What is a Field?

A Field is a free text space allocated for Users to capture and record information on Templates within KaiNexus.

How is a Field different from an Attribute?

Both Fields and Attributes are the building blocks of a Template. Fields are free text boxes that allow Users to type any answer into the Field, while Attributes have custom dropdown menus that prompt Users to choose an answer from a list of preset options. 

 In the examples above, the left image shows a free text box Field named Outcome, while the right image shows an Attribute named Priority with High, Medium, and Low as the Attribute Values. 

What can I customize with a Field?

• Fields can be configured as either Optional or Required to be filled out at different stages of an Item’s lifecycle, such as during Create, Assign, or Complete. 

The above image shows a Field named "Outcome" which is required
to complete in order to save the Item.

• Customize the visibility of your Fields within a Template by choosing to:
  • Have certain Fields appear on the Template only after they have been filled out with information.
  • Have all Fields appear on the Template regardless of whether or not they have been filled out.
  • Have certain Fields appear on a Template after the selection of a specific Attribute Value. To learn more, visit Conditional Fields.
• Pre-populate Text Fields and Text Areas with information you want to appear on every Item created from a Template. These Fields can also be locked to prevent editing, providing the opportunity to supply standard messaging, prompts, or instructions for all Items of a certain Template. 
• When dealing with lists of Items, you can have these Fields show up as a column option on List, Tree or Gantt view directly within the List section or from an Item List Card on a Board. 

What types of Fields are available?

There are seven kinds of Field Types:

• Header

  A Header is a Field that serves as a title or an indicator for the start of a new section. These are best used as separators for other fields to help better organize your information on your Templates. 

• Text Area

  A Text Area is a free text Field where you can enter multiple lines of information. These are best used for entering large amounts of text, either in paragraph, bulleted list, or numbered list form. Text Areas have the ability to add images or display the thumbnail of Charts directly in the Field. By default, there is not a character limit for Text Areas, but you can choose to configure both minimum and maximum character limits for these Fields.  

• Text Field

  A Text Field is a free text Field where you can enter a limited amount of information in one Field. Text Fields have the ability for you to set a specific Regex format to only allow information that is in a certain format to be entered into that field as an acceptable value. 
  
  For example, if you wanted to have a Text Field that only accepted values in the form of a phone number format, setting a Regex format for a Text Field would allow you to do that. 

• AdHoc Field

  An AdHoc Field is a Field that allows you to enter a series of information that is divided into an individual column format. With AdHoc Fields, you can continually add additional rows as you make updates within this Field. You have the ability to set these columns as text fields, number fields, date fields, or even Attributes!

• Number Field

  A Number Field is a Field where you can only enter information in the form of numerical values. You can choose to allow numeric values in decimal form as well as define a specific format for your values, such as percent form (%), monetary value ($), phone number (555-555-5555), etc. By default, there is not a limit for the values you can enter for Number Fields, but you can choose to configure both a minimum and maximum limit for these Fields.
  
  For example, if you only wanted to have numeric values between 1 and 100 then you have the ability to do that.

• Date Field

  A Date Field is a Field where you can only select date values. By default, it is set to where only present and future dates can be selected, but you can choose to allow past date values. The format in which the date will be displayed on your templates is set up by your organization.

• Date Time Field

  A Date Time Field is a Field where you can only select date values along with the time of day. By default, it is set to where only present and future dates can be selected, but you can choose to allow past date values. The format in which the date and time of day is displayed on your templates is set up by your organization.