Adding fields to business objects

About this task

The procedure for adding a field varies slightly, depending on whether IBM® Maximo® Real Estate and Facilities already has a definition for the field you want to add. If the field is already defined, add the field by searching for it. If the field is not defined, add the field by defining it.

Procedure

  1. If you are not sure whether a field with a particular name is defined, you should find out by searching for the field. To search for a field, begin by looking at the Field List of the business object to which you want to add a field.
  2. Click the Find action in the Field List. This causes a Field Search window to appear in the Data Modeler's Property panel. A Field Search allows you to search for existing fields and add them to the selected business object.
  3. To use a Field Search, enter the search criteria for the field to be found. The form allows you to specify the following search criteria.
    Module Name
    If you select a value for this, you restrict the search to only fields used by business objects that are part of the selected module.
    Business Object Name
    You can only select a value for this if you have specified a module. Selecting a business object restricts the search to only fields used by the selected business object.
    Name
    The name of a field is the unique name you see for the field within the Data Modeler, report filters, work flows and other places a person does not see when using an application. Specifying a value for Name restricts the search to fields whose name starts with the specified wildcard pattern.
    Label
    This is the default label that appears next to the field in a form or report. Specifying a value for Label restricts the search to fields whose label starts with the specified wildcard pattern.
    Type
    Each field can hold only a specified kind of data. The kind of data that a field can hold is determined by its type. Some of the data types are Number, Text, and Date. If you specify a data type other than All, only fields having the specified type will appear in the search results. There is a summary of all data types in Field data types.
    Wildcard searches
    Sometimes you want to find fields that have a name or label that contains a word anywhere in the name or label. For example, you may want to find all field names that contain the word “start” anywhere in the name. You can do this by using a percent sign (%) in a search string. Percent signs in a search string are treated as a wildcard. The search string %start matches ActualStartDate, ProjectPlanStart and StartTime. You can also use a percent sign to find a name that has a particular beginning and end. Entering start%time matches Start Time and Start Date Time.
  4. After you have finished specifying search criteria, click the Search action in the Field Search. A list of the fields in the search results will appear in the bottom half of the Field Search.
  5. If the fields you are looking for appear in the search results, you can add the fields to the business object by checking the check box and then clicking the Accept action in the Field Search. After you click the Accept action, the accepted fields are added to the business object are is displayed in the list of fields in the List panel.
  6. If the label, default value, or most other things about the found fields does not match the properties you want, you can change them. The changes you make will affect only the business object's copy of the field. The changes will not have any affect on any other field or business object.
    • There are two things about an existing field you cannot change. You cannot change a field's name or its type. If you find a field with the right name but the wrong type, you must use a field with a different name.
    • Many business objects have a field with the same name. Even if fields in different business objects share the same name, most other things about the fields are allowed to be different. However, there is one thing that must be the same for every field with the same name: Every field that has the same name must also have the same data type.
  7. If the Field Search does not find the field you are looking for, click the Add action in the List panel.
    • The properties for a new field appear in the Property panel of the Data Modeler. The properties for a new field are about the same as the properties for an existing field, except that you can change the values of the properties labeled Name and Field Type.
    • You will see some different properties for the field if you select different types for the new field. The properties that go with a field of a particular type are described in Field data types.