About Masks

Masks enable you to restrict Task Web client user input for a field to a specific format. Using the Data Dictionary editor OSM tab, you can specify the strings of characters used to define the format of the data in the field and use a mandatory mask character to create a field where a user must enter information in the appropriate format to complete the task. See the "Data Schema Editor OSM Tab" for more information.

Use the following mask characters for text fields:

Mask Character	Description
#	Mandatory digit
9	Optional digit
A	Mandatory alphanumeric
a	Optional alphanumeric
?	Mandatory alpha
z	Optional alpha

Mask characters serve as placeholders in Task Web client fields. All non-mask characters appear in text type fields; you cannot edit them. For example, if you enter TEXT in the OSM Element Mask field, it appears in the Task Web client field as TEXT. To use mask characters as literals, you must enter "\" in front of the character.

Use the following mask characters for numeric fields:

Mask Character	Description
9	Optional digit
0	Use to the right of the decimal. Displays 0 if no value is entered.
.	Decimal placeholder
,	Numeric placeholder

Note:

You must include at least one numeric mask character for the field to be valid. You cannot use quotation marks (" ") for numeric masks.

The following table illustrates how numeric mask characters defined in the Data Schema editor would affect data entered into the Task Web client:

Mask Defined in Data Dictionary	Entered into the Web Client	Displayed in Web Client
9,999	1234	1,234
99.99	34.12345	34.12
99.00	12	12.00
99.00	34.1256	34.13