Table of Contents

Field Properties

The field properties screen is displayed whenever you add or edit a field from the Add/Remove Fields screen.  

Field Name
The name of this field.  It is recommended that you keep these names shorter than 15 or 20 characters so that they fit on the feature form and feature table views without wrapping.

Field Type
The field type controls how the data in a field is entered and displayed.  You can choose from any of the following field types when adding a new field.  When changing the field type of an existing field not all options are available.

TEXT This is a catch all field type that will store any type of value you want to type into it.  Text fields can store up to 10,000 characters each.

NUMBER If your field is intended to store either integer or decimal values use the NUMBER field type so that those values will be sorted correctly.  (This field has been made somewhat obsolete because TEXT type fields will now sort numbers numerically as well.  In most cases we recommend using the TEXT fields in place of NUMBER fields)

DATE  If your field is intended to store date or date+time values then use the DATE field type.  This field type causes all entered values to be automatically converted to a standard format making perform better in sorting and searching.  The DATE field type lets you enter values in varying precisions.  For example, all of the following are valid for a date field.  "1994",  "2015-11", "2016-02-23", "2004-04-01 13:32:01".  If you enter "TODAY" as the default value for this field then today's date and time will be automatically inserted into this field for all new features.

PICK  A pick field lets you specify a list for the user to choose from when they enter a value into this field.  Pick list values are displayed and sorted as text values.  Enter one value per line in the box provided.

CHECKBOX This field type will be represented on the feature form as a single checkbox.  The value stored in the data table will be either "true" or "false".  If you change an existing TEXT field to a CHECKBOX field type then any existing text field values will be checked to determine if they represent true or false.  If a pre-existing value is blank, "false", "no", or "0" then it will be shown as unchecked.  Otherwise it will be shown as checked.

LOG  A log field is a special field that can be added to any layer for the purpose of keeping a historic record of things that happen to each feature.  See Log Field topic for more details.

LOGSHEET Like the LOG field type described above, this field type is also used for recording a running history.  However, a LOGSHEET field is used for tabular data with rows and columns, where the LOG field is used for narrative data.  See Log Sheets topic for more information.

ATTACH An attachment field is another special field that can be added to a layer for the purpose of cataloging pictures and documents that you want to associate with your features.  See Attachments for more details. See also the EXPANDEDLINK field type.

LENGTH This is a special field type that calculates and displays the length of the feature.  This calculation is automatically done each time you click on a feature.  So if you adjust a vertex point on a line, this value will automatically update.  Indicate the units that you want this value displayed as.  We recommend you name this field "GIS Length" to indicate that this field is automatically calculated by the GIS system rather than being an actual measurement recorded from the field.

AREA This works similarly to the LENGTH field type described above but it calculates area instead.

CENTROID This field type displays the latitude/longitude coordinates of the feature.  This value is calculated fresh each time you click on a feature so if the feature gets moved on the map then this value will reflect the coordinates of its new location.

EXPRESSION This field type displays a value calculated based on a custom expression that you enter here.  This expression can use common math operators like + - / * and it can be based on the values of other fields.  Add a field name to your expression surrounded by square brackets and the value of that field will be inserted into the expression at that point whenever the value gets calculated.  Click here for example expressions.

EXPANDEDLINK This field type is designed to help you link a bunch of existing pictures or documents to their respective features on a layer.  It does this by converting (or "expanding") the values from a certain field of your layer into complete URLs.  Click here for further explanation and examples.

CREATEBY A field of this type will be auto populated with the user name of the person who creates each new feature on the layer.

CREATEDATE A field of this type will be auto populated with the date that each each new feature is created.

EDITBY A field of this type will be auto populated with the user name of the person who last made any change to the feature.  This includes either text or geometry changes.

EDITDATE A field of this type will be auto populated with the date that each feature gets modified.

SECTION This field type does not accept or display any value but rather just acts as a section title that can be added to various positions within your list of fields.  This is used for esthetic purposes only to help visually categorize your fields into sections on the feature form.

CHILDREFS This is a special field type reserved for custom projects and not recommended for general use at this time.

AUTOINC This field type can be used to display a custom formated unique ID for each feature.  All features are given a unique and permenant id within their layers and stored in the "FTR ID" field.  However, this FTR ID field is hidden in most views.  The AUTOINC field allows you to display this unique ID along with an optional Prefix and/or Suffix.  For example if you want the system to create display a unique ID for all of your fire hydrants and have all ID's start with the letters "FH" then you would create an AUTOINC field and assign "FH" as the Prefix.  Note that this field will only be populated for new features.

SCADA 
This is a special field type used in custom integration only.  Contact us if your SCADA vendor would be interested in interfacing with Diamond Maps 
Required
Check this box to force all users of this layer to enter a value into this field when adding new features. 

Default Value
Enter a value here and it will be assigned to every new feature you create on this layer from here forward.  This value is automatically added to the data entry form for any new feature and can be overwritten by the user.  For DATE fields, enter TODAY as the default value and it will insert today's date.

Hide On Public Maps
Check this box if you want to hide the contents of this field whenever this layer is viewed on a public map.  This checkbox is only shown if your map is a publicly accessible map.  See Map Properties for instructions on how to make your map public.

Video on this Topic
See Video:  Field Layout Settings of Diamond Maps