Add/Edit Field Definition Dialog¶
See below for the description of fields in the Add Field Definition/Edit Field Definition dialogs. Self-explanatory fields are not explained.
This dialog is triggered when you configure fields for Asset Information Groups (AIGs) (see Configure Asset Information Groups), global tables (see Configure Global Tables) or event types (see Configure Event Types).
Note that depending on where you trigger this dialog from, some tabs may or may not be visible.
Field Definition tab:
On this tab, you must specify a name and a field type. The remainder of the tab will change, depending on the field type you select. The fields described below are common to all field types.
Field/Checkbox Name
Description
Name
Enter a name that uniquely identifies the field. This will appear on the user interface.
Field Type
You must specify the type of the field, which determines the behaviour of the field.
Allow User Comments
This feature is not supported currently.
Default Value
Specifies the value of the field if the user doesn’t specify any other values.
You can also use this field as follows:
Auto-increment fields: It’s possible to set a field to auto-increment. For example, if you want each new anomaly you created to automatically have an as-yet-unused anomaly number pre-populated, you would do this by setting the Anomaly Number field to be an auto-increment field. To do this, set the field’s default value to
@autoinc. For system tables like Anomaly, you can’t do this through the NEXUS IC user interface, so ask support@nexusic.com for assistance.Auto-populate date/time or user name: Similar to
@autoinc, you can set a field to pre-populate with the date/time the record was created by setting its default value to@now. This works for any sub-event, AIG or sub-AIG field. You can also set a field to pre-populate with the logged-in user’s name by setting its Default to@user. This works for any event, sub-event, AIG or sub-AIG field. These default values are populated when the row is created. For an AIG, that’s when the asset is created. For an event, it’s when the event is created. For a sub-event or sub-AIG, it’s when the user clicks the ‘+’ to create the new sub-event or sub-AIG row.Format
This field is visible when you selected the Numeric field type. This field determines in what format the numeric value will be displayed.
Number of Decimal Places
This field is visible when you selected the Numeric field type. This field determines the number of decimal places that is displayed for a numeric field. NEXUS IC still allows entering more decimal places in the numeric field, however, when the value is displayed, it will be truncated based on the value that you configured here. Note that IC-Inspector handles this setting differently; it may not allow you to enter more decimals than what you have configured here.
Survey Input
If you want this field to be automatically populated from an incoming ROV survey string (such as KP or Depth), then enter the name of the matching survey string field which is configured in IC-Inspection (see Survey Values).
Comments
Provides additional information about the field, which is displayed as a hint when the user hovers over the field.
Minimum Value
If the field has the type ‘number’, then you can define a minimum value that must be entered for this field. The user will be required to enter a value greater than or equal to the minimum value. If the value entered is less than the minimum value, then the record cannot be saved until a valid number is entered.
Maximum Value
If the field has the type ‘number’, then you can define a maximum value that must be entered for this field. The user will be required to enter a value less than or equal to the maximum value. If the value entered is greater than the maximum value, then the record cannot be saved until a valid number is entered.
Required
If your configuration requires that this field must have a value entered, then tick this checkbox. A field is typically marked as required if key calculations are dependant on the data entered in this field.
External Connection tab:
If you have configured a point-to-point connector for an AIG field (see Configure Connections), this connection is displayed on this tab.
Field Layout tab:
This tab has various sections that control the display of the field in different modes.
Grid
Field/Checkbox Name
Description
Visible
Determines whether this field will be visible when the form data is viewed as a grid (for example, on the Children tab for asset forms, or in the Event Listing for events). You have the following options to choose from:
Yes - The field is always visible.
No - The field is always hidden.
Yes, with Customisation - The field is hidden by default, but can be made visible by the user by selecting the field under the toolbar option.
Order
Controls the column order within the grid. The column with the lowest Column Order will be at the left of the grid, and so on. Grid order is also used to set the order of columns in a Custom Export of assets or events.
Text Alignment
Controls whether this field aligns left, centre or right. If you do not set an alignment, text fields will default to left, numeric fields to right, and date fields to centre.
Caption
Allows you to have a title on the grid column for this field that is different from the field’s underlying name.
Form
Field/Checkbox Name
Description
Visible Form
Determines whether this field is visible on the form.
Order
Controls the order of fields within categories, and the order of categories on the form. The category that contains the field with the lowest order will be displayed first. Within the category, the field with the lowest order will be displayed first.
Show Caption
Untick this checkbox if you want this field to appear without a caption next to it on forms.
Columns
Controls how wide this field appears on a form: if this is a two-column-wide form, setting this field’s columns to 1 will cause the field plus caption to fill 50% of the width of the form; setting it to 2 will cause it to fill the full width. Forms default to two columns wide, unless you specify otherwise in a Category.
Form Caption
Allows you to have a title on the form next to the field that is different from the field’s underlying name.
Category
Groups fields within a form. You can create a new category or edit an existing one and set its columns. While editing the category, you can also set an image or descriptive text to appear at the top of this category. This might be instructions on how to fill in the form, details of how calculations on the form are worked out, and so on.
Report
The Visible checkbox controls whether this field will be shown when the table is exported in a report template.
IC-Inspector
The Visible checkbox controls whether this field will be shown in IC-Inspector. If you set an event field to visible, it will be available to inspectors to fill in. If you set an asset information field to visible, it will be displayed to inspectors above any forms they may be filling out. Use this sparingly: a long list of visible asset information fields will fill the inspector’s screen and force them to scroll to reach the form they are trying to fill out.
Order and Caption work analogously to those in Grid and Form.
General
Field/Checkbox Name
Description
Editor Type
Controls what type of editor the user will see when they edit the value in this field.
Blank Text
If you enter a text here, this text will be displayed greyed out whenever the field is empty. You can see several fields with Blank Text set right here on the Field Layout tab.
Workflow Rules tab:
If you want a field’s properties to be controlled by other data, you can set up workflow rules for the field. For information about setting up workflow rules, see Set Up Workflow Rules.
Field Specific Units tab:
This feature works in coordination with Configure Unit Groups. For example, if you want Easting and Northing to display in metres, even when US Weights and Measures are selected, you can specify that on this tab. You’ll need to specify it once for the Easting field, and once for the Northing field.
Function tab:
This tab is available only if you selected the Calculation or the Global Lookup field type on the Field Definition tab. You can assign a function to a field if you want the system to calculate the value of the field based on the function you specify. You can select predelivered system functions or custom functions that you configured (see Configure Functions).
Anomaly Triggers tab:
On this tab, you can set up anomaly triggers for fields on an AIG or an event form. When an anomaly trigger is violated, a yellow exclamation mark (
) will appear next to the field. For information about setting up anomaly triggers, see Set Up Anomaly Triggers.
Hint
As you add (or edit) fields, you can see a preview next to the dialog, showing how the fields will appear on either a form or a grid. Fields that are selected will be shown with a
exclamation mark next to them in the form preview. If the field is a lookup list, you can drop down the lookup list to see its values. (You can also see and edit a lookup list’s values when choosing the lookup list: on the “Select Lookup List” dialog, click Edit, click Items.)