In this article:
Overview of All Types of Custom Fields
1. Single-line text
2. Multi-line text
3. Number
4. Date
5. Link
6. Dropdown
7. Contributor
8. File
9. Vote
10. Card Picker
11. Calculated Number
12. Calculated Date
In addition to the standard card fields in Businessmap (Reporter, Created at, Last modified, and Last moved), you can also use custom fields. Their goal is to help you organize your work process by customizing card fields to fit your needs.
To access custom fields on a global level, head to the Administration Panel → Card Management → Custom Fields. To see the custom fields on a board level, click on the three-dot menu on the Board Sidebar and select Custom fields.
Overview of All Types of Custom Fields
When creating your new custom field, you first have to choose its type. The custom field type defines what the input element looks like on the card to capture different types of information. For example, it could be text, a number, a date, a URL, etc.
Currently, Businessmap supports 12 types of custom fields.
Here is the description of the different types of Custom Fields:
1. Single-line text
It allows you to create fields where you insert a single line of text (up to 250 characters). It is suitable for fields where you input short bits of information (e.g. name, city, etc).
Note: When creating the custom field, you can choose to display a prefix, a suffix, or both respectively before and after the custom field.
2. Multi-line text
It allows you to create fields where you insert multiple lines of text in a larger text box. It is commonly used to store descriptions and notes, and prompt users to provide more detailed information to complete the field.
3. Number
This type of field accepts only numbers.
Notes: When creating the custom field, you can apply the following additional settings:
- Min value: the minimum of the range of the allowed values.
- Max value: the maximum of the range of the allowed values.
- Decimal places: the number of decimal places to show.
- Display a prefix, a suffix, or both, respectively, before and after the custom field's value.
4. Date
This field allows you to enter a date from a calendar picker or just type a date into the field. You can also enable the option to set an exact time along with a date. This can be achieved by enabling the "Show time" option from the Advanced Settings of the field on account level.
If time is enabled for a given date custom field, it will be visible in the field for all boards where the field is applied and this cannot be adjusted per board.
Note: When creating a custom field of type date, you can set a default value, which is "x" days in the future.
5. Link
It allows you to enter a web address (URL) and use this custom field as a hyperlink. Click the icon on the right of the field to open the link in a new tab.
6. Dropdown
This field allows you to create a set of values in a dropdown list. Users can then select a value from the allowed options.
When creating the custom field, you can apply the following additional settings:
- Allow other value: Allows you to input a different value in a separate field.
- Lock allowed values: Controls whether the custom field's allowed values are locked and cannot be changed per board. If you need to have different values for this field on different boards, you will have to disable the Lock allowed values option on a global level for the field in question.
- Lock Properties: Controls whether the custom field's allowed values are locked and cannot be changed per board. If you need to have different properties for this field on different boards, you will have to disable the Lock Properties option on a global level for the field in question. By default, this setting is disabled for newly created dropdown fields.
- Min number of values: the minimum number of values that have to be selected for this custom field per card.
- Max number of values: the maximum number of values that have to be selected for this custom field per card.
Options on a global level
On a global level, you have four options from the three-dot menu on each value:
- Rename — Change the name of the value.
- Mark as default value (only appears for enabled values) — If a default value is marked as disabled, it will no longer be the default value.
- Disable/Enable — When a value is disabled, it will be colored in red, and a pop-up with the text "The value is disabled" will appear on hover.
- Delete — When deleting a value, all cards that have the value in question will be updated and the value will be removed from them, even if they are archived. You will be warned about it with a pop-up.
Options on a board level
Clicking on the three dots next to each value will let you either Disable/Enable or Delete a value. Disabling/enabling a value would only apply to the current board. Deleting a value will remove it from all cards on the board including archived and discarded cards.
You will still be able to see all dropdown values in the "Board Custom Field Details" window.
Important: When cloning a card, any disabled values of the dropdown custom field will not be copied over to the new card.
7. Contributor
This field opens a dropdown list with all users assigned to the current board, so you can select additional users responsible for the card completion (e.g. establishing a Point of Contact (POC) for the task).
When creating the custom field, you can choose to select:
- Min number of contributors: the minimum number of contributors that have to be selected for this custom field per card.
- Max number of contributors: the maximum number of values that have to be selected for this custom field per card.
8. File
With this type of custom field, you can attach documents, images, and any other types of files to cards. What makes this field different from the default "attachments" card property is the various custom field settings that allow you to define different behaviors.
Once the custom field is added to the card, you can upload attachments from your Computer, Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, or OneDrive.
The supported formats are: bmp, jpg, gpeg, gif, png, txt, rtf, doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, odt, ott, sxw, stw, ods, ots, sxc, stc, odp, otp, sxi, sti, uop, uof, pdf, rar, zip, 7z, xml, csv, log, eml, mp4, ogg, dxf, stl, gz, tgz, 7z.
9. Vote
This custom field makes it easy to create a binary poll in Businessmap to establish a voting system within a card.
Add a topic to vote on in the respective card and notify the users whose votes you expect to collect. Users vote directly on the card by clicking "thumb up" or "thumb down" in order to make a collective decision or express their opinion. Every user who votes can add a comment to make their feedback more constructive.
The dedicated "Voting" panel displays the number of users who voted "for" and "against" along with the avatar picture of each (user names appear on hover). It also shows all accompanying comments. The system allows you to change your vote if you reconsider, and that is instantly reflected in the “Voting” panel.
10. Card Picker
It allows you to have a custom selection of cards visualized in a card or Initiative of your choice.
With the "Card picker" field, you can easily group cards together according to any criterion you might have. Pick the cards that are relevant to your search and display them in a single view.
The selected cards get ordered as a list under the custom field. Every new item you add appears at the bottom of the list, but you can drag and drop cards up and down to have them ordered however you like.
Notes:
- The system does not create a two-way connection (card linking) between the items. Each card listed in your selection acts as a shortcut link to the card itself. On hover with the mouse pointer, a handy tooltip with summary info will pop up.
- There is a limit of 1000 cards (results) you can get from a Card Picker custom field since it uses the same filter as the Advanced Search. Aside from this and the restrictions tied to calculated custom fields (maximum 10 per board), there are no other limits for custom fields.
11. Calculated Number
The calculated number and date fields are part of our calculated custom fields. You can learn more about them and how to configure them in our calculated custom fields article.
In short, calculated number fields let you build formulas using other fields of type number, standard numeric values, and the “card size” field.
12. Calculated Date
Calculated date fields let you build formulas using other custom fields of type date, as well as the standard fields “Created at” and “Deadline.” For some functions, you can also use custom fields of type number and standard numeric values.