Properties

A property is a field you create yourself, on one of the six main objects. You set it up once under the Settings navigation entry, through the Properties button. From then on you maintain it on the record itself, in the Properties section.

What properties are for and when to create one instead of using an existing field is described under properties.

Overview

The page is arranged in two rows of tabs: the object type on top, the group below it. Only underneath sits the list of properties.

Properties of the products with the object tabs, the group tabs and the list of the Appearance group

The upper toolbar belongs to the groups, the lower one to the properties. Above, New Group creates a group, Delete Group removes the selected one, Move Left and Move Right shift its tab. Below, New opens a menu with the seven types, Edit opens the selected property, Delete removes it after a confirmation, Move Up and Move Down shift it within the list. The four buttons that act on a selection are grayed out without one.

Where the group tabs do not fit into one row, two paging arrows appear at the ends. They shift the row of tabs, they change nothing about the order. Move Left and Move Right are there for that.

The list carries three columns.

Column	Content
Position	The number the property appears under on the record. It is changed through Move Up and Move Down, not by typing into the list
Name	The caption the field carries on the record
Type	One of the seven types, see below. It is fixed once the property is created

Object types

The six tabs of the upper row are the objects that carry properties: Products, Manufacturers, Categories, Media, Orders and Customers. Each tab holds its own set. A property always belongs to exactly one object type and cannot be moved to another one afterwards.

Properties exist on all six and not only on the product. An image credit on the medium, a requested date on the order, a payment term on the customer: those are requirements that would otherwise need a change to the software, and here they are three minutes in the settings.

The Name has to be unique per object type, not per group. So two groups may not both carry something called Gloss level. On the product and on the manufacturer they may.

Groups

A group collects properties that are read together. On the record that becomes a tab of its own, and here in the settings likewise.

The first tab is called Default and can be neither created nor renamed nor deleted. It takes in whatever is assigned to no group, and therefore always sits in front.

Without a single group the second row of tabs does not exist at all. An object type with five properties and no group shows the list directly below the group toolbar.

Properties of the customers without group tabs, the list sits directly below the toolbar

A new group gets its name from TRADElube, namely Group, every further one with a number appended. You rename it in the field above the list, which appears only on a real group.

Deleting a group deletes no property. Whatever sat in it moves to Default and keeps its values on every record. That is the cautious reading: a group is an arrangement, and dissolving an arrangement must not cost data.

The seven types

The type decides what can be entered on the record, and it is fixed the moment the property is created. You choose it in the menu of the New button.

Type	What gets entered on the record
Text	Free text, optionally single-line, multi-line or formatted
Boolean	Yes or no, a checkbox on the record
Integer	A number without decimal places
Float	A number with a fixed count of decimal places
Date	A calendar day
Date Time	A calendar day with a time
Option	One entry from a list you define yourself

Changing the type afterwards is not provided for, and that is no gap: the values already entered on every record hang off the property. Turning 3.5 litres into a number works by hand on one record and not at all on a thousand. Where you need another type, you create the property anew.

The detail view

You open a property through Edit. The detail view carries two sections, Common and Configuration.

Common section of the property Gloss level with position, name and the Appearance group

Common

Field	Meaning	Note
Position	The number within the group	Typable here, changeable in the list only through the buttons
Name	The caption on the record	Has to be unique per object type
Group	The group the property sits in	Rehanging is possible at any time, the values stay. With nothing selected it sits under Default

Behind the group sit the object type and the type, both without a caption of their own and neither of them editable. In the image that reads Product Option, that is the object type product and the type option. Both are set at creation.

Configuration

What this section shows depends on the type. On Text, Integer, Float and Option there are settings, on Boolean, Date and Date Time there are none and the section stays empty.

Configuration section of a text property with the multi line and rich text checkboxes

The type Text carries two checkboxes. Multi Line turns the field on the record into a multi-line box, Rich Text into a formatted one on top. The second pulls the first along: whoever sets formatting gets multi-line with it, even without having ticked it.

Configuration section of a float property with decimal places, minimum and maximum value

The type Integer carries Min Value and Max Value, Float the same two and Decimal Places in front of them. The decimal places act on both limits: the fields below accept exactly as many places as are set here.

Option lists

On the type Option the Configuration section carries the list of entries picked from on the record, plus four checkboxes.

Configuration section of the property Gloss level with four checkboxes and the alphabetically ordered option list from dead matt to silk matt

Above the list sit New, which appends an empty row, and Delete, which removes the selected one. While Sort Alphabetically is set, that is all of them. Without the tick, Move Up and Move Down join in and shift the selected row. The Name is typed into the row itself, the Position is assigned by TRADElube.

Of the four checkboxes, the first three do not concern manual maintenance but the transfer: they decide how a delivered text meets an entry of this list. The fourth orders the list.

Field	Meaning	Note
Auto Fill	A delivered value missing from the list is created as a new entry	Without the tick the record fails with a named message instead of being passed over silently
Ignore Case Sensitive	silk matt matches Silk Matt	Acts on the comparison only, the entry keeps its spelling
Ignore Whitespace	Silk matt matches Silkmatt	Likewise
Sort Alphabetically	The list orders itself by name, and the Position column follows that order	Set on a new property. Without the tick, the order you set through the buttons applies

Auto Fill is set on a new property, and the tick has a price: where the list grows with every execution, the far side's typing errors accumulate as entries of their own, and the pick list on the record becomes unusable over time. To keep the list fixed you take the tick out and get an error on exactly the record that carried the unknown value instead. That then becomes a new entry or a correction in the upstream system. Which of the two is right depends on the source: with a maintained manufacturer list, filling is convenient. With free text entry it is the beginning of the end of the list.

What a connected system sees of this

A property is transferred like any other field: through an assignment in the task's transfer plan. On the type Option a second level joins in, because the entries of the option list carry identifiers of their own on the far side and are therefore mapped.

How an assignment is created is described under transfer plan, what a mapping is under mappings.