Configuring display types for long string fields

For object fields that have a long string data type, you can configure how long string data displays to users on an object’s details page.

There are two sub types of long text fields: medium and large. The size of medium long text fields is fixed to 32KB. The size of the large long text fields is set by default to 256000 bytes, but that can be increased by changing the Platform > Repository > Resource > Large Text > Maximum Size setting.
Tip: In the user interface, the OpenPages folder is hidden in the Administration Settings folder hierarchy. To author an XML settings path, include the OpenPages folder after the Settings folder in the path.

Be aware of the space used for non-printing characters (such as tabs and line breaks), and formatting and multi-byte characters (Rich Text display types). These may cause the data to exceed the size of the long string field, resulting in a message such as:

OP-03381: The specified value for "MyMediumLong" is too long. The 32966 characters entered (32966 bytes) exceeds the maximum size of 32768 bytes. Reduce the number of characters and re-enter the text. Note that character count includes non-printing characters, such as spaces, tabs, and line breaks.

The display types for medium long string data are: On Demand, On Demand Rich Text, Text Area, and Rich Text.

The display types for large long string data are: On Demand, and On Demand Rich Text.

Both medium and large long string fields default to the On Demand display type.

Note: Changing the display type setting will affect the display of this field in all profiles.

For more information on long text fields, see Data types.

Procedure

  1. Access the Profiles page (see Accessing profiles).
  2. Click the name of a profile. The Detail page opens.
  3. From the Object Types table listing, click the name of the object type containing the object field you want to modify (for example, SOXControl).
  4. On the Object Fields table for the selected object type, click the name of the object field to open its detail page.
  5. On the Object Field Information table, click Edit.
  6. On the edit page select the Required box to make the field required.
  7. Click the Display Type arrow and select a value from the list to select a different display type:
  8. Click Save.
    Note: To change a field to Read-Only, see Setting object fields as read-only or editable.