Adding a user-defined field

Users of an application can add fields to forms without changing the schema or modifying IDOs. User-defined fields (UDFs) can be of any component type.

Values entered in UDFs are stored in a table that serves the entire application. When you add a UDF to a form, the system creates a join to the table, making data available in the collection or subcollection with which the UDF is associated.

Note that UDFs are assigned to IDOs. Once an IDO is associated with the property to which a UDF is bound on a form, any other form that uses the same IDO has access to the property.

To add a user-defined field, add a component to the form in the usual way. When you specify component binding, select one of the UDF properties in the Binding list on the Component properties sheet. UDF properties have the prefix "UDF".

These property types are available for UDFs:

Property type	Data type
UDFDateTime	DATE
UDFDecimal	R8
UDFInteger	I4
UDFShortText	CHAR, length 35
UDFMediumText	CHAR, length 80
UDFLongText	CHAR, length 255
UDFRecordDate	DATE
UDFRowPointer	GUID

For most UDF data types, six individual properties are available (for example, UDFDateTime1 through UDFDateTime6). Up to 35 UDF properties can be associated with an IDO.

To establish binding with the selected property, regenerate the form.