Adding a field to an existing application group

About the example

After working with the system for several months, the customer service department wants the following information displayed on the hit list, for each telephone bill:
  • The number of pages
  • The size, in bytes
  • The format (for example, PDF or Line)
In addition, to help monitor data loads, the system administrator wants to add a Load Date & Time field that displays the date and time the telephone bill was loaded into the system. This information is available through the system log; however, adding it to the hit list makes it easier to find.
To implement these changes, you add the following fields to the Telephone Bill Reports application group:
Page Count
The number of pages in a telephone bill. Only new data loaded into this application displays a page count. Previously loaded data displays 0 for page count.
Document Size
The size (in bytes) of a telephone bill.
Load Date & Time
Display the time (according to the object server clock) that the telephone bill was loaded into the system.

Overview

In general, here is how you work in the administrative client to add fields to an existing application group. See the online help for details.

  1. Update the Telephone Bill Reports application group to add the Page Count, Document Size, and Load Date & Time fields.
  2. Update the Telephone Bill Reports application to indicate the format of the Load Date & Time field.
  3. Make a new folder that displays these changes by copying the previous folder and adding new field definitions and mapping.
Note: To add an application group, the logon user ID must be one of the following types:
  • A system administrator
  • An application group/folder/cabinet administrator
  • A user with create application groups authority
To add an application, the logon user ID must be one of the following types:
  • A system administrator
  • An application group/folder/cabinet administrator
  • A user with create application groups authority
To add a folder, the logon user ID must be one of the following types:
  • A system administrator
  • An application group/folder/cabinet administrator
  • A user with create folders authority

Update the application group

  1. Click Application Groups.
  2. Point to Telephone Bill Reports and right-click.
  3. From the menu, select Update.
  4. Click the Field Definition tab.
  5. Add the following fields by typing in the name of the field in Database Field Name, then clicking Add:
    Table 1. Values to add to fields.
    Field name as it will appear in the hit list Name to type into Database Field Name
    Page Count pagecnt
    Document Size docsize
    Load Date & Time loaddatetime
  6. Click the Field Information tab.
  7. For each field that you added, select the corresponding data type and values:
    Table 2. Values to add and data types to select for fields.
    Field name Field Type Data type Select the following check box
    pagecnt Filter Integer Page Count
    docsize Filter Integer Document Size
    loaddatetime Filter Date/Time (TZ) Log
    For loaddatetime, select Date/Time (TZ) to ensure that the application adjusts for differences in time zone.

    Always define the Field Type for new fields as Filter. Content Manager OnDemand always provides a single, default value for the new field as it updates existing application groups, as described in the following list:

    • For numeric data types (for example, INTEGER), the default value is 0.
    • For fixed-length string data types, the default value is a string made of blanks.
    • For varying-length strings, the default value is a string of length 0.
  8. Click OK to save the changes to the application group.

Update the application

  1. Click Applications.
  2. Point to Telephone Bill Reports and right-click.
  3. From the menu, select Update.
  4. Click the Load Information tab.
  5. In the Application Group Database Name list, select loaddatetime.
  6. In the Default Value field, type in a lowercase t. This field instructs the application to get the system date and time.
  7. In the Format list, select %m/%d/%y %H:%M.
  8. Click OK to save the changes to the application.

Create a folder

  1. Click Folders.
  2. Point to the folder you created when you added a report and right-click.
  3. From the menu, select Copy.
  4. Type in a new name in the Name field.
  5. Click the Field Definition tab.
  6. For each field, type in or select the values described in the following table and click Add:
    Table 3. Values to add to fields.
    Name Description Field Type Mapping Type
    Page Cnt. Number of pages in the telephone bill. Integer Single
    Doc Size Number of bytes. Integer Single
    Doc Type Format of the telephone bill. (For example, PDF.) Document Type  
    Load Date Date and time that telephone bill was loaded into system. Date/Time (TZ) Single
  7. Click the Field Information tab.
  8. Select Load Date from the Name list.
  9. Click the Field Mapping tab.
  10. Select Page Cnt. from the Name list. Click pagecnt in the Application Group Fields box. Click Add.
  11. Select Doc Size from the Name list. Click docsize in the Application Group Fields box. Click Add.
  12. Select Load Date from the Name list. Click loaddatetime in the Application Group Fields box. Click Add.
  13. Click OK to save this new folder.

For important additional information, see Adding fields to an existing application group.