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How to Customize Your Database?
You can customize your database by adding custom and removing unwanted fields. Simply Contacts Database then automatically adjusts all its standard screens and reports to reflect new information.
In most cases, the extra information that you need to record can be accommodated through custom fields. You can include customer preferences, demographics, whether they are individuals or companies, industry, expiration date of their membership, type of property or car they are looking for, what they currently have and much more.
On this page we discuss how you can create these additional fields.
Invoke function Add/Remove fields
Switch to Setup Department and press button Add/Remove Fields:
In some configurations of the software there are several record types that can be customized. For example, in Customers+Sales Configuration not only can you customize your contact record, but also sales record type. In that case, the program will prompt you for the type of record you wish to amend before proceeding to the next step:
Add New Fields
Highlight the field after which you wish to insert it and press the Insert Field button
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The program will show a new line with "NewField0" in the Field column. Fill in this line with the following information (use Tab key or mouse to move between columns):
| Column Name |
What to put in: |
| Field |
A short name for that field, without spaces or punctuations, eg CarType.
This name will be used internally by the database and will only be displayed in some advanced functions.
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| Seq. # |
You can leave it as is.
If you wish to change the order in which fields will appear in the standard Contact screen, change this number to be greater than the number of the field after which you wish to place it, but less than that of the next field.
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| Caption |
Description of the field, how you wish to appear on screen and in reports, eg Type of car you drive?
Spaces, punctuation etc are ok.
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| Field Type |
The type of information that can be stored in this field. Select from the drop-down list:
- Yes/No – the field can only hold 2 values: Yes or No. A field of this type is typically displayed as a check box.
- Classification – integer field with values ranging from –32767 to +32767, used to identify classes of the records, such as post code. These fields will not be summarised by ad-hoc report generator (it is meaningless to summarise post codes)
- Numbers – integer field with values between –2,000,000,000 and +2,000,000,000, used to store numbers of units, e.g. number of devices sold.
- Amounts – fields of this type can store non-integer amounts, including moneys and measures, such as 5.5 kg
- Date – this is a date field
- Text string – used to store text strings up to 255 characters long, such as company name, contact name, street etc
- Comments – designed to store arbitrarily long comments or notes
- File Reference – will store a reference to an external file, such as Word document or a picture file.
Note: to record percentage, set field type to Amounts and specify percentage in column Field Format, eg 0%
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| Field Format |
In most cases, this column can be left blank.
The program recognizes the following types of formats:
- For fields of type Amount:
0, 0.00, 0,000.00 etc – identifies the number of digits after decimal point and position of commas for better readability.
$0 - specifies that a dollar sign should be inserted in front of the number.
0% - specifies that the number should be displayed as percentage. For example, 0.5 will be displayed as 50%
- For fields of type Date:
dd/mm/yyyy – Australian date format, such as 31/01/2004
mm/dd/yyyy – American date format, such as 01/31/2002
dd-mmm-yyyy – for example, 31-Jan-2002
If no format is specified the program uses default system format – American in USA, Australian in Australia etc.
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| Values List |
Use this column if you wish the system to display drop-down list of values. Select from the following options:
- Historical – the program will automatically compile the list of values from the entire database. The operator can either select a value from the list or type in another value. The new value is added to the list as soon as the corresponding record is saved into the database.
Historical values lists do not require maintenance, but may be inconvenient if some records contain incorrect values, as the system will continue to include these values into the lists until the records are corrected or removed.
- Managed – after applying the new database structure this will create the maintenance menu in the Setup Department that will allow you to enter the desired values. Just as with historical values lists, the system does not limit the users to entering specified values only.
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| Include into Default filter ? |
If you plan to search by this field frequently, tick this column.
If you don't mark a field as "Include into Default filter", you still will be able to search by it, but to do so will require one extra step.
Please avoid flagging more than 10 fields for default filter, otherwise they can't all fit onto the filter screen (unless you have a very large screen)
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| Mandatory? |
Please tick if you wish the field to be mandatory.
Mandatory fields are highlighted in bold on the Contact screen (screenshot) and the program refuses to save a record unless you filled them in. This only applies to records entered manually - you can still import data without these fields.
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Done? Hit Ctrl+S or move the cursor to another line to cause the program to save your information, then repeat for other fields. Please note that your changes won't be effected immediately.
Modify Existing Fields
You may find that some of the existing fields need to be renamed. For example, Post Code is called Zip Code in US. Simply type the desired description in the Caption column for the corresponding field.
You cannot change short names or types in the Field column for existing fields.
But you can change field format, include or exclude it from default filter, make it mandatory or optional and change the type of values list or remove values list option altogether.
Remove Unwanted Fields
To remove a field that you no longer need, highlight the corresponding line in the table and press the Remove Field button:
Some fields are required by the system and cannot be removed. The program will let you know if you attempt to delete such field. Removing fields such as Fax or email will disable the functions that rely on them.
Effect Your Changes
All the modifications you have done so far are in preparation of the new database structure. To effect these changes, please press the Apply New Structure button.
First, the program will prompt:
If you have just created your new database and you are the only user of the system, simply press Ok.
But if you are modifying a database used by multiple people with some data in it, please ask all other users to close out of the program. Without that, it won't be able to modify the database.
Second, the program will let you know that it needs to backup the database and then will prompt you for the file name:
Enter the name of a new file in a folder where you can later find it. If there is a problem, you will be able to copy this file in place of your current data file. Please do not use folders on floppy disks - they typically have insufficient space and CD drives - program cannot write to a CD drive. Memory sticks are ok.
The program will then copy your current data file into the backup file and amend the database structure, adding, removing and modifying fields as you specified.
Finally, the program will re-open the data file.
Done! Go to Filing -> Add Contact or Find Contact to see that your modifications have been effected.
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