Custom Fields

Custom Fields are extra fields that can be added to your entities to help gather, store, and organize data. You can create Custom Fields for almost any entity. There are static fields that you set manually and calculated ones that are automatically updated by Targetprocess.

Examples of Custom Fields are Text, Rich Text, Drop Down List, Multiple Selection List, Number, URL. Full list of types can be find below. Custom Fields allow you to expand Targetprocess business model in many, many ways.

Custom Fields and saved Custom Values are displayed on details page for a Targetprocess Entity, in the right column below Info and Lead Cycle Time panels. To modify the saved value click on a field row.

Should you want to Add / Edit / Remove a Custom Field, read the following article for the online help. Most Custom Fields are configured per process.

Custom fields on Views

It is possible to include Custom Field values on cards using Customize Cards feature:

You can select, hide or highlight data in Views and Visual Reports by almost any Custom Field value using Advanced Filters by Custom Field values.

Custom Fields on cards may be highlighted according to manually set conditions. Activate Custom Unit Colored Custom Fields mashup for this purpose.

Cards on Board views can be distributed by Lanes according to their selected values in Custom Fields of Dropdown, Multiple Selection List and Targetprocess Entity types.

Custom Fields in Reports

Custom Fields can be included to a Tabular report when the report is based on single process. In reports based on "All Processes" custom fields are not supported.

Custom Fields are supported in Visual reports: your entities may be grouped, colored and labelled by Custom Field values.

Supported field types are Text, Drop Down List, Multiple Selection List, Number, Money, Date, Check Box, Calculated.

Calculated Custom Fields

It is possible to create your own metrics with a Custom Field based on a specified formula. To do so, create a Custom Field with a Calculated field type and specify calculation formula.

Calculated Custom Fields are not supported in Tabular reports. Metrics are recommended as an alternative solution when reporting is required.

Entities that can have Custom Fields

The following Entities can have their own Custom Fields:

• User Story
• Task
• Bug
• Feature
• Epic
• Portfolio Epic
• Time
• Iteration (Sprint)
• Team Iteration (global configuration)
• Release
• Portfolio (Project) (cross-process configuration) - starting from v3.6.6
• Team (global configuration) - starting from v3.8.0
• User (global configuration) - starting from v3.8.1
• Test Case
• Test Plan
• Test Plan Run
• Build
• Request
• Impediment
• All the Extendable Domain entities

Limits

You can have up to 100 different Custom Fields per Entity type within each Process.

By default, the length of any text stored in a Custom Field is limited to 4000 characters.

Starting with Targetprocess 2307.1, a new property is added to text based Custom Fields – MaxTextLength. This property is available for the following Custom Field types:

• Rich Text
• Text
• Multiple Selection List
• Drop Down
• URL
• Templated URL
• Multiple Entities

By default, MaxTextLength is set at 4000 characters. The maximum value can be 30,000, and the minimum value is 1. All Custom Field values are validated against MaxTextLength.

The setting can be edited individually for each Custom Field on its configuration page.

What types of Custom Fields can I have?

There are more than 11 types of Custom Fields to choose from:

Text

Text-type fields are free-form, single-line text boxes. They are not intended to hold large amounts of text data. You can apply filtering by these fields, and they can be displayed on Cards and in Lists.

Rich Text

Rich Text-type fields are free-form, multi-line text boxes. Such a field can contain images and hyperlinks, and allows some basic formatting such as bold, italic, underline, superscript, etc. You can apply filtering by these fields. These fields are available on Cards and in Lists but cannot be marked as required.

Drop Down List

A Drop Down List-type field is ideal if users are restricted to a single choice out of multiple options. They are not free-form and require you to add each available option manually before such an option can be selected. Enter each of your available options in the Values box, putting each option on its own line. You can go back and edit these values at any time. Drop Down List fields are available on Cards and in Lists and can be filtered.

Multiple Selection List

Multiple Selection List fields are used if multiple options are available. Options are selected exactly as in Drop Down lists. These fields are available on Cards and in Lists, and they can be filtered by exact match.

Check Box

Check box-type fields are simple fields intended to hold a boolean (true/false) answer to a particular question. They are the simplest of all custom fields, as there are only two values available, and these values cannot be edited. However, their simplicity makes them ideal for classifying and filtering. These fields are available on Cards and in Lists.

URL

URL-type fields are very similar to Text ones. URL custom values are broken up into two parts: a label and a URL. The URL is a standard Uniform Record Locator to a particular web page or document, and the label is a short free-form text. When these fields are displayed, the free-form text is displayed as a hyperlink to the web page or document. These fields are available on Cards and in Lists. You can filter items by URI and Description attributes of this custom field

Template URL

You can find this field useful if you need to specify similar links. A good example is your external application: instead of specifying almost the same link every time, you can save the common part as a template and just add the ID of an external item.

You can add multiple links at a time - just use the comma when adding the data:

Date

Date-type fields hold a date value and display a date picker when entering or updating their values. Date fields are particularly useful for holding information such as due dates or other important dates, especially since they can be filtered on. These fields are available on Cards and in Lists.

Number

Number-type fields are almost identical to Text fields, except for the fact that their input is restricted to numeric values. Decimals with up to 2 decimal places can be used as well. Number fields can be used in Filters and can also be shown on Cards and in Lists.

Money

The Money Custom Field handles a currency type. You might want using it for storing monetary values.

Money fields can be used in Filters and can also be shown on Cards and in Lists.

Targetprocess Entity

Targetprocess Entity is one of the most powerful custom fields. Targetprocess Entity field contains the pointer to another entity (User Story, Bug, Task, etc.) within Targetprocess. You can limit the types of entities that can be selected for this field. For example, you can add fields like "Found In" and "Resolved In" and limit the selection to Builds only. You can easily fill in the field using the look-up that opens once you hit the empty field.

When looking for a target item, you can search for the item ID, name (or its part), or use an advanced filter, similar to the View setup.

These fields are available on Cards and in Lists.

Multiple Targetprocess Entities

This type is similar to Targetprocess Entity, but you can specify several related items at a time. The main difference is that items will be displayed in a special tab, not in the default Custom Fields section:

There is another possible way to specify dependencies between items - using Relations Management that provide some additional functionality.

Mandatory Custom Fields

It is possible to enforce a Custom Field to require a non-empty input from a user. Required Custom Fields are displayed on the Quick Add forms. You cannot save the new Entity until all required values are provided.

Edit the settings of Custom Fields to make a field Required.

The Custom Field Constraints mashup makes a custom field required (non-blank) in either of the following cases:

• Entity State Constraints: when an entity is moved to a specific workflow state;
• Custom Field Constraints: when a specific value is selected in another custom field which can be Text, Drop-Down List, or Multiple Selection List.

Visibility in lists and ability to sort columns by Custom Field values

Manage Custom Field settings

Should you want to Add / Edit / Remove a Custom Field, read the following article for the online help.

Cross-process Custom Fields for Portfolios (Projects)

Instead of updating portfolio (project) custom fields in each Process separately, you can create a cross-process custom field for the Portfolio (Project) entity. When you add a custom field for the Portfolio (Project) entity, you can now choose the related processes. In this case, all the portfolios (projects) which run selected processes will use the same custom field, and you can edit it for all the portfolios (projects) in one place.