Applications Administration Guide > Working with Lists of Values >

Adding a New Value to an Existing List of Values

In order to add an item to an existing list of values so that it shows up in a drop-down list, you must know its type. You can find out the type by querying the List of Values list to determine the type associated with a specific display value. Then you can add a new record with that type. For instance, in the Accounts list you can see the Status drop-down list. Imagine that you use this field to indicate ratings for your accounts' reliability. Initial settings are Gold and Silver. You might want to add another status of Bronze to this list, to give to customers that have a reliable account rating. The procedure below uses this example.

To identify the list-of-values type for a display value

  1. Navigate to the screen displaying the drop-down list to which you want to add a value (for example, the Accounts screen).
  2. Select the drop-down list and make note of one of the choices.

    For example, in the Accounts screen, select the Status drop-down list and make note of the value Gold.

    TIP:  Be sure to note the capitalization and spacing of the choice.

  3. From the application-level menu, choose View > Site Map > Application Administration > List of Values.
  4. In the List of Values list, perform a query in the Display Value field, using the value you noted in Step 2.
  5. In the list of records that is returned, identify the appropriate record by reviewing the entries in the Type field.

    List-of-values types usually have names that relate to the field labels in the screens where they are used. In this example, you would look for a type labeled something like ACCOUNT_STATUS.

    When you create a new value for this list, you will use this type.

To add a new value to an existing list of values

  1. From the application-level menu, choose View > Site Map > Application Administration > List of Values.
  2. Click New to create a new record, and then enter the list-of-values type in the Type field.
  3. Enter a new value in the Display Value field.

    For example, if Bronze is the status that your organization gives customers that have a reliable account rating, and you want to make Bronze available as in the Account Status drop-down, you would add a new record with ACCOUNT_STATUS as the type and Bronze as the display value.

    Make sure that the length of the Display Value you enter does not exceed the allowed length of the destination column.

  4. Enter a value in the Language Independent Code field. This value is usually the same as the Display Value.

    Make sure that the length of the Language Independent Code you enter does not exceed the allowed length of the destination column.

    NOTE:  The Display Name and Language Independent Code must both be unique within a list-of-values type, except when configuring a multilingual list of values. If you add a value that already exists, you will get an error message. For example, there cannot be two ACCOUNT_STATUS records that have a display value of Bronze. For information about how this differs for multilingual lists of values, see the definition of the Language Independent Code field in Table 11.

  5. If applicable, in the Order field, you can enter a number to indicate the numerical order in which the value appears in a drop-down list.

    For example, if the order numbers for Gold and Silver are 1 and 2, respectively, the order number for Bronze would be 3.

  6. If appropriate, fill in the remaining fields in the record.

    For a description of these fields, see List of Values Fields.

  7. Clear the LOV cache by clicking the menu button and then choosing Clear LOV Cache.

After you have cleared the cache, you can navigate to a screen and select the new value in the related drop-down list. For example, you can navigate to the Accounts screen, select a record from the Accounts list, and then choose Bronze in the record's Account Status drop-down list.


 Applications Administration Guide
 Published: 09 September 2004