Field Types
The Field Type chosen when creating custom fields determines the type of data that is entered into the field.
The field type chosen can be defined to be manually entered by users, formula based, or editable only through the API (ideal for integration).
Fields that are set to be manually entered can have a default value that is formula based.
Go to
- Numeric Field Type
- Numeric Formula Samples
- Text Field Type
- Text Formula Samples
- TextArea Field Type
- TextArea Formula Samples
- Url Field Type
- Url Formula Samples
- Date Field Type
- Date Formula Samples
- Checkbox Field Type
- Checkbox Formula Samples
- Duration Field Type
- Duration Formula Samples
- Percent
- Percent Formula Samples
- Currency Field
- Currency Formula Samples
- ReferenceToObject Field Type
- ReferenceToObject Formula Samples
- PickList Field Type
- PickList Formula Samples
- Default Field Values Per Field Type
Numeric Field Type
Allows users to enter a numeric value, or create a formula that returns a number value, where leading zeros are removed.
When choosing the Numeric Field Type, be sure to enter the number of decimal places to be displayed to the right of the number.
Samples of Numeric Formula fields can be seen below.
Numeric Formula Samples
Work Estimate Index - calculates the reliability of the estimation given for work items, based on the actual effort of a work item
$Work/($ActualEffort+$RemainingEffort)
Yield - indicates the yield of a feature by its priority and the level of effort that is required to fulfill that request. To create this field, build a formula that will calculate the numeric field by those two fields and set it to be:
if ($work > Hours(40), $Priority/3,if($work > Hours(20), $Priority/2.5,$Priority/2))
This will give you a number for comparison different request.
Another possibility is:
$Work/$Priority/Hours(1)
The Hours() function will normalize the work field into numeric figures of hours and will divide it by priority
Note: If you have any other samples that you would like to share, be sure to send them in so we can edit this section of the Wiki
Text Field Type
Text fields allow you to enter text strings in a single line.
For multi-line text fields, see TextArea Field Type
Note: Project Name text field is limited to 80 characters all other Text fields are limited to 256 characters.
Please note that some add-on's may have their own limitations
See also Text Field Enhancements
Text Formula Samples
Full Name - this field can be used on the user entity to concatenate the users first name and last name together
$FirstName + ' ' + $LastName
User's Local Org Domain - This field will truncate the user's email extension and will build the local org name accordingly. For example, a user with the email joe@myorg.us will return a value of 'myorg.us'. The formula will take the rgith side of the string to the right side of the "@" character.
Right($Email,Len($Email)-inStr($Email,'@'))
TextArea Field Type
Text Area fields can contain long text such as work item descriptions or comments.
Note: Text Area fields are limited to 2000 characters, with the exception of the Description text area fields, which are limited to 32,000 for Cases and 1,600 for Work Items.
Please note that some add-on's may have their own limitations
TextArea Formula Samples
Text Area fields can be created based on a formula field, however, this field type is generally used for descriptive purposes.
Generally speaking, to fill in this field type automatically, it is recommended to use a workflow rule.
Rich Text Field
Url Field Type
URL field types are used to display URL's for websites or company portals.
When selecting this field type, you can input a default value and use the "Validate URL" button to ensure that the URL is correct.
Url Formula Samples
User's Default Organizational Website - this creates a URL field that is not formula based (so that a user has the ability to manually update),
however the default value of the field is based off of a formula. This field can be used to set the user's default website to be set according to his email domain.
For example, if the user's email is joe@myorg.com, the default value for the field will be www.myorg.com.
'www.'+Right($Email,Len($Email)-inStr($Email,'@'))
To create a formula based default, check off the "based on formula" check box next to default value (as seen below)
Date Field Type
Custom fields of this type are used to set dates, such as forecast delivery date.
Date Formula Samples
Forecasted Due Date - creates a field that is updated through the API using a {[New_Business_Rule#New_Workflow_Rule|workflow rule]].
To create the workflow rule for this field first create the field itself using the Date Field Type. In the workflow rule set the evaluation criteria to be:
IsChanged($RemainingEffort)
Now add a new Action by selecting the Update Field option and set that formula to be:
Now() + $RemainingEffort
Expense Approval by Date - indicates the date in which an expense needs to be approved by.
This field is based on a formula which indicates that the expense needs to be approved within 5 working days after submission.
$SubmittedOn + Days(5,TRUE)
Checkbox Field Type
This field represents a value of True (checked) or False (unchecked).
A default value can be selected for checkbox fields.
Checkbox Formula Samples
Fixed Price - Indicates whether a work item is marked as fixed price or not. Set the formula to be:
If($FixedCost<> 0, TRUE, FALSE)
Overtime - Indicates whether a work item has exceeded the estimated effort. Set the formula to be:
If($ActualEffort >$work, TRUE, FALSE)
Duration Field Type
Fields that represent duration values, such as 10 h (hours), 4 w (weeks), 4 d (days)
Duration Formula Samples
PERT Fields - This is a set of four duration fields that will allow your organization to implement PERT estimation . The following fields would be required:
Pessimistic Estimate (P)
Optimistic Estimate (O)
Probable Estimate (can use the existing Work field)'
Each of the fields above are manually entered fields using the Duration field type.
The final field required called PERT is based on the following formula:
($c_P + 4*$Work + $c_O)/6
Expected Remaining Effort - this field will help you track the health of the remaining work you should have in a project at any given time vs. the actual remaining effort defined.
(100-$expectedProgress)*$work/100
Percent
A field that represents percentage as an integer.
You can select the number of decimal places to display when creating fields of this type.
Percent Formula Samples
Overtime Slack (%) - indicates the slack between work and the total estimated effort for a work item
($ActualEffort+$RemainingEffort)/$Work
% Charged - indicates the percentage of the planned revenue has been charged tot he customer
$ChargedAmount/$PlannedRevenue
Currency Field
A field that represents an amount of any currency that has an exchange rate configured in the system.
Multi-currency is only supported on Work Item entities, but not their related links (such as Resources).
Currency Formula Samples
Opex - this field can be used if your organization has determined that all work set to be based on a
resource's cost rate should be considered an operational cost within a project, while a fixed cost item is not.
if($FixedCost > Currency(0),$PlannedBudget - $PlannedExpenses,0)
VAT - Added to the expense entity, this field can automatically calculate the VAT based on the amount filled in by the user
$Amount * 0.17
You can see that the field is updated on the fly for each expense entry when adding it to the expense sheet columns .
ReferenceToObject Field Type
A field that enables linking this entity with another entity within the system.
Filling its value can be done either by typing in the entity name or by selecting it from a list of available entities.
When trying to set a reference to an object via the formula editor, you need to include the object’s unique identifier.
In most of the cases, it's the object’s ID.
Use the ‘Insert Object’ command to insert an object within the Formula Editor UI.
See also Predefined Lookup Rules in Reference to Object Fields
ReferenceToObject Formula Samples
Executive Financial Sponsor - can be used to create another role within a project that references a user,
this field can either be manually updated or formula based.
For example, the financial sponsor is dependent on the project type
If($ProjectType="Administration", "joe.smith", "jane.doe")
PickList Field and Multi-Select Pick List Types
Two fields that represent a value from a list of possible values (Pick List) or multiple values from a list of possible values (Multi-Select Pick List).
For the Pick List, every value can have an attached image, which is useful for building flags on the entity.
Note: When deleting a value from the Pick List, the value will still exist (appear) if previously selected. When deleting a value from a Multi-Select Pick List, the value will not appear in the system even if previously selected.
PickList Formula Samples
Rating Field - this field can be created for projects to determine their overall rating (i.e. Low, Medium, High).
You can include an image for each picklist value, for example, 1-3 stars based on the rating,
and set this field to be manually set or updated automatically by a formula that references additional scoring fields.
Region - this field can be created on a customer entity to indicate teh region of the customer, for example: Americas, EMEA, APAC, etc.
This field can be based on a formula that will parse the business address and search for a country within the address.
If(Contains($BusinessAddress,”u.s”, FALSE) || Contains($BusinessAddress,”Canada”, FALSE) ||Contains($BusinessAddress,”mexico”, FALSE)
||Contains($BusinessAddress,”Cuba”, FALSE) ||Contains($BusinessAddress,”Brazil”, FALSE) , “America”, if(Contains($BusinessAddress,”u.k”, FALSE)
|| Contains($BusinessAddress,”France”, FALSE) || Contains($BusinessAddress,”Germany”, FALSE),”EMEA”,”APAC”))
Default Field Values Per Field Type
Below is a table of all field types and their default values
| Field Type | Default Value | Display in UI |
|---|---|---|
| Numeric | Null | 0 |
| Text | Null | Null |
| Text Area | Null | Null |
| URL | Null | Null |
| Date | Null | Null |
| Checkbox | Null | False |
| Percent | Null | Null |
| Currency | Null | Null |
| Duration | Null | Null |
| Reference to Object | Null | Null |
| Picklist | Null | Null |