Creating Custom Attributes

 

ColorPoint has built in fields for many common data requirements, e.g. material cost, job run lengths. Sometimes you may need to attach additional data to an entity in ColorPoint that isn’t part of the main application. To do this you need to use attributes.

What is an Attribute?

An attribute is a piece of custom data that you can attach to any of the main data entities in ColorPoint. The entities that we can define attributes for are: Material, Formula, Design, Job, Return, Dispense, Supplier, Customer, Address, Contact, Cylinder, Downtime Event, Machine, Substrate, Material Batch, VOC Area, VOC Type, and Campaign.

Creating an Attribute

To create an attribute, you must be an administrator. Go to Admin | Configuration | Edit Attributes as shown below.

Select the entity you are adding the attribute to.

The existing attributes for your entity will be shown.

Click “Add New” to create a new attribute. The following fields are available:

• Name – The display name of the attribute
• Group – A selection from predefined group names. You can define new groups if required. All attributes in the same group will be displayed together.
• Type – To enable validation of data entered into attributes, the type is specified. Types available are:
• Text – Any text
• Whole Number – Only whole numbers, e.g. 1, 2, 3
• Decimal Number – e.g. 1.234
• True/False
• Date
• Email
• There are a few more types used internally with special meaning.
• Optional – If this attribute is added, whether it can be left blank or not. If it is not optional, the user will not be allowed to save a record without entering a valid value.
• Protected – Only users with permission may edit this attribute.
• Filterable – Can this attribute be used in the filter panel. Enabling filterable on a large number of attributes may impact performance.
• Shown in list – Is the attribute shown in the main list as a column.
• Priority – Where the attribute is displayed on the entry page.
• Unit Hint – An optional unit that shows next to the attribute when you enter data to hint to the user what value they are entering.

As an example, we will create a new attribute on Materials, called SAP Code.

The name is SAP Code. The Group is “General”. The Type is Text. It is not optional (must be entered), and not protected. It is Filterable and Shown in list.

Using Attributes

Below you can see the SAP Code in use.

The SAP Code is a first class data member and can be filtered as shown below.

Using Lists and Searching on ColorPoint Console

 

The Formula and Job pages of CPC have the facility to navigate through their lists an item at a time, a page at a time and by searching the codes or names of the items.

Navigating

To the right of the lists on the job and formula pages are the navigation buttons.

From top to bottom they are:

• Previous item
• Previous page
• Next page
• Next item

The navigation buttons “wrap around”. So pressing the previous page button when on the first page will take you to the last page and pressing previous item when on the first item will take you to the last item. Similarly, next page or item on the last page or item will take you to the first.

Searching

The main buttons to use when searching are these:

The left button is “Search”, the right button is “Clear Search”. Pressing “Clear Search” at any time reverts the list to all jobs or formulas in the database.

Pressing “Search” takes you to the search page.

Pressing the “? Code” or “? Name” button toggles between searching in the code of name for the text you enter. The search field preference will be remembered for your next search.

The text you enter is searched for anywhere in the code or name field. So typing “12” would match formulas “12”, “120”, “0012” and “ABC 12”.

Pressing the “Clear” button clears the search text.

On the left the button allows you to step through the list of your last 10 searches allowing frequently used searches to be re-used without re-typing them.

The counter in the centre of the screen shows how many records will be returned by your current search. When you have narrowed the number of results returned down, press the select button to apply your search to the list.