KB: Web Interface Free Text Fields

Introduction

The CommitCRM Web Interface offers great features for portability, and mass use of the system to both your customers and your employees. When editing the records data using CommitCRM Web Interface, many times field values are selected from a fixed dropdown list of values (the list can be customized when using the CommitCRM client application). However, in some cases the use of a "Free Text" input field instead of a selection field is required as it helps users express themselves more freely in the data that they record into the system via the CommitCRM Web Interface.

Converting Your Fields

The following "hack" should be used to convert selected Web interface data fields from a selection dropdown list into a free text input fields. This is achieved by creating a text file which has all the Field ID's that correspond to the fields that you want to give free text input to in the CommitCRM Web Interface.

Gathering Field Id's

In order to tell the CommitCRM Web Interface which fields we want to adjust, we'll need to create a text file that will hold a list of all the Field ID's that you want to change, and save it as a txt file.

To obtain the Field ID's you need for this please follow these steps:

1. Open a CommitCRM client application.
2. Find a Right Click a field you want to adjust.
3. Choose Field Settings.
4. Go to the Advanced Tab.
5. Copy the Tech Rec. ID value to a new line in your Text File list.
6. Click OK.
7. Repeat Steps 2 through 6 for the rest of the fields.

Managing The Field List

As mentioned above, the list only needs to have the Field ID each Field ID value pasted on its own line in order to tell CommitCRM Web Interface to treat the field as a free text input field; so the content of your file should look something like the following list:

• Note: Make sure to only include fields which are used as customized drop down list in CommitCRM client in your file. Including other fields may results in data corruption.
  
  

In order to tell whether a field can be use for this or not, right click the field and see whether it has the '[Edit List...]' option, as shown in the screenshot below. (Only available for CommitCRM sys Admin accounts)

All that's left to do now is to save the file to the CommitCRM Web Interface directory as the following file, and restarting the CommitCRM WebInterface Service on the CommitCRM Server:

<server>\CommitCRM\WebInterface\CmtForceTextFlds.txt

• Note that the name of this file must be as listed above: CmtForceTextFlds.txt

Final Result

Before

After

The result allows you to enter any data you like into the data fields that you've specified in the list.

See Also

CommitCRM Web Interface User Guide
CommitCRM Web Interface FAQ