Custom properties provide information for a specific document class. Properties can be used to:
- structure documents
- improve the search experience
- customize workflows
Note: Properties are also called metadata.
As a library administrator, you can create and configure custom properties. You can group them into sections, which users will see on the AODocs document page. Learn more: Organize custom properties in sections.
Important:
– Only library administrators can create and configure properties.
– You can create custom properties in all types of AODocs library.
Property values can be defined manually by users or calculated from a formula using conditional logic. With AODocs, you can set up conditional logic in document classes in any type of AODocs library. When users edit their documents, conditional logic is applied as follows:
- property values can be calculated automatically
- properties can be conditionally mandatory or hidden
- document titles can be calculated automatically (in Document Management libraries only)
Learn more: What is conditional logic in AODocs?
This article explains how to:
Automatically generated table of contents
Access the document class settings
1. Access the library administration.
2. Select Document classes.
3. To open the document class configuration settings you can:
- click the name of the document class you want to configure
- select Configure document class in the More actions menu next to the required document class
The document class configuration page opens on the Properties tab. If there are no properties defined for your document class, the list of properties is empty.
Create custom properties
1. In the Properties tab, click the Add button.
2. In the Create a new property dialog, select the type of custom property you want to create:
- String / text:
- String: a string of alphanumerical and special characters limited to 400 characters
- Text: text with no HTML parsing; you can add line breaks
- Date / Time:
- Date: date only
- Date & Time: both date and time
- Time: time only
- Number:
- Integer: integer values (0, 1, 2, -1,.. limited to +/- 2,147,483,647)
- Decimal: decimal values (0.1, -5.1, 1.655,..) with maximum 3 decimal digits
- Person: one or more email addresses, a Google group, or a Microsoft group
Notes:
– AODocs autocompletes email addresses available in your Google domain global address list.
– For a Person property to accept groups you must set it as multivalue.
- Boolean: a switch with true and false values
- URL: a URL link with customizable display text
- Geopoint: a location with latitude and longitude coordinates
- Categories: a list of pre-defined custom values for categories such as "Manufacturer" and "Country". End users can select values from a drop-down list in the user interface.
Learn more: - Reference catalogs: properties that behave like categories but which are defined at the domain level.
Learn more: Create and configure reference catalog properties
Tips:
– Custom property values can be used to trigger or perform an action in a workflow state.
– Person properties can be used as workflow participants, dates trigger a reminder, etc.
3. Click Next.
4. Enter a name for your property.
5. If required, enter a description for your property. The description, of up to 100 characters, appears as a tooltip on the property name for end users.
6. If required, choose a section for your property. In the Choose a section field, you can:
- select from a menu that appears if one or more sections are already defined
- enter text directly to create a new section
Learn more: Organize custom properties in sections.
7. If required, activate the Multi-value switch: users will be able to define none, one, or more than one values for the property.
8. Click Create.
9. The property appears in the list of properties. You can click Save to create your property now, or continue configuring its settings.
Assign an existing category to a new property
When you create a category property, you can assign any of the categories available in your library to the new property. Learn more: Create categories.
Alternatively, you can create a new category directly from Create a new property dialog.
Follow the procedure to create a custom property. During step 2:
- Select Category as the property type and click the arrow to display the list of categories available in your library.
- Select the category you want to assign to your new category property.
- Click Next.
When your category property is created, users can choose from the values you defined for your category.
Create a category when creating a property
You can create a category in your library when you create a category property in a document class.
Important: The new category is added to the list of categories available in your library. You can assign it to category properties in any document class in your library.
1. Follow the procedure to:
- Select Category as the property type and click the arrow to display the list of categories available in your library.
- Click the Add a category button.
- In the Create a new category dialog, enter a name for your new category
- Click Create.
In the Create a new property dialog, the new category appears in the list of categories available. It's selected by default.
2. Click Next.
3. Give your new Category property a name.
When you click Save, your category is created and associated with the property you created. It's added to the list of categories available in your library. Learn more: Create categories.
Tip: Your new category doesn't yet have any values. You can open and edit the list of category values directly from the Properties tab in the document class configuration screen.
Configure custom property settings
1. In the Properties tab, click the down arrow next to a property to display its settings.
Important: Once you've defined the type of property, you can't change it.
2. If required, change the name in the Property name field.
Note: The new property name is applied to existing documents as well as new documents.
3. If required, change or add a description in the Description field.
4. If required, activate or deactivate the Multi-value switch.
5. Define the required permissions for the property.
You can set different property permissions for the life-cycle of documents and the creation phase of documents. Activate the switch to access the settings for the document creation phase.
Note: If you don't define specific property settings for the document creation phase, the settings defined for the life-cycle of documents are applied during the document creation phase.
- Mandatory: the property must have a value. If the property has no value, the user won't be able to:
- create their document, if set as mandatory for the document life-cycle
- save their document, if set as mandatory for the document creation phase
- Read-only: only administrators and scripts can modify the value or the property.
- Hidden: these properties aren't displayed to contributors and readers. Hidden properties are only visible by library administrators when they view or edit a document.
Note: You can't define a property as both mandatory and read-only or both mandatory and hidden.
6. If required, you can configure data validation rules and customized help text for the following property types: Integer, Decimal, Person, and String.
7. Click Save.
Delete custom properties
1. In the Properties tab, click the down arrow next to a property to display its settings.
2. Click the Delete button.
3. Click Confirm in the confirmation dialog.
4. Click Save.
Important:
You can't delete a property if it's used in:
– the filter, display, sorting, pre-filter or browsing section of a view configuration
– an automatic workflow transition based on properties in a workflow configuration
– a conditional logic formula; learn more: What happens if I try to delete a property referenced in a formula?
Dialog indicating that one or more properties can't be deleted