Changing UI Labels without changing API field names

[AmyFe]

Hi Amy This is a real bugbear of mine! The unspoken assumption you are making is that there is a "field label" on forms and a separate field name in the backend database , or "API name" as you refer to it. That is a reasonable assumption to most people who have worked with databases previously and as David has said Workfront does provide that functionality in reports/views, so you can rename a column on a report with a name that is only relevant in the context of that report. However, in Workfront t here isn't that distinction/functionality at present between the "field label" on forms and the field name in the backend database , which is why the API name changes every time you change the "label" on a data field (even though I'm told that Workfront is actually an Oracle DB under the hood so the underlying functionality is already there) . I hadn't considered your integration use case before, and the impact of this issue on it . See also the recent discussion on this thread - "https://community.workfront.com/discussions/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?MessageKey=4e0ddaf9-1d48-4d42-a53e-75b6b1951186&CommunityKey=aaafaff0-5e4e-4e38-8903-f1f990935567&tab=digestviewer#bm4e0ddaf9-1d48-4d42-a53e-75b6b1951186" Virtual Instance ID - VIID concept from LEAP 2019 - although the discussion of this issue is not the main topic of that thread. It's great in one way to see how ingenious and innovative this community is at finding ways to achieve a result by working around the limitations in the Workfront tool, but how much better it would be long term if the limitations were removed. We probably should put together an enhancement request so people can vote for it, but I've struggled to work out how to phrase it so it means something to others looking for solutions to the same underlying issue Hope this helps Regards Bob Sleigh BT Group

[DavidCo3]

Hi, On any view/report, you can change the name of a field without changing the underlying field name in the database (which is what the API uses). This applies to standard and custom fields. In the same way, you can also change the label of a field shown on the My Work screen via a Layout Template. Not sure if this solves your problem? If not, can you please elaborate a little more regarding your constraints. Regards, David Cornwell

[AmyFe]

It has been a while since I posted this, and I didn't realize I ever got a response. We use DellBoomi as our middleware to get campaign data into Salesforce. Right now every time we change the field label on a custom form, it changes the API name so when we change the name of a field we have to undergo development efforts to map in our middleware. What I want to know is if anyone has ever implemented a solution similar to the functionality of Salesforce where I can change the field label visible to the end user while passing the same API name to our middleware so we don't have to undergo development efforts every time we want to change a field label. Amy Feitelson

[DavidCo3]

Hi @Amy Feitelson - I'm not aware of any option within Workfront for you to be able to do that. From a quick search, it looks like Boomi doesn't have a Workfront connector. That being the case, I presume you're using HTTP calls to Workfront's API. Something that could work for you would be to build a mapping table of field names. This could be hard-coded in Boomi config as a JSON object, or read in from a cloud-connected spreadsheet or table. You'd have the original Workfront field names in one column (which is what your existing API calls would be configured to work with). You'd then have the latest corresponding field names in the other column, which you would need to edit each time you change the fields in Workfront. Assumiing the Boomi UI can handle it, you'd also need to do a one-time setup of an expression in each of the API calls to lookup the corresponding latest field name from the mapping table. The benefit of this solution would be from that point forward you'd just need to keep the mapping table updated in one place (just one record per field name), and then all the many corresponding API calls would lookup and use the latest field names from that point forward. I know you could do something like this in Fusion if you were using HTTP calls to talk to Workfront. Obviously you would be in the same boat as Boomi with Fusion's standard Workfront connector, which would need cards to be updated if their field names had been changed in Workfront. Hope this helps anyway.... David Cornwell

[BobSl]

Hi Amy This is a real bugbear of mine! The unspoken assumption you are making is that there is a "field label" on forms and a separate field name in the backend database , or "API name" as you refer to it. That is a reasonable assumption to most people who have worked with databases previously and as David has said Workfront does provide that functionality in reports/views, so you can rename a column on a report with a name that is only relevant in the context of that report. However, in Workfront t here isn't that distinction/functionality at present between the "field label" on forms and the field name in the backend database , which is why the API name changes every time you change the "label" on a data field (even though I'm told that Workfront is actually an Oracle DB under the hood so the underlying functionality is already there) . I hadn't considered your integration use case before, and the impact of this issue on it . See also the recent discussion on this thread - "https://community.workfront.com/discussions/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?MessageKey=4e0ddaf9-1d48-4d42-a53e-75b6b1951186&CommunityKey=aaafaff0-5e4e-4e38-8903-f1f990935567&tab=digestviewer#bm4e0ddaf9-1d48-4d42-a53e-75b6b1951186" Virtual Instance ID - VIID concept from LEAP 2019 - although the discussion of this issue is not the main topic of that thread. It's great in one way to see how ingenious and innovative this community is at finding ways to achieve a result by working around the limitations in the Workfront tool, but how much better it would be long term if the limitations were removed. We probably should put together an enhancement request so people can vote for it, but I've struggled to work out how to phrase it so it means something to others looking for solutions to the same underlying issue Hope this helps Regards Bob Sleigh BT Group

[AmyFe]

Helpful. We have considered this approach but have yet to implement because it would require additional development in Boomi. Thank you! Amy Feitelson

[AmyFe]

David this has been submitted as an enhancement request and is planned: https://experience.workfront.com/s/idea/0870z000000PSfHAAW/detail I did not know this when I responded yesterday, but I did remember voting for it at one point a couple years ago. Amy Feitelson

[BobSl]

And I had voted for same last August too! Regards Bob