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Ability to create new fields that are calculated values

If I needed to create a new field called Past Due or anything that takes a calculation between existing standard fields (say CurrentDate-DueDate), this isn't possible.  Add a new type option from the New Field Wizard called "Calculated" then allow us to choose any field on that form and perform a calculation.  Use + or & to merge strings together (concatenation), subtract/add/*/ any fields to get new values so we can view these on forms, versus having to create new reports or inquiries with SQL. 

Another example is to use existing Amount fields and create our own field based on those values if it doesn't already exist on a column.  The only workaround is to export to Excel all the time.  

  • Mercedes Green
  • Oct 5 2016
  • Likely but not yet planned
Company Skygrid
I need it... 3 months
  • Attach files
  • Nathan Sutherland commented
    August 10, 2022 00:13

    Hmm, that adds it to the GRID quite nicely.... But not in the 'Form' area at all. I've tried setting 'ShowForm' to Y, as well as tweaking the 'ControlPosition' and 'CustomControlSize', but to no avail. "Tab" is also set the same as other custom fields.

    Were you able to get custom fields added this way to show up in the form?

  • Nathan Sutherland commented
    August 09, 2022 22:12

    @TravisHatch, Clever! I can see they did just that in a lot of their own forms (dbo.vDDFI). Thanks for this, we will most likely implement it in a few of the heavy "display only" areas.

  • Travis Hatch commented
    January 11, 2022 19:28

    We had added some descriptions in the grid (see PF-I-279)

    This was accomplished by inserting into dbo.vDDFIc


    insert into dbo.vDDFIc (Form , Seq , ViewName , ColumnName , Description , Datatype , InputType , InputMask , InputLength , Prec , ActiveLookup , LookupParams , LookupLoadSeq , SetupForm , SetupParams , StatusText , Tab , TabIndex , Req , ValProc , ValParams , ValLevel , UpdateGroup , ControlType , ControlPosition , FieldType , DefaultType , DefaultValue , InputSkip , Label , ShowGrid , ShowForm , GridCol , AutoSeqType , MinValue , MaxValue , ValExpression , ValExpError , ComboType , GridColHeading , HeaderLinkSeq , CustomControlSize , Computed , ShowDesc , ColWidth , DescriptionColWidth , IsFormFilter , ExcludeFromAggregation , MaskText , DisableInput , ShowInSearchLabel)

    values ('udPMManpower' , 5001 , 'udPMManpower', 'dbo.uf_PMPMName_EPCS(Co,EmployeeID)' , 'Name' , null , 0 , null , 60 , null , 'N' , null , 0 , null , null , null , 1 , null , 'N' , null , null , null , null , 5 , '0,0,0,0' , 0 , null , null , 'Y' , 'Name' , 'Y' , 'N' , null , 0 , null , null , null , null , null , 'Name' , null , null , 'Y' , null , null , null , 'Y' , 'N' , 'N' , 'Y' , null)


    where dbo.uf_PMPMName_EPCS is a Scalar-Valued Function that takes in the Company and Contact# and returns the employee's name which is shown on the grid.

    There are other fields that they added that also show on the form.

    These fields were added a couple years ago and we havent run into any problems with them.

  • Nathan Sutherland commented
    July 22, 2020 21:28

    After studying the 'Computed Column', it looks like that would great for simple values from within the same row of data, but would not work for viewing related data from other tables (like the "Description" field that you see almost everywhere in VP), so I'd like to modify this request.

    Modified Request

    Viewpoint, can we have some way to Add to the view that is generated for any table, to add "view only" fields like you use everywhere for "Descriptions"?

    A Method To Create Such Fields

    Create "Related Fields" system with the following setup to hold the configurations:

    A 'RelatedField' table with

    • (U Key) BaseView

    • (U Key) RelatedView

    • (U Key) Seq

    • RelatedField (text, so we could use STRING_AGG, or Field1+Field2...etc)

    • JoinOn (text)

    That way you could wrap it up whatever way you wanted to make sure it only returned one result per original view row.

    Doing something like this would allow us HUGE flexibility in displaying additional data right where needed, and seems like it would have a LOT LESS of a performance impact than the "stored procedure call per row" that is used for the "custom validation" method of showing description fields.

    No matter how you approach it, think of the advantages of being able to see related information (or calculated) in the grid view!

  • Nathan Sutherland commented
    March 21, 2019 18:44

    I'd be happy if you'd at least support the 'Computed Column' that's been in SQL server since 2008 (11 years now), even if we have no means of changing it's properties from the Viewpoint Client side. At least we could SEE related data!

     

  • Darrell Robinson commented
    October 02, 2018 19:42

    Suggest using Spreadsheet Server to pull together two fields with data from Viewpoint, then performing a calculation in Excel.  This way, the exporting to Excel doesn't have to be done manually, and a "refresh" is all that is needed to get current data.

  • Eric Vasbinder commented
    January 14, 2017 05:29

    This is a great idea, but a large effort, so we are cannot commit to a time at this moment, but we are definitely keeping this idea in queue.

  • Nathan Sutherland commented
    October 28, 2016 16:43

    This has been mentioned multiple times in the older wishlist area, and would greatly be appropriated!

  • +37

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