About Fields

Use fields to store and/or display information that is relevant to a Business Object. Fields can be exposed in CSM using field controls on a form to display relevant information (example: Status), or to allow users to provide or select data (example: Description, Priority, Category, and Sub-category.).

Incident Fields

Each field can hold one of the following types of information:

Text: Letters, numbers, and/or special characters. Text fields are the most versatile type of field, and are usually the main fields displayed in a form (example: Name, Description, and Status). They can be either plain text (no special formatting) or Rich Text (special formatting and embedded images).
Number: Digits, including whole numbers and decimals, negative numbers, and currency. Number fields can be used to record statistics (example: How many times an Incident has been escalated), calculate numbers (example: Total tasks associated with an Incident), and track time (example: How long it takes to complete a task) and costs (example: Actual cost of an emergency change).
Date/Time: Dates and/or times. Date/time fields can be used to track deadlines (example: SLA Respond By Deadline, Review By Deadline), when records are created, modified, or change status, and when certain events are scheduled (example: Service blackouts, and CI downtimes).
Logical: True or false. Logical fields can be used to track activities (example: Responded to the customer) and items of interest to management (example: Resolved on first call), and to flag important records (example: VIP customer, has an SLA).

Fields can have any of the following properties:

Required: Must contain a value before a Business Object can be saved, or before it enters the next lifecycle state.
Read-Only: Value cannot be edited or updated.
Calculated: Value is calculated by evaluating an Expression.
Validated: Must contain a value from a defined set of values (example: Validation table, list, and range.).
Auto-populated: Automatically filled in based on defined conditions (example: When another field's value changes and using a Group Map.).

You can also define when certain properties apply (example: Always, never, based on lifecycle states or on another field, system function, stored value, or expression).

CSM provides many fields for its OOTB Business Objects. Use these as-is, edit them, or create your own using the Business Object Editor (accessed from within a Blueprint in CSM Administrator).