Creating a table as a custom field

[PeteWi]

Has anyone figured out how to create a custom set of fields which could function as a table? For illustration, I would like to add "metrics" information to my custom business case form which would capture 0-many records of metrics for a project, including the metric name, its target goal, the owner, and target due date. It would function essentially like the out-of-the-box Goals, beginning with no records, but allowing for more than one row to be added. example metric1, target, owner, target due date metric2, target, owner, target due date .... Thank you for any ideas!

[ShellyLo]

Pete - I have not found a way to do this. I wanted to do something similar with custom forms for project details. Here are the problems I faced. An unknown number of lines that would need to be added. There is no way in a custom form to just add a new line. You would have to use display logic when a second, third, etc line would be needed and the custom form would need to have new fields for each line. So in your example you would need metric1, target1, owner1, target due date1, metric2, target2, owner2, etc. The second issue for me became reporting. If I built a report for this information, there was really no way to filter out the blank fields. For example: If you had a project with 2 metric lines and another with 5 metric lines, and you had built 10 lines on the custom form, all 10 lines would always show. The user interface for this was not very clean. For a better user experience we added a parent task to our project and build one custom form that contained the fields we wanted. I then build a dashboard that shows only those fields so users can easily enter information. Hope this helps at least give you another idea to solve your problem. Shelly

[PeteWi]

Shelly, Thank you for your reply! You have done what we have tried. I will look into submitting a product enhancement request to cover this. Pete

[MartyGa]

Your topic brings up another, highly relevant point. We've been asking for awhile for improved benefits tracking. The current state of having a GOALS table, which isnt even reportable, and one numeric field, just doesn't cut it. You idea of specific metrics tracking is spot on. Since we do not generally use the EXPENSES area at this point, we've adapted that for benefits tracking in some groups. It provides a planned and actual space in which to work, allows custom data elements, is reportable, can be recorded at the project or the task level, and is flexible in the number of lines. Not ideal, but works in a pinch.

[ScottSa1]

Although we haven't done something like this, we've used custom forms to track applications, and each of those applications having various fields associated with them like the table. What I did was create a custom task form with all the various fields needed for the application. Then I created a report that was essentially a task list but showed the task name and then the custom fields needed. It was filtered to only show the tasks with the custom fields too (filter is category=CUSTOM FORM NAME). The report was added as a dashboard tab on the project so that when a person looked at that tab, they were able to add new items by clicking the "Add Task" button that appeared. The application was the Task name, and then they could just enter in all the fields they needed for each custom form. Does that make sense? Each time we added a new task, we were able to add the new application name with each custom field. So not exactly what you are looking for, but something that you could potentially look into as a work around. Let me know if you have additional questions to what I was trying to describe. Good luck!

[PeteWi]

Scott, Thank you for the suggestion! We’ll consider that approach! Regards, Pete Williams Director, Program Management Veritas Services and Support Office: 650-933-1580 pete.williams@veritas.com _____________________________ [Mac Pro 7 HD:Users:megumi:Desktop:VERITAS_IDENTITY:ASSETS_DELIVERED:VERITAS_ESIG_RED_w_TM.png] This message (including any attachments) is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is non-public, proprietary, privileged, confidential, and exempt from disclosure under applicable law or may constitute as attorney work product. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, notify us immediately by telephone and (i) destroy this message if a facsimile or (ii) delete this message immediately if this is an electronic communication.