Use Custom Fields in a Project

Home > selected Project > menu or right-click > Settings > Custom Fields

Home > Settings drop-down > Project Settings > Custom Fields

Users with the appropriate permissions can use Custom Fields that have been added to a Project when creating and maintaining Load File Import templates, Export Fields templates, Metadata Search Fields templates, and Metadata View Fields templates. For example, you might want to:

  • Map a metadata field to a Custom Field in an Export Fields template customized for the target application.

  • Map a field discovered in a Load File to a Custom Field rather than a metadata field in a Load File Import template.

  • Include a Custom Field you mapped in a Load File Import template, as above, in a Metadata Search or Metadata View template so you can include it in a customized search or view.

  • Include a Custom Field generated by parsing custom email headers on import

As with other types of Project settings, you can save Custom Fields to a set of templates for use in a new Project. Custom Fields are automatically prefixed with drcustom- and converted to all-lowercase, for example drcustom-mailheaderid . When working with templates containing metadata fields at the Project level , any Custom Fields configured in the Project are also available for mapping, appearing at the bottom of the metadata list; enter drcustom in the filter box to display them.

If you want to use a Custom Field you mapped in a Load File Import template in a freeform or other search of the imported Project data, surround the field name with single quotes.

Note: Custom Fields and Custom Field templates can be created and managed at both the Project and Organization levels, but are available for use in templates at the Project level only. To share a template containing Project-level Custom Fields to the Organization and Systems levels, as well as with other projects, you can download the template as an XML file using the Download as XML option, then use the Load from XML option to upload the template to the appropriate page at the Organization or System level or in another project. When you do so, however, the Custom Fields added to it in the originating Project are not populated as Custom Fields at the Organization level or in the receiving project.

To add a new Custom Field, use the New Custom Field option at the top of the page. The Description is optional, but it is a good practice to identify the purpose of each Custom Field you create, since you cannot edit or delete an existing Custom Field.

If you have the needed permissions, you can:

  • Save your Custom Fields to a Project (or Organization) template by clicking the context menu icon () and selecting Save to Template. You can save to an existing template or a new one.

  • Save your Custom Fields as a template in a loadable XML file and download it by selecting Download as XML ...from the context menu. Downloaded template files are named Custom_Fieldstemplate_name-organization_name.xml.

  • Upload an XML file and load the template it contains by selecting Load from XML ... from the context menu and browsing to a local XML template file. The contents of the loaded template are added to the contents of the current template, which you can then save (under a new name if you like).