Configuring Additional Field Extensions

InterAction’s field extensions allow you to set up a field to launch an external component to collect and validate information.

Additional fields configured to use field extensions appear on the Additional Information view in the Windows Client like any other additional field. You can use extensions with both global and folder-specific additional fields. They only apply in the Windows Client.

For InterAction to recognize a field extension, it must be properly installed and added to the registry. Normally, the developer of the extension will provide an installation program that automatically copies the extension to a user’s workstation and adds the appropriate registry entries.

Note that the extension must be distributed to the workstations of each user that needs to use it. This can be done in a number of ways:

• Use a network update utility to “push” the application files out when users log on to the network.
• Set up a custom installation program (for instance, using InstallShield) and have users run this from the network or distributed diskettes.

Since the install requires updating the registry, simply copying files manually to workstations is not recommended.

An extension must be properly installed and registered on a workstation before you can configure an additional field to use the extension. Once an additional field is set to use an extension, InterAction will attempt to load the extension whenever a user tries to access or use the field. If the extension is not available on a user workstation, InterAction displays an error message.

Any user with at least read access to a folder can see an additional field in the view, regardless of whether or not the extension is actually installed.

InterAction includes an additional field extension for creating additional fields with multiple columns. For details, see Variable Field Additional Field Extension.

Additional Field Extensions and Field Types

You cannot change the data type for an additional field. For example, once you save a field as a “Text” field, you cannot make it a “Number” field.

You can, however, switch the field type for an existing field to use the Extension type. This is because the Extension type isn’t actually a normal field type – instead, it specifies that the field uses an extension. The actual field type for the field definition depends on the extension.

For example, the Variable Field Additional Field Extension included with InterAction only works with additional fields defined as text fields. Therefore, you can configure any text field to use the extension. You can also change an existing field that uses the extension to use the text type instead.

Configure an Additional Field to Use an Extension

Use InterAction Administrator to configure global additional fields to use extensions. Use InterAction to configure folder additional fields to use extensions.

1. Create or edit an additional field as described in “Create an Additional Field Definition” or “Edit an Additional Field Definition” in Creating and Editing Additional Field Definitions.
2. In the Edit Additional Field dialog box, select Extension from the Field Type list.
3. Choose the Browse button to display a list of properly installed field extensions.
4. Select the extension you want to use and choose OK.
5. Depending on the extension, a message or a “settings” dialog box may appear. Complete as needed and choose OK.
6. You may need to complete the Name, Description, and Person/Company fields. The field extension may be designed to complete these fields for you.
7. Choose OK to close the New/Edit Additional Field dialog box.
8. Choose Close to close the Manage Global Additional Fields dialog box.