Referencing project custom data in an IF statement on a task report.

[ShawnMe]

I am relatively new to text mode, and I would like a column in a Task Report to pull custom data from the Project if it is not available in the Task. For instance, Primary Contact is a custom data field we use on both Task and Project custom forms. When I run the task report I am working on, I would like the Primary Contact column to display the Primary Contact from the Project if there is no entry in that field at the Task level. This would alleviate the need to add custom forms and duplicate data entry on a fairly large set of tasks.

I have tried a number of configurations with no results. Is the text below even remotely close to what I need? Or is this even possible?

displayname=Primary Contact

linkedname=direct

namekey=Primary Contact

querysort=DE:Primary Contact

textmode=true

valueexpression=IF(ISBLANK({DE:Primary Contact}),project:{DE:Primary Contact},{DE:Primary Contact})

valueformat=customDataLabelsAsString

Thank you.

[AnthonyIm · Accepted solution]

Hi - you were close.

The main difference between valueexpression and valuefield when it comes to referencing is that you put the weird brackets and a period. So instead of project:name, you do {project}.{name}.

Try this

displayname=Primary Contact

linkedname=direct

namekey=Primary Contact

querysort=DE:Primary Contact

textmode=true

valueexpression=IF(ISBLANK({DE:Primary Contact}),{project}.{DE:Primary Contact},{DE:Primary Contact})

valueformat=customDataLabelsAsString

One thing though, you can still only sort on one field, so if you decide to sort by Primary Contact, know that all the requests showing the Project's Primary Contact will be grouped together at the bottom since they all have a task Primary Contact of blank. ;)

[ShawnMe]

Thank you very much, Anthony. That worked. Luckily I do not have to sort by this column—your sorting note is good to know, as well.