3.7  Adding fields - (and deleting, moving and renaming them)

To add new fields to a class, make sure you're in class editing mode ( Class Window button on toolbar).

Select the record or class you want to add the field to. Click the Add Field button in the center Class/Record panel.

Adding a field to a class

The field is initially given a name like "Field 2" - to give it a sensible name, edit the Field Name entry in the rightmost panel of the screen.

The right hand panel contains details for the new field

You can also specify a Field Type. Initially, all fields have the type Text - this is a single line text entry field. Other field types include Menu, multi-line Text Box, Date, Time, Number, Color, Checkbox, Choice, Radio Buttons.

Changing the field type to a Radio button

Entering values for the Radio button

A new Quality field has been added to the Photo class

The List field type lets you create sublists of records and other types, and is the key to creating hierarchical structure in a catalog.

The Record field type lets you add subrecords - for example, the Photo class in the example mountains catalog has an exposure subrecord to hold the exposure settings.

The Reference field type lets you create pointers to other records in the catalog. This is useful for cases where a number of records refer to some common data. For example, you could create a number of Protocol records, and each Experiment could contain a reference field which points at its Protocol. Clicking on a reference field entry brings up a dialog for selecting the target of the reference. In the website view of a catalog, the references become hyperlinks - and it also displays all the records which refer to the current record (for example, when browsing to a Protocol it shows a list of the Experiments which used it).

The Resource field type lets you add URL links to websites or data files.

Deleting a field

You can remove a field by right-clicking on it and selecting Remove, or you can use the Remove button on the middle panel toolbar.

Keyboard shortcut: To delete a field or an item, you can select it and click the DELETE key.

Duplicating a field

You can duplcate a field by right-clicking on it (ctrl-click on Mac) and selecting Duplicate, or you can use the Duplicate button on the middle panel toolbar.