Creating New Field Definitions

Enter a unique identifier for the field that is less than 18 characters, without spaces, and in uppercase. Make this the default label by selecting the Def check box in the last column; otherwise, the first label is the default. You can set only one field label as the default.

See Using Multiple Labels.

Enter up to 30 characters. The name that you enter here appears as the RFT Long option for a page field. This label is also used for the tool tip, or hover text, for links at runtime if it is different from the assigned display value of the link.

Enter up to 15 characters as an alternate name to use on pages and reports if you have insufficient space to display the long name. If you leave this field blank, the system automatically copies the first 15 characters of the long name into this field. The name that you enter here appears as the RFT Short option for a page field.

When you enter the first label ID, the system automatically selects the Def check box. The system uses this default field if you have multiple labels. You can have only one default field.

This check box is always read-only in the field definition properties dialog box. You can change its value using PeopleCode, causing the field to be:

• Skipped as part of the unique index.

• Exposed to PeopleCode for read and write operations.

• Ignored in Query.

• Ignored in nVision.

• Unavailable to users in search pages or list boxes if it is a search key or list box item.

See SetDBFieldNotUsed.

This field is read-only in the field definition properties dialog box. It is used for character fields and by financial applications to specify a usage pattern. You can change the value using PeopleCode.

Select this option to encrypt the field using Oracle Transparent Data Encryption (TDE).

See Encrypting Fields.

Enter a whole number between 1 and 254 for the length of the field.

Select one of the following values:

• Uppercase: Converts the field value to uppercase and signifies that no other formatting options apply to this field. Use this option for code values, such as department ID, for which it does not matter whether the user enters the value in uppercase or lowercase. Uppercase is the default format.

• Mixedcase: Stores uppercase and lowercase characters as entered. Use this option for fields that contain textual data, such as a department or company division name. For example, Accounting - Receivables is more readable than ACCOUNTING - RECEIVABLES.

• Numbers Only: Forces entries to be numeric, which is useful for enforcing numeric values without redefining the field as a number field. This option automatically populates fields with leading zeros. For example, if the user enters 1 in a three-digit field, the system changes this value to 001.

• SSN: Formats the entry in U.S. Social Security Number format (999-99-9999). Define the field length as 9, even though the display length is 11. The system automatically adds dashes when formatting the field for display, but the number is stored in the database without the dashes.

• SIN: Formats the entry in Canadian Social Insurance Number format (999-999-999) and performs the standard check-digit verification for SIN. Define the field length as 9, even though the display length is 11. The system automatically adds dashes when formatting the field for display, but the number is stored in the database without the dashes.

• Raw Binary: Allows character fields containing embedded NULLs, such as encrypted values.

• Name: Indicates that the field entry uses the PeopleSoft standard name convention:

  [Lastname] [Suffix],[Prefix] [Firstname] [Middle name/Initial]

  The entry can contain alphanumeric characters, spaces, periods, hyphens, and apostrophes. Uppercase and lowercase characters are preserved as entered, that is, mixed case formatting is used automatically.

  Important! While a space is a valid character, it is not allowed immediately after the comma separating the last name from the first name.

  Valid entries might include:

  • O’Brien,Michael

  • Jones IV,James

  • Phillips MD,Deanna Lynn

  • Reynolds Jr.,Dr. John Q

  • Phipps-Scott,Ms. Adrienne

  • Knauft,Günter

  Note: For names that include Chinese, Japanese, or Korean (CJK) ideographic characters, different standard name conventions apply. See Using CJK Ideographic Characters in Name Character Fields.

• Postal Code North America: Formats the entry to U.S. zip code format or Canadian postal code format. Canadian postal codes are edited to ensure that alphabetical and numeric characters are entered in the correct positions.

  The following entry formats apply. Stored formats appear in parentheses following the entry format:

  • 99999 (99999)

  • 99999-9999 (99999-9999)

  • 999999999 (99999-9999)

  • A9A9A9 (A9A 9A9)

  • A9A 9A9 (A9A 9A9)

• Postal Code International: Allows the entry of international postal codes. You must enter at least 7 digits. If you enter 9 digits, the system assumes that the value is a U.S. zip code; if the entry is in A9A9A9 format, the system assumes that the value is a Canadian postal code. The system formats the value accordingly. For all other entries, no formatting is applied.

• Phone Num North America (phone number North America): Formats the entry in North American telephone number format.

  The following entry formats apply. Stored formats appear in parentheses following the entry format:

  • 9999999 (999-9999)

  • 999-9999 (999-9999)

  • 9999999999 (999/999-9999)

  • 999/999-9999 (999/999-9999)

• Phone Number International: Allows the entry of international telephone numbers. If you enter 7 or 10 digits (and no other characters), the system assumes that the value is a North American phone number and formats it accordingly. For all other entries, no formatting is applied.

• Custom: If you select this value, the Family Name and Display Name fields become available for entry. These selections enable you to apply additional formatting attributes that affect how the field appears on a page.

To control the length of a long character field, enter the maximum number of bytes that you want the system to write to this field. If you do not specify a maximum length, or specify 0 (zero), you can enter an unlimited number of characters, depending on the capacity of your database system.

When working with fields, be aware that your chosen database system limits the amount of data contained in a field. For Oracle the field size is truncated to 1333 characters. Consider this limitation when choosing to use fields of a Long Character data type.

For Oracle: If the maximum length of a long field is less than 4001 bytes, the field can be stored more efficiently as a VARCHAR2(4000). To support the PeopleSoft Unicode implementation on the Oracle platform, we defined long columns with a specified length of 1330 or less as VARCHAR2 columns. If the length specified was greater than 1330, then the column was generated as a long VARCHAR or long raw, depending on the setting of the Raw Binary check box. This setting allows for the maximum possible usage of a tripled VARCHAR2 character length for Unicode-defined databases.

DB2/LUW: If the maximum length specified for a long character field is 2000 or less and the database is ANSI, the field will be defined in the database as a VARCHAR(n) data type. If the maximum length specified for a long character field is 4000 or less and the database is Unicode, the field will be stored in the database as a VARGRAPHIC(n) data type. If a length of 0 is specified, or if the length exceeds 2000 or 4000, the field will be defined in the database as a CLOB (ANSI), or a DBCLOB (Unicode), respectively.

For DB2 for z/OS: Character fields defined with a length specification greater than 254 are automatically defined as LONG VARCHAR in EBCDIC databases and LONG VARGRAPHIC in Unicode databases.

Select to store data that is not converted when moving data between different systems. Raw binary is intended for binary data and byte strings. For example, raw binary can store graphics, sound, documents, and arrays of binary data.

Specify the number of integer positions to the left of the decimal. If the number contains only decimal positions, leave this field blank.

Specify the number of decimal positions to the right of the decimal. If a number contains only integer positions, leave this field blank. In calculations, the system rounds up the result to the number of decimal positions defined here.

SQL describes field length in terms of precision and scale. Precision is the total number of integer and decimal positions. Scale is the number of decimal positions. Thus, 11.3 means 8 integer positions and 3 decimal positions; 11.0 means 11 integer positions and 0 decimal positions.

When you enter 0 in the Decimal Positions field and enter 5 or 10 in the Integer Positions field, the RawBinary format option appears. The RawBinary format converts a number field value to a full-length 16- or 32-bit integer. See the example in the table that follows.

Select this check box for a field that is used for arithmetic calculations that might contain a negative value.

Specify the last two digits of a year, which is typically what users enter in a date field. If you enter 50, the default century becomes 2000 when someone enters 0 through 50 as the year in a date field. If someone enters a number between 51 and 99 in a date field, the default century becomes 1900. The default value is 50.

Specify the formatting for this field. HH represents hours, MI represents minutes, SS represents seconds, and 999999 represents microseconds.

Specify the maximum number of bytes available to store an image. If you do not specify a maximum length, the maximum length is determined by your database platform. If a user attempts to cut and paste an image that is larger than the maximum length or database capacity, an error message appears.

The following databases apply these maximums:

• Oracle (2 gigabytes).

• DB2 LUW: The maximum allowed by DB2 is 2 gigabytes. The maximum length specified in DDL generated by PeopleTools is 600 megabytes.

• DB2 z/OS: Approximately 32700 kilobytes, depending on the page size, (as determined by the Buffer Pool) and the internal DB2 lengths of the rest of the columns in the row.

• Microsoft SQL Server (2 gigabytes).

Select an image format.

Format determines the type of image that you can select and write to the database for this field. PeopleSoft Application Designer supports BMP, DIB, GIF, CUT, EPS, JPG, PCX, PCT, RLE, TGA, SVG and PNG image types. At runtime, the user can upload BMP, DIB, GIF, and JPG images to the database.