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# Add custom fields

This topic describes how to add user-defined fields to spaces and workspaces. The topic also discusses how to change system field display labels.

In this topic:

## Add a user-defined field

This section describes how to add a user-defined field.

UDFs can only be defined in English even if ALM Octane has been localized for a specific language.

Tip: Before you begin creating user-defined fields, determine how many user-defined fields you need. Certain field types have limits on the amount of user-defined fields that can be created. For details on the number of UDFs that you can define per workspace, see Allowed number of user-defined fields. In cases where you require more UDFs than allowed, use labels to increase the number of fields without them counting towards the limited amount. For details, see the procedure below.

To add a user-defined field:

1. In Settings > Spaces, select the shared space or the workspace where you want to create user-defined fields.

2. Click the Entities tab.

3. In the Entities list on the left side of the pane, select the item (such as user story, manual test, or epic) for which you want to create your own fields.

4. Click the Fields tab.

5. Click + to add a user-defined field.

6. Enter the following:

   Name | Description
   --- | ---
   Name | A unique name that APIs will use to access this field. No uppercase letters or punctuation allowed. ALM Octane automatically adds the suffix _udf to the name of the field. UDFs can only be defined in English even if ALM Octane has been localized for a specific language. Labels, however, can be specified in other languages.
   Label | A unique name for the field as you want it displayed in the UI. You can enter English, non-English, and special characters.
   Field type | Select the field type from the drop-down.
   Description | Enter a description for the user-defined field. The field's description can be displayed as a tooltip when the user hovers over the field's label. To enable the tooltips, set the SHOW_FIELD_TOOLTIP site and space parameters. For details, see Configuration parameters. Note: The description text remains the same for all ALM Octane display languages. Currently, there is no way to provide a translation of the description.

7. If you are adding a user-defined field of list type:

   - Select the list to use for the field.

     For details on creating your own lists, see Set up lists.

   - If you want the user-defined field to contain multiple values, check the Allow multiple values check box.

8. If you are adding a user-defined field of user, release, or team type:

   - Select the reference field on which to base the new field's value.

   - If you want the user-defined field to contain multiple values, check the Allow multiple values check box.

9. If you require more UDFs than the Allowed number of user-defined fields, use the same UDF name for multiple entities with the same parent. Provide unique labels for each of the entities. For details and examples, see Increase the number of user-defined fields.

10. To add a UDF to existing forms, select the forms from the Add to form drop-down list.

    Context | Available forms
    --- | ---
    Defining a UDF in a workspace associated with an isolated space | Only workspace forms are available from the list.
    Defining a UDF in a workspace associated with a shared space | Only workspace forms are available from the list. If no workspace forms are defined, the list is empty. To add a UDF to a shared space form, add the UDF on the space level.
    Defining a UDF in a shared space | Only shared space forms are available from the list.

11. For all entities, except for runs and tasks, indicate if you want to make the field trendable. When you select a UDF as trendable, the UDF is supported in trend widgets. For details, see Define a UDF as trendable.
12. Click Add. The UDF will be available in ALM Octane just like other predefined system fields.

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## Sharing UDFs between spaces

UDFs can be defined for shared spaces and workspaces. This overview describes how to work with shared and non-shared UDFs.

Isolated spaces

UDFs cannot be defined at the space level when the space is isolated.

Instead, admins for a workspace can define UDFs in individual workspaces.

The UDFs are available in that individual workspace only.

Shared spaces (Enterprise Edition)

This table summarizes the actions admins can perform when defining UDFs in shared spaces and associated workspaces.

Shared space | Associated workspaces
--- | ---
The space admin can add and modify UDFs defined in the shared space. The UDFs are available to all associated workspaces. | For UDFs defined by the space admin in the shared space: ALM Octane users working in a specific workspace can access both the UDFs defined for the corresponding shared space and also the UDFs defined specifically for that workspace. Shared UDFs are displayed with the icon. Admins for workspaces cannot modify shared UDFs. For UDFs defined by an admin for a workspace: The admin for a workspace can add and modify these UDFs. The UDFs are available to that individual workspace only.

Must UDF names and labels be unique?

- If a UDF is defined for a shared space, you cannot create a UDF, or define a label, with the same name in the associated workspaces.

- If a UDF is defined for an individual workspace, you cannot create a UDF, or define a label, with the same name in the associated shared space. You can create a UDF, or define a label, with the same name in other workspaces.

- If you require more UDFs in a workspace, than the Allowed number of user-defined fields, you can use the same UDF name for multiple entities, provided that they have the same parent. You can then provide unique labels for each of the entities. For details and examples, see Increase the number of user-defined fields.

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In cases whee you need to increase the

## Delete a user-defined field

If a user-defined field (UDF) is no longer relevant, you can delete it.

In your entity, select the user-defined field in the grid, and in the toolbar, click the Delete button X.

The deleted field is handled accordingly:

Entity Forms | Fields are cleared from a form the next time the form is opened.
Rules | A warning is displayed. All rules containing the field are invalid and deactivated.
Graphs | The field is no longer available as an option. Additionally, For current status graphs, a message is displayed that the graph configuration is no longer valid. Modify the existing configuration as needed. Delete the widget if you cannot modify the existing configuration. For trend-based graphs, the field remains in graph data.
Filters/ Group By filters | Fields in filters are cleared with a message. Reset the filters (either in the grid or in the dashboard configuration) as needed.
Sorting order | The field is cleared from the sorting with a message.
Grid displays | The field is removed from the grid display without a message.
Favorites | Fields in a favorite are cleared without a message.

In addition, the name of the field remains in the server audit log.

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## Change field display labels

You can change the display names of both UDFs and system fields.

Tip: ALM Octane also lets you change display labels for entities. For details, see Customize entity display labels (Enterprise Edition).

To change field labels:

1. In Settings > Spaces, select a shared space or workspace.

2. Click Entities > Fields, and select a field.

1. Modify the Label field and click Save.

Troubleshooting: After I modify a field label, users do not see the new label in grids.

Some grids list multiple entities in a combined view. To display correctly, the field labels for all the entities have to match.

Backlog grid | Includes defects, user stories, and quality stories.
Test grid | Includes manual tests, Gherkin tests, test suites, and automated tests.
Run grid | Includes manual test runs and automated test runs for test suites.

Solution: In Settings, change the label for the field for all relevant entities.

Example

1. Defects, quality stories, and user stories have an Author field.

2. You want to change the label from Author to Creator.

3. In Settings, modify the Author field label to Creator three times, once for each of the three entities separately: Defects, quality stories, and user stories.

4. The combined Backlog grid in ALM Octane displays the Creator label correctly.

Limitation: If a field is not available for all entities in the combined grid, ALM Octane does not display the new label.

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## Define a UDF as trendable

You can define a UDF as trendable, enabling filtering and grouping by UDFs in trend widgets. This is available for all entities except runs and tasks.

When working with trendable UDFs, you should be aware of the following:

- If you define a UDF as trendable, it cannot be reverted to non-trendable. We recommend that you do not define UDFs as trendable if not necessary. Setting a large amount of UDFs as trendable will have an impact on performance.

- When you define a UDF as trendable, a Trend sync status property on the UDF shows the status of synchronization, which can take a few minutes. The sync job runs in the scope of a space, and it synchronizes all pending newly-trendable UDFs within the space. There is a 10 minute delay when the job is triggered to allow the Space admin to sign a set of UDFs as trendable. The delay is a site parameter called UDF_BECOME_TRENDABLE_SYNC_DELAY, which can be modified by the admin.

- In the Space admin’s Fields tab, you can see Is Trendable and Trend Sync Status properties. The Is Trendable definition can be set in the field’s dialog (but not in the grid).

- When a UDF is defined in multiple entity subtypes with the same name, it must be either trendable or non-trendable in all the subtypes. For example, if my_udf is added both to Defect and Feature entities, it must be trendable in both, or non-trendable in both. If it is not trendable in both, and you then set it to trendable in Feature, it will automatically be set to trendable in Defect as well (following a warning message and approval).

Tip: In the trend graph, you can filter by UDFs using the filter component in the Scope page of the graph configuration. You can group by UDFs using a drop-down list in the Display page.

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## Allowed number of user-defined fields

The following table lists the number of allowed user-defined fields for each field type per workspace.

Field type | Maximum no. of UDFs allowed per workspace
--- | ---
String and Boolean | A total of 100 between the two types. Note: String fields can contain up to 255 characters.
Number | 50
Date and time | 20
List | Unlimited
User | Unlimited
Release | Unlimited
Team | Unlimited
Long string | 5 Note: Long string fields can contain up to 1500 characters.
Memo | 30 Note: You can modify this value by setting the MEMO_UDFS_LIMIT configuration parameter MEMO_UDFS_LIMIT.

Increase the number of user-defined fields

If your environment requires more than the number of allowed user-defined fields, you can use the same UDF for several subtypes. For each subtype, provide a meaningful and unique label.

In order for a UDF field to be shared, the subtypes must belong to same parent. The following types can share a user-defined field:

- Work items, such as epics, features, user stories, quality stories, and defects
- Tests of all types, such as manual tests, Gherkin tests, automated tests, test suites, BDD scenarios, and Model Based tests.

Example - Shared UDF for work items

Suppose you want to create a field for your work items, last_reviewed_on_udf, to indicate the date that the entity was last reviewed. You can add this same field name with different labels to multiple work item entities. It will only be counted as one UDF field.

In this use case, you would:

1. Add the last_reviewed_on_udf UDF field to the Epic node. Specify a meaningful label, such as Epic_reviewed_on.
2. Add the last_reviewed_on_udf UDF field to the Feature node. Specify a meaningful label, such as Feature_reviewed_on.
3. Repeat the same for defects, user stories, and quality stories.

In this example, you have five UDF fields with the cost of one field.

When you create or edit an entity, the field label will be available as a displayable field. For example:

Example - Shared UDF for tests

Suppose you want to create a field for your tests, last_run_udf, to indicate the date that the test was last run. You can add the same field name with different labels to multiple test entities. It will only be counted as one UDF field.

In this use case, you can:

1. Add the last_run_udf UDF field to the Manual Test node. Specify a meaningful label, such as manual_last_run.
2. Add the last_run_udf UDF field to the Automated Test node. Specify a meaningful label, such as automated_last_run.
3. Repeat the same for other test types, such as Gherkin Test, Test Suite, BDD Scenario, and Model Based Test.

In the test's Details tab, the UDF field label will be available as a displayable field. For example:

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See also:

- Design forms
- Design business rules
- Set up lists
- Customize entity display labels (Enterprise Edition)

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