accessible from the Main Menu > [Maintenance Menu] button > [Setup Functions] tab > [Setup Custom Fields].

Description of the Custom Field Setup Screen

Figure 1: Custom Fields Setup Screen - Custom Text & Numeric Fields tab; Orders field type

• The Work on custom fields for: drop-down list in the upper left-hand side of the screen controls the type of custom field that is being defined. The possible choices are: Orders, Order Details, Customers, Products, and Suppliers.  

• The Cancel Changes button will abandon any changes made at this screen prior to the Save Changes button being clicked.

• The Save Changes button will cause the program to create the field with the attributes Product attributes are color, size, or style etc. An attribute can have various options or variants from which the customer can choose, such as Large or Extra Large for the size attribute, or Blue or Green for the color attribute. The base product SKU combined with each of the possible options for each attribute create a sub-SKU record in the Order Manager's inventory. Sub-SKUs are important for tracking the accurate quantity on hand for a particular item rather than the general product. that have been selected on this screen.

• The Test SQL Statement button can be used to simulate the effect of an SQL statement that has been entered as the defining criteria for a custom field.

• The Close button is used to exit the Custom Field SetUp screen.

• Below the previously mentioned row of controls, there is a series of tabs that will be described in more detail the next section of this article.

Tabs on the Custom Field Setup Screen

The fields on the tabs, that are described below, are the same regardless of which category of custom field (Orders, Order Details, Customers, Products, and Suppliers) is being defined.

Custom Text & Numeric Fields Tab

• As you can see in Figure 1, above, the Custom Text & Numeric Fields tab contains five empty rows (1-5) under the column labeled, Display as, where a user may enter the names of custom fields to be created for a each data type (Text or Numeric). That is how the screen appears before any custom fields have been defined.

• Once a name has been entered into one of the text boxes and the user clicks [Enter] or [Tab], additional fields become visible. Refer to Figure 2, below.  

Figure 2: Custom field Setup - Custom Text & Numeric Fields tab

• The next column of information, Display Type, is where the user may select the type of control that will be used to display the custom data field.

• • The choices for Text custom fields are:

  • 1. Text Box - allows the user to manually enter data as a single line of text

    2. Combo Box - allows the user to choose between selecting an existing entry that is presented in a drop-down list or to enter the data as a single line of text

  • The choices for Numeric custom fields are:

• 1. 1. Text Box - allows the user to manually enter data as a single line of text

     2. Combo Box - allows the user to choose between selecting an existing entry that is presented in a drop-down list or to enter the data as a single line of text

     3. Check Box - allows the user to select one or more options from a list; in this context, a check box is used to indicate a true or false condition

• The column labeled List Source will only be accessible if Combo Box is the type of control that is selected, and the choices are identical for either data type (Text or Numeric).

• • The choices for entries in the List Source column are:   

1. 1. 1. Unique list for this field - if this selection is made, a button labeled View/Edit List appears. Click on that button to view or enter appropriate values in the list to be used for this custom field. Refer to the section,  Creating a Unique List, for more information.

      2. Shared List - if this option one of the possible choices for a product's attribute; for example, blue is an option for the product attribute of color is selected, the user will be presented with group of previously created "shared" lists from which to choose, in order to populate this custom field. Refer to the section, Shared Lists Tab, for more information.

      3. SQL Statement - when selected from the List Source drop-down, a text field will become visible in the Edit Button, Name of Shared List or SQL Statement column; enter an SQL statement that will be used to populate the list of values for this custom field

Custom Date & Currency Fields Tab

• In Figure 3, we see that the Custom Date & Currency tab contains five empty rows (1-5) under the column labeled Display as, where a user may enter the names of custom fields to be created for either data type (Date or Currency).

Figure 3: Custom Field Setup Screen - Custom Date & Currency Fields tab

• The next column of information, Date Format, is where the user selects how the custom information will be displayed.

1. • The formatting choices for Date custom fields and their examples are:

   • 1. d-mmm-yyyy     (6-Dec-2010)

     2. mmm-dd-yyyy    (Dec-6-2010)  

     3. General Date      (12/6/2010)

     4. Long Date          (Monday, December 06, 2010)

     5. Medium Date      (06-Dec-10)

     6. Short Date          (12/6/2010)

   • There are no additional format choices to be made for Currency custom fields.

Shared Lists Tab

• The Shared Lists tab is where the user defines a new, or updates an existing list, that may be shared by multiple custom fields.

Figure 4: Custom Field Setup screen - Shared Lists tab

2. Select the list to edit from the Shared List drop-down box in the upper left-hand side of the screen, or type in a name to create a new list.

   • If you are creating a new list:

   • 1. Click in the # of fields in this list radio buttons: 1 field or 2 fields. Click the adjacent [Save] button to create the list.

     2. To add the first item in the list, enter a value in the Text to Store text box on the left-hand side of the tab. If you are creating a two-field list, enter a value in the Text to Display field, as well. The Text to Display field is grayed out in Figure 4 because the 1 field radio button is was selected. In the case of a 2-field list, the Text to Store values are not displayed, but are used by the program in the background.

     3. Click the [Save Entry] button directly below the Text to Store and the Text to Display fields. The new entry or entries will appear in the list box to the right, under the appropriate column heading (also labeled Text to Store and Text to Display), as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Custom field Setup screen - Shared Lists tab with two-field list

2. • 4. Repeat steps b. and c. for each additional item to be added to the list.

   • If you are editing a list:

   • 1. Items can be added or deleted to or from an existing list, but the name of the list itself cannot be changed. In order to do that, delete the entire list and create a new list with the desired name. (Select it from the Shared List drop-down and click the [Delete List] button.)

     2. To add a new item to the existing list, enter the new value in the Text to Store text box. If you are creating a two-field list, enter a value in the Text to Display field as well.

     3. Click the [Save Entry] button directly below the Text to Store and the Text to Display fields on the left-hand side of the tab to retain the information. The new entry will then appear in the list box to the right of the tab.

     4. To delete a list item, select it in the list box to the right and click the [Delete Entry] button.

     5. Use the up and down arrow buttons to the right of the window to change the order in which the list entries should be displayed.

3. When finished making changes, click the [Save Changes] button located at the top of the screen, and then click [OK].

Creating a Unique List

1. Click the [View/Edit List] button that corresponds to the appropriate custom field. The Custom Field Setup screen changes as shown, below:

Figure 4: Custom Field Setup screen when creating a unique list of values for the custom field

2. Choose one of the # of fields in this list radio buttons: [1 field] or [2 fields].

3. Click the [Save] button.

4. To add an item in the list, enter a value in the Text to Store text box. If you are creating a 2-field list, also enter the Text to Display, in the text box which is grayed out in the image above. In the case of a 2-field list, the Text to Store values are not displayed on the Custom Fields tabs, but they are used internally by the program.

5. Click the [Save Entry] button, which is directly below the Text to Store and Text to Display fields. The new entry appears in the list box on the right.

6. Repeat steps five and six for each additional value to be added to the unique list.

7. To delete a list item, select it in the window to the right and click the [Delete Entry] button.

8. Use the up and down arrow buttons to the right of the window to change the order in which the list entries are displayed.

9. Click the [Done] button to return to the Custom Text & Numeric Fields tab view of the Custom Field Setup screen. The custom field that was created with a unique list will now appear on the Custom Fields tab of the appropriate record type (Order, Customer, Inventory or Supplier).

Identifying Custom Fields Used by a Shopping Cart

• If your shopping cart an e-commerce software system that allows a merchant to sell products on the Web. In the context of the Order Manager, it refers to the settings that describe a merchants web store to the program, allowing it communicate with the online shopping cart and import orders, and other information etc. is able to include custom order data along with the standard order information when orders are imported into the Order Manager, you might want to add a custom order field (of the same name) to the program so that data can be seen on the Custom Fields tab of the (View) Orders screen.

• If the shopping cart does not use XML a mark-up language similar to HTML, except that it is used to structure data, not display it. XML is used to order data in such a way that it can be passed between applications with relative ease. to export data to other applications it will be necessary to check with the vendor or in the back-end of the web site (administrative section) to identify the custom fields that are available.

• If, however, the shopping cart uses XML to transfer data to outside applications, then it may be possible to identify the custom fields by examining the XML which is sent to the Order Manager, by following the instructions below:

Determine the names of custom fields that are exported by the shopping cart

1. Open the Order Manager on the computer that you use to import orders.

2. At the Main Menu, press Ctrl+Shift+ C simultaneously to display the Connection Information screen.

3. Note the location of the Data Archives folder. The default path is c:\ stoneedge\data archives, but that can be altered by the user.

4. This folder contains XML files that contain the details of the order information coming from shopping carts. Right-click on the most recent order file for the appropriate shopping cart system and select Open with...Word Pad.

5. Examine a web order to determine whether it includes any fields that are not currently visible on the View Orders screen. Note the field's XML tag, e.g. <Custom Question>. This is the field name.

6. Enter the field name in the appropriate custom field type text box on the Custom Field Setup screen, as described in the beginning of this article.

Created: 12/6/10

Modified: 2/28/11

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