Custom objects

• 5 minutes to read

Note

This feature requires a Development Tools license. This is an additional cost per site.

Data-driven approach

In the SuperOffice application, we can have custom fields. When we have a set of fields that is constantly changing, we will face a problem with returning these fields in our web service methods because we cannot change web service methods when someone defines a new field. To avoid this situation, SuperOffice has introduced the concept of data-driven data in the NetServer.

In NetServer all the user-defined fields have been packed into a single property of entity by using a string dictionary. If we take the contact entity, it will have a property called UserDefinedFields which represents all the user-defined fields. In the context of the contact entity, this property will house all the user-defined fields of the contact entity as key-value pairs.

Ways to customize

There are 3 ways to customize the database schema:

user-defined fields in Sales
extra fields on SuperOffice entities in Service
extra tables (aka 3rd party tables) in Service

The remainder of this document only details custom fields. To read more about custom tables, please following the extra tables link.

Custom Fields

SuperOffice CRM and Service were once 2 separate applications, with different custom field extensibility options. When discussed today, custom fields represent both user-defined fields and extra fields, and is therefore considered best practice to be explicit about which one is the focus when discussed.

User-defined fields (udefs for short) belong in SuperOffice CRM, while extra tables and extra fields belong in Service.

Each CRM entity allows user-defined fields: appointment, contact, document, person, project, sale, however only CRM contact and person allow extra fields.

Customization	Managed from	Visible in	Limit	Stored in
user-defined field	CRM the Fields screen	More tab of entity	max 119 per entity	UDXXXsmall or UDXXXlarge per entity
extra field	Service the Tables screen	Extra fields tab of entity	no	database table of entity (table.x_field)

Note

You will not see user-defined fields in Service, and reversely, you will not see extra fields in CRM. Unless you develop custom screens or web panels, that is. (With some configuration, you can also add extra fields to the Details tab.)

API support

It's only possible to create and manage user-defined fields via the APIs, however extra fields and tables must be managed in the SuperOffice Service UI. All custom object data is accessible via the APIs.

Viewing Entity Data

Custom objects in entity data are exposed as UserDefinedFields, ExtraFields, and CustomFields. CustomFields combines both UserDefinedFields and ExtraFields, and eventually the only means to access custom fields.

"UserDefinedFields": {
    "SuperOffice:1": "[I:23]",
    "SuperOffice:1:DisplayText": "",
    "SuperOffice:1:DisplayTooltip": "",
  },
  "ExtraFields": {
    "x_hassupportagreement": "[I:0]",
  },
  "CustomFields": {
    "x_hassupportagreement": "[I:0]",
    "x_hassupportagreement:org": "[I:0]",
    "SuperOffice:1": "[I:0]",
    "SuperOffice:1:org": "[I:0]",
    "SuperOffice:1:DisplayText": "",
    "SuperOffice:1:DisplayTooltip": ""
  },

Searching custom fields

Using custom fields in search queries are prefixed by their entity and type, i.e. contactUdef/SuperOffice:1 or personUdef/SuperOffice:1.

User defined fields as listed in the SimpleContact archive provider docs:

prefix/progId	datatype	description	can orderby
contactUdef/SuperOffice:1	string	companyshorttext: tooltipshorttext	x
contactUdef/SuperOffice:2	string	companylongtext: tooltiplongtext	x
contactUdef/SuperOffice:3	int	companynumber	x
contactUdef/SuperOffice:4	date	companydate	x
contactUdef/SuperOffice:5	unlimitedDate	companyunlimiteddate: tooltipunlimiteddate	x
contactUdef/SuperOffice:6	bool	companycheckbox	x
contactUdef/SuperOffice:7	listAny	companydropdownlistbox	x
contactUdef/SuperOffice:8	decimal	companydecimal	x
contactUdef/SuperOffice:9	string	page1saleonly	x
contactUdef/SuperOffice:10	string	page1marketingonly	x
contactUdef/SuperOffice:11	string	page1adminonly	x
contactUdef/SuperOffice:12	listAny	Udlist one: Static tooltip for udlist one	x
contactUdef/SuperOffice:13	listAny	Udlist two: Static tooltip for udlist two	x

Extra fields are not currently included in the archive provider documentation. They are declared and accessed by the enity and type prefix, followed by a forward slash and the field name.

prefix/x_fieldName	datatype	description
contactExtra/x_fieldName	[various]	Used to select contact extra fields.
personExtra/x_fieldName	[various]	Used to select person extra fields.
ejCategoryExtra/x_fieldName	[various]	Used to select ejCategory extra fields.
ejUserExtra/x_fieldName	[various]	Used to select ejUser extra fields.
extra/x_fieldName	[various]	Used to select ticket extra fields.

Note

Extra field archive query support is only available for:

contact
person
ejCategory
ejUser
ticket

Requirements

SuperOffice Expander Services license
SuperOffice 8.1 or newer
NetServer must be restarted every time you change the schema
- If Travel is activated, a new Travel database must also be generated

Note

Continuous Database (CD) is available onsite only.