Fields and Relationships

A field is simply a piece of information that is part of the custom object. A Customer object might have fields like First Name, Last Name, Address, and so on. An Invoice would have other fields for the amount, the next payment date, the customer, etc.

Permissions are required to work with custom objects.

The first eight fields for a custom object are created by PerfectMind automatically, and are used by the application itself. These can not be changed or modified. They are marked as being System fields.

Create a New Field

To add your own fields, begin by clicking on the New button. PerfectMind will help you by taking you through the process to create the new field.

Choose the field type. This is determined by what information is to go into the field. See Custom Fields for more information about the field types and how to set them up.
Click the Next tab.
Enter the properties for your field. Properties include things like what the field is to be called, e.g. First Name, is it required or optional, etc,
Click the Next tab.
Set the profile permissions on the field. First select a region or location from the drop down list. This shows the available profiles for that location. Set the permissions for each profile. These are Visible and Read Only. This sets which users (by their profile) will be able to see and / or change the information. For example, employees may not be able to see the home phone number of other employees (Visible is not checked), department managers can see it but can't change it (Read Only checked), and only the HR Manager profile can change it. If there is more than one region or location, make sure that users in those regions and locations have any necessary permissions set as well.

Click the Next tab.
If you have created different page layouts for the object, you can choose which layout that field will appear on by clicking the Add checkbox.. For example, for a Customer object, you may have two layouts showing different fields (information), one for sales people, and one for accounting. You can choose to have the field show up on only one or both of the different layouts. This way you can keep information specific to those who need to see it. See: Page Layout for details.
Click Save.

Edit a Field

If you need to change the properties of a field, such as the permissions, how much text you can enter, changing it from text data to number data, etc., simply click on the name of the field.

Click on the name of the field.
Select the tab, then change the information.
Continue if there are more changes.
Click Save when finished, or Cancel to stop without saving any changes.

Delete a Field

You can delete a field from an object. Doing this will also delete any data that is stored in that field, and any relationships it may have with other objects. Deleting a field is permanent. If a field is deleted, it's data can not be recovered; it is deleted immediately as well. For example, if you deleted the Work Phone field from a Customer, then all customer records would no longer have any work phone information.

If a field is used in the same or another object, or as part of a formula field, it can not be deleted since the other fields are dependant on it's information. Those fields would have to be deleted first.

Delete a Field:

Select the row that the field is in. Do not click on the field name or label, as that will open it for editing.
Click the Delete button.
PerfectMind will confirm that you want to delete the field, its data, and all its related information.
Click OK to delete the field.

Field Dependencies

For fields that display a list of information and for check boxes, you can make list of choices in one field depend on what has been selected from another field. The results of one field control the results or behaviour of the second field. See also: Field Dependencies

For example, there are two list fields. The first list has the choices of Plant or Animal. If Plant is chosen from the first list, the second list will display the values of Corn, Wheat, and Rice. If Animal is chosen from the first list, the second list will show Cow, Sheep, and Goat instead.

If you use a checkbox for the first field, you can enable, disable, or hide the second field. For example, if a checkbox called Show Locations was checked, a list of locations would appear or would allow the user to pick a location. If it was not checked, then the list of locations field could be either hidden from view, or disabled so that it could not be used.

To start, make sure you have created the controlling or master field and the dependant field. Make sure that both those fields have any list information entered as well.

From the list of fields in the custom object, select a field (click on the row to select it, not on the field name).
Click Field Dependencies to open the Field Dependencies tab and list.
In the Field Dependencies tab that opens, click the New button.
Select the Controlling Field. This determines what the dependant (second) field will show, based on what is chosen in the first field.
Select the dependant field.
Click the Next tab.
For a controlling checkbox, select what happens to the dependant field if it is checked or not checked.
For a controlling list field, select what values will show in the dependant field depending on the controlling list choice.
Click Save.