Editing Field Properties

There are two possibilities to open the form to edit the field properties of a file format: If you are about to create a file format, click on the Input Field Properties button in the Fields area in the corresponding form. However, if you would like to preset the fields of an existing file format, first find the desired file format in the File Formats section using the search function. Then click on the file format name in the list entry to switch to the view page of the file format. To be able to open the editing form for file formats, click on the Edit button. Then switch to the Fields area of the form and click on the Edit Field Properties button to move to the corresponding form:

Mandatory Fields

By activating the mandatory option, you can define for each field whether it has to be set to a valid value so that a file can be committed or released. If the editor of the files based on this file format have to, e.g. assign a value to the Title field, then select the mandatory option for the Title field.

Fields of the types String, Text or HTML are considered valid when the user has entered any string as a value. Date fields are considered valid when the numbers entered can be interpreted by the Content Management Server and are within permitted ranges. For the fields of the Selection or Multiple Selection types, at least one of the predefined values must have been selected so that they are considered as set.

To make a version’s completeness dependent on other criteria, you can use the file format property Completion Check.

Presetting Options

The values of fields in a file format definition can be preset. In doing so, the fields already have preset values when a file based on this format is created.

All custom fields as well as the built-in CMS fields in the table below can be preset. Please note that Exclude from export as well as the sort criteria, the sort mode, and direction can only be preset in version 6.7.1 or later. The workflow cannot be preset on this page but on the superordinate page.

By means of a selection field, you can also specify whether and in what manner a field is preset with a value. If you select the not preset option in the selection field, the field in the draft versions of new files based on this format has no value. The field is therefore not preset.

By selecting the Preset from the folder containing the file option for a field, you define that the fields are to be preset with the field values from the folder in which the files concerned are contained (the fields inherit the values from this folder).

If you would like to preset fields with constant values, mark the preset with this value option in the selection field. Here, enter or select which values the fields are to have when the draft version of a file based on this file format is created. Depending on the field type, different input elements are available for selecting or entering the value. These input elements do not necessarily correspond to the input fields you have set for the respective fields and which users can use to edit the field values.

Special Main Content Options

The option automatically computed using this main content layout is additionally available for the field Main Content. If you select this option, enter the name of the main content layout in the entry field. A main content layout ("body template") is a layout that is used whenever the main content of a version is requested (for example, in an NPSOBJ instruction during the export or in the preview). Main Content layouts are used to unify the look and feel of documents. A main content layout cannot be specified for file formats that define layouts.

Alternatively, you can also preset the main content of the version of a file using the preset with this value option. This option is only displayed if you have specified a file name extension. You can select the file name extension from the valid extensions you have defined for the file formats.

Use this feature, for example, to give new folders or documents a constantly identical main content. The editor of a file can of course change the main content or the value of each field at any time as long as no main content layout is specified in the file format.

Click on OK to accept the field presets.