Custom Fields in Jumptree

By Liming Xu • Sun Jan 10 2010 Link

When you’re evaluating a project management system, one important question to ask is, “Can this application conform to my organization’s existing workflow?”

For example, while one organization might be OK with the default project fields provided by Jumptree, another organization might need additional information in order to start a project.

Now we understand that different organizations will have different ways to manage projects—and so our goal is to make Jumptree Project as flexible as possible.

So today we’re going to show you an example of how our Custom Fields option lets you easily modify Jumptree Project to fit your needs.

Before we get started, let’s take a look at what’s currently required to start a New Project.

As you can see below, the default fields that Jumptree asks for are:

Project Name
Project Manager
Project Team
Client
Due Date
Estimated Time
Status

(Click to Enlarge)

Now suppose your organization needs an extra field for the location in which the project demo will be performed.

Here’s what you do…

Step 1: Define Custom Field Information

In the Admin » Project Properties click the Custom Fields option.

1a. Attribute Name — The field name that will be displayed to your users.

Enter: Demo Project Location

1b. Unique Key — A unique identifier for the field you are trying to create.

Enter: DemoPROJLocation

2. Section — Jumptree Project allows custom fields in EIGHT (8) major sections of the application: Projects, Milestones, Tasks, Discussions, Files, Contacts, and Users.

Enter: Projects

3. Attribute Type — As you can see in the screenshot below, there are many types of custom fields that are available for you to use.

Most common types of HTML GUI elements are allowed, such as Text Box, Text Area, Check Box, Check Box List, Radio List, Drop Down List, Multi-Select List Box, and File Upload.

In addition, we provide a few advanced GUI interactions such as Calendar, Date Range, Email, and URL.

Lastly, the most advance type is perhaps the Regular Expression option. With that feature, you can ask for any type of data.

For this tutorial, because the demo project location will simply be a one line string (e.g. Building 2, Room 438),

Select: Text Box for the Attribute Type.

Step 2: Text Box Properties

1. Initial Value — What is the initial value displayed to the user? For this tutorial we will not have an initial value.

2. Data Type — What is the type of data that is being inputted, e.g. is it text or a number?

Select: Text

Step 3: Validation

This step should be self-explanatory. Will this field be required for the user to fill in? If so, then what is the error message if they don’t enter anything in?

Select: Yes and enter: Please enter a project location.