Introduction

Customer Defined Fields are customizable data fields within a software solution that allow customers to define and store information specific to their unique requirements. In Omega 365 there are different variants of customer defined fields, depending on the usage and module. With the latest option, Properties, some key challenges with customizable fields have been addressed successfully - these can be viewed in the grid, and can be filtered and searched on in basically the same way as standard fields.

Properties can be used in different apps, including workflows and risk management. A property can be a text field, number, date, date + time, boolean (true/false) 

Defining and using Properties

In the example below, the Risk Register, there are two properties that has been added for this specific instance:: Manageability and Assumptions. Manageability is a drop down field, where one can select between pre-defined values (Low, Medium, High). While Assumptions is a free-text field

"Manageability" and "Assumptions" are properties defined on a specific instance.

Properties Setup

The System Properties Setup app is used to define the properties. A property is assigned to a view which is used in one or more apps. 

The selected property "Infrastructurerequirement: LogRetention" is used in the view "aviw_Workflow_Workflows" (which is the base view for workflows), and the user can select among predefined values (-1, 30, 60, 90).

In the workflows app, the user can find this, and other properties tied to the to same view, in the "Columns" section:

When selecting it from the Properties section it will be available in the grid column layout configuration section. Which means that one can use the field, basically the same way as the other standard fields - hide / show, the order, width etc

In Workflows, one can define which Properties to be used per Process. In the below example you wills see the properties configured for the "Project Change" process.

The additional properties are available in the New Workflow app, as shown below. They will also appear in the "Workflow Basis" section on existing workflows

Summary

With Properties one can obtain the flexibility often required to satisfy customer needs. It does not require any coding / programming. The upgradeability is not broken, so one can be updated through the standard Omega 365 updates. Naturally, the standard user guides do not provide any information about the custom defined properties, so dedicated documentation may be required.