UDF Editor

User-defined fields, or UDFs, offer enormous flexibility in collecting and retrieving information about your cases. UDFs are questions or data prompts that you create, and you can also select the way the information is entered into the system (e.g. a text input field, a set of radio buttons, a dropdown list, etc.). The information appears in that case's various UDF screens (see below for a listing of the UDF screens) and can be searched in Case Browse if you limit your search to a single case type. The UDF Editor administrative page is where UDFs are created and managed. The page contains a table below a pair of radio buttons labeled Case Type UDFs and Incident Type UDFs, and a dropdown containing all of the case types or all of the incident types in the system (whichever radio button is selected). Selecting a case type or an incident type will populate the table with all the UDFs for that type.

Structure of this Page

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1. Case Group Incident Type UDFs/ Case Type UDFs: A radio button which dictates whether the UDF will be created for an entire Incident Type or for a Case Type.

2. Incident Type/Case Type: A dropdown allowing you to select which Incident/Case type the UDFs will be created under.

3. Add New UDF: A button which brings up the Add UDF panel.

4. Copy Selected UDFs: A button allowing selected UDF questions to be copied to another case/incident type.

5. UDF Table: A table displaying all UDFs for the selected Incident/Case Type

UDF Table

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The table's columns are:

1. [Column with Checkbox Heading]: Checkbox selector. Used to select UDFs to be copied across case/incident types.

2. UDF Name: A column containing the text assigned to the UDF. Double clicking on this field in any row will allow you to edit the text of the UDF from the table.

3. UDF Short Name: A column containing the short name of the UDF. Assigning a short name to a UDF allows the information to be pulled into document templates through dynamic merge codes. Double clicking on this field in any row will allow you to edit the text of the short name from the table.

4. Screen: The screen inside of a case in which the UDF will appear. The mapping of each page is explained in the table below:

Case Group Incident Types Screens

Case Type Screens

7. Type: The format of the field itself, for more see UDF Types.

8. Active: A checkbox. If checked, the UDF appears in its respective UDF screen (and Case Wizard if applicable, and in the Case Browse search). If not, it does not. This button can be checked or unchecked directly from the UDF table.

9. Required: A checkbox. If checked, the UDF will be a required question. This button can be checked or unchecked directly from the UDF table.

10. Order: An integer determining the order in which UDFs appear in their respective screens. UDFs are sorted by their Order number, but, for example, it is not necessarily true that the first appearing UDF has an Order number of 1; it is only certain that no other UDF has a smaller number. (In fact, Order numbers can theoretically be negative.) However, when you select the screen for a new UDF (or change the screen of an existing one), its Order number will default to the number that is greater by one than the currently highest Order number among the UDFs for that screen (or to 1 if there is currently no UDF in that screen). Additionally, the three Screen options that feed to the Incident page behave slightly differently with respect to their Order number. All UDFs set to the Case Wizard screen will appear later than all UDFs set to the Incident or Incident Wizard screen, regardless of Order (though their arrangement within the Case Wizard-screen UDFs will be determined by the Order number). However, the Incident and Incident Wizard screen UDFs share a set of Order numbers; i.e. if an Incident-screen UDF has a lower Order than an Incident Wizard-screen UDF, the Incident-screen UDF will appear first, but the reverse is also true. (This only applies in the Incident page of a case and the UDF tab of Case Browse, since Incident-screen UDFs do not appear in the Case Wizard at all.) Double clicking on this field will allowing editing of the assigned order directly from the UDF table.

11. Actions: An action column containing the hypertext words Edit and Delete (serving the functions of an Edit icon and a Delete icon).

Please note that any changes that are made directly within the UDF table must be saved by using the Save Changes button at the bottom right of the UDF table. When changes are made to a field within the UDF table they will be identified by a light green background, which indicates that these changes have not yet taken effect. Once changes are made you will have the option from the bottom right of the table to Preview Changes, which will display only the rows which have been updated, Save Changes, which will save the changes and Cancel Changes, which will erase all of the changes that were made in the table.

UDF Definition Panel

New UDFs can be created by selecting the Add New UDF button at the top left of the UDF table. Selecting Add New UDF will display the following panel:

1. Text: A text input field. Corresponds to UDF Name.

2. Type: A dropdown allowing you to select the type of UDF that will be created. For more see UDF Types.

3. Screen: A dropdown allowing you to select which screen the UDF will appear on.

4. Short Name: An optional text field. Giving a UDF a short name will make that UDF usable as a merge code.

5. Order: A numeric input field.

6. Display in single column: A checkbox. If selected, there will only be one column of UDFs in this screen. If not selected, there will be two columns of UDFs, with the first half of the UDFs on the left and the second on the right (regardless of the length of individual UDFs, so it is possible that the two columns are very uneven).

7. Active: A checkbox indicating whether the UDF should be displayed or not.

8. Required: A checkbox indicating whether the UDF will be required or not.

9. New: A button that, when selected, will allow you to make the current UDF being created conditional on the answer of another UDF question on that page.

10. UDF Name: A dropdown containing any UDF questions that have preset values that appear on the same screen as the UDF being created.

11. UDF Value: A dropdown containing the values assigned to the UDF question selected in item 10.

In addition to these permanent fields, depending on the selection in the Type field, it may be necessary to specify the options for the UDF. If so, a table (or in the case of the Question Table type, a text input field and two tables) will appear below the permanent fields. All of the tables have an action column (with the hypertext word New in the heading) and one or two data columns. At most one row of the table will be editable at a time. The action column for the editable row (if there is one) contains the hypertext words Update and Cancel. The action column for non-editable rows contains the hypertext words Edit and Delete. Clicking Update will save the editable row (i.e., make it non-editable) and add an editable row to the bottom of the table. Clicking Cancel will undo any edits since the last time the row was saved and make the row non-editable, unless the row was never saved (i.e., is a newly created row), in which case the row will simply be deleted. Clicking Edit will first cancel any edits made to the current editable row (which may delete it), if there is one; it will then make the row in which Edit was clicked editable. Clicking New will first cancel any edits made to the current editable row (which may delete it), if there is one; it will then add an editable row to the bottom of the table. The types that cause a table to appear are as follows:

• Combobox, Single select, Multiselect, Multiselect DropDown, RadioButton, Dropdown: Each type will contain one data entry column with the heading Value. Each row is an option for selection, labeled with its respective Value.

• Table: Two data columns, with the headings Column Name and Order Number. Each row is a column of the table; the column's heading is the text in Column Name, and the columns are sorted from left to right in the table according to their Order Number in the same way that UDFs are sorted by their Order.

• Question Table: A text edit field with the label Question Column Caption, and two tables labeled Other Columns and Questions. Other Columns has two data columns with the headings Column Name and Order Number; Questions has two data columns with the headings Question and Order Number. Collectively, these fields define a single table, where the first column is a series of questions or prompts, and the remaining columns are various user-defined details comprising the response. The text in Question Column Caption becomes the heading of the first column, and the rows in the Questions table are each rows in the table, with the first column of the table containing the text in Question. The rows are sorted from top to bottom according to the Order Number in the Questions table. The rows in the Other Columns table are each columns in the table after the first one; the heading of each column is the text in Column Name, and the columns are sorted from left to right in the table according to their Order Number (though, again, they are all to the right of the first, Question column).

UDF Types

Checkbox: A checkbox that can be checked or unchecked.

Combobox: A single select dropdown field.

Comments: A text box.

Confirm Documents: A field allowing the linking of documents from the Documents screen to a UDF page.

Contact: A field that allows the linking of a contact to a UDF.

County: A text field in which the incident county should be entered.

Currency: A text field defaulted to show amounts in dollar format.

Date: A date box field.

Date Range: Two date box fields.

Dropdown: A dropdown field.

Drug: A dropdown containing a list of drugs.

Label: Displayed the text as a label on the page, no entries can be made under this UDF type.

Location: A text field in which the location of the incident should be entered.

Medical Device: A dropdown containing a list of medical devices. This list can be edited through the Case Products picklist item.

Multiselect: Similar to a single-select field, in which all options are displayed on the UDF screen, but multiple options can be selected.

Multiselect Dropdown: A dropdown allowing the selection of multiple items.

Multi-Text: A text field, displaying 3 lines of text.

Multi-Text 10: A text field, displaying 10 lines of text.

Multi-Text 5: A text field, displaying 5 lines of text.

Multi-Text 7: A text field, displaying 7 lines of text.

Number: A text field allowing only the entry of numbers.

Product: A dropdown containing a list of products. This list can be edited through the Case Products picklist item.

Question Table: A table that allows the creation of a column for questions, and additional columns to the right to enter additional responses.

Radio Button: A button allowing the selection of one of however many defined options. Once an option is selected, there is no ability to unselect an option.

Single Select: A button allowing the selection of one of however many defined options.

State: A dropdown containing the different states as defined in the States picklist item.

Stock: A dropdown containing different stock options.

Table: A table.

Text: A one-line text field.

Time: A time field.

Yes/No Radio Button: A radio button containing the options Yes, No, Unknown, N/A

Related Pages

System Parameters | UDF