Derived fields allow you to set up a workspace to display data sourced from items in another workspace.

About Derived Fields

Derived fields allow you to reuse data by configuring the Item Details tab in a workspace to display data sourced from a selected item in another workspace. When users select the item from the other workspace in a Picklist field, the Derived fields you create to work with the Picklist are populated with data "derived" from that item. Derived fields can reference fields from the Item Details tab as well as system properties from the owner and change summary sections, the Workflow Details tab, and the Lifecycles tab.

For Administrators, Derived fields mean no longer having to write complex scripts that copy data from one workspace to another in order to reuse it. For item editors, dynamic updating of Derived fields means no longer having to update data manually in one place so it is current with the data at the source. For data managers, automatic and dynamic population of fields means fewer user input errors and therefore better data quality.

The mechanics of Derived fields are transparent to the user. Users do not necessarily know where auto-populated data comes from or how. On the surface, Derived fields look like any other read-only field and can be utilized like any other field. For example, Derived fields can be used in Reports and selected for display and sorting exactly as if they were directly configured in the report's workspace.

Creating Derived Fields

Let's say you want to source data from a Suppliers workspace so that phone and website information are populated automatically in the Item Details of an RFQ workspace when users select a supplier from a picklist field. Start by creating a Picklist field in the RFQ Item Details tab (Supplier) that points to a picklist of records from the Suppliers workspace ([WS] Suppliers). For help on creating Picklist fields, see Picklist Fields. Next, create two Derived fields, also in the RFQ Item Details tab, one for phone number and one for website URL. These fields correspond to the Main Phone and URL fields in the Suppliers workspace.

Shown here are the steps to follow to create the Derived field for Main Phone. The steps are the same for the URL field except you use a different field name and select URL as the source field.

And here are how the fields might look on the Item Details tab before and after selection of a Supplier.

Questions? Something not working quite right?

What happens if source data changes after I create a Derived field? Do I have to do anything to make sure the Derived field shows current data?

No. Derived fields are dynamic and automatically updated with changes to the source data.

What happens if the value saved in a Derived field is later deleted from the source workspace? Does the Derived field appear blank?

No. The Derived field continues to display the saved value even after the source data is deleted.