Modify metadata task
The purpose of the Modify Metadata task is to change the metadata that controls the presentation of a form for a particular record.
Using the Modify Metadata task, you can do things like make sections or fields hidden or visible, or change the color of text in a field or the text of a label.
For each form that can be used to edit a record, a set of metadata is kept with the record. This means that if there is more than one form for a record, you can use a Modify Metadata task to make a field appear in red text for one form and the same field appear in blue text for another form. If two people are using the same form to look at the same record, while they are seeing the same data, they may not be seeing the same metadata. If the Session only field is selected, the application designer may have changed the metadata.
- Label
- This is the label used to identify this task. This field's text appears on the shape in the drawing that represents this workflow task. Use the standards in Workflow naming conventions.
- Description
- A description of this task goes in this field.
- Form
The value of this field determines which form(s) will be affected by this task. This field's value is selected from its drop-down list.
The drop-down list includes the names of all forms associated with the business object shown in the Object Type field at the bottom of the Modify Metadata task properties. If you select one of these, the Modify Metadata task will alter just the named form for working with the record specified in the second section.
You may need to fill in the second section of this form before setting the value of this field, otherwise the drop-down list for this field may not contain the right form names.
In addition to the names of forms, there are two other items that appear in this field's drop-down list.
If the value you select for this field is -Current-, this task will modify the metadata for whichever form is currently being used with the record identified by the second section.
If the value you select for this field is -All-, the modifications this task makes will be for the metadata of all forms associated with the business object for the record identified by this task's second section of properties. This is not often used since there is always a single form associated with a record. Instead of using -All-, use the -Current- option, which has better performance if there are several forms associated to the business object.
- Reset Before Modification
- If this check box is checked, before this task makes its modifications to metadata, the form's metadata will be reset to the values specified for the form in the Form Builder.
- Session only
When selected, changes made in the metadata are only in effect for displaying the current record to the user and are not permanent. When not selected, modifications to metadata are permanent and remain in effect until the next time the metadata is modified.
When Session only is selected, the Reset action only affects the session modified metadata. When Session only is not selected, the Reset action only affects the permanent modified metadata and not the session modified metadata.
You cannot modify the currently displayed form by using an action that calls a workflow containing a Modify Metadata task with the Session only check box selected.