Creating an attribute

Related topics

Attributes store information about items and folders. Some of the attributes associated with the base item and folder types include, Create Date, Expire Date, and Author.

You can create your own attributes to extend the functionality of your custom item types and custom folder types. For example, in a health and fitness content area, you might choose to create a custom item type for product reviews for which you could create a Rating attribute to store the product rating.

You must be the content area administrator, the portal administrator, or have Manage privileges on All Content Areas to create an attribute.

To create an attribute:

  1. In the Navigator, click the Content Areas tab.

  2. Navigate to the following path:

    Path: Content Areas > ContentAreaDisplayName > Custom Types

    where ContentAreaDisplayName is the content area in which you want to create the attribute.

    Note: If you want to share this attribute across multiple content areas, create it in the Shared Objects content area.

  3. In the Attributes row, click Create.

  4. In the Name field, enter a name for the attribute. The name is used internally only.

    Note: The name must be unique within the content area, is limited to 60 characters, and can contain only alphanumeric characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9) and the underscore character (_); no spaces or other special characters.

  5. In the Display Name field, enter a descriptive name for the attribute. The display name is used in the Navigator and is also displayed as a label for the attribute when users add or edit an item or folder of a type that includes the attribute.

    Note: The display name is limited to 60 characters, and can contain any character, including spaces.

  6. In the Datatype list, choose the type of data that the attribute stores.

Datatype

Description

Boolean

Stores a value of TRUE or FALSE.

Date

Stores a date value.

Example: 22-JUN-2000

File

Stores a file, such as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or an HTML document.

Number

Stores a numeric value.

Example: 8479

PL/SQL

Stores PL/SQL code.

Example: htp.print('Hello World!');

Text

Stores text.

Example: weights

URL

Stores the URL of an external Web site or Web page.

Example: http://www.healthyliving.com

Application Component

Stores the name of an application component.

Example: EXAMPLE_APP: EXAMPLE_FORM

  1. Click Create.

    A message is displayed at the top of the page to confirm that the attribute has been created.

  2. You can now either click the attribute link in the confirmation message to further define your new attribute, create additional attributes, or click Close to return to the Navigator.

Related topics

Changing an attribute's display properties
Deleting an attribute

Adding attributes to a custom item type
Adding attributes to a custom folder type

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