Override Display Value of fields from different tables that reference the sys_user table?

TrenaFritsche · ‎09-20-2018

Hello,

I have posted this same message as a reply to a posting from over a year ago, but thought I should probably present this as a question to the larger group.

I'm wondering about a display value override for specific tables, but dictionary overrides related list doesn't seem to show? For example, we have the user_name field on the "sys_user" table (which is basically the UserID and not always the name) and have added variables or fields to show the "name" on various forms where we have them referencing the sys_user table. We cannot change the Display Value on this table because we have so much built (10 years of work) where the User ID and User Name both display. As we are implementing new products (ie: PPM), these customers are wanting to stay mostly OOB and not change various PPM forms that have sys_user referencing fields that can type the person's name in the field and autocomplete finds it (that feature is configured), but once it is selected, the display value is the User ID and not the name as the PPM customers want it to display.

In order to give them the field that displays the name, we would have to add a custom field to the form. I know the reference icon can show the name if they hover over it, but I'm trying to allow this display value override on this table, but I'm guessing it is not available due to it being a foundation type table? Not sure, but it anyone can help me understand the reasoning or if I'm maybe missing something where it is able to be done, that would be awesome if you can share.

Thanks in advance for your assistance!

Trena Fritsche

Mark Stanger · ‎09-20-2018

Unfortunately, you can't. The only thing you could do to potentially work around this issue would be to create a new field on the user table that was a concatenation of the User ID and User Name. Then you could set that field as the display value for everywhere in the system to show both attributes at the same time as the display value. That's not that difficult to do and could be done without really impacting the last 10 years of data...as long as you can get your entire org onboard with the idea.

View solution in original post

Mark Stanger · ‎09-20-2018

The only potential issue I can see with this is the very remote possibility that someone has done some scripting around a hard-coded User ID using '.getDisplayValue()' against a user reference field. That's done quite a bit against other tables in the system, but it would be extremely odd to see that done against a specific user record. The risk in this case would be almost zero and couldn't be easily uncovered without extensive testing but is worth pointing out.

TrenaFritsche · ‎09-20-2018

Hi Mark,

Yes, that suggestion sounds good and yes a change like this would still require lots of testing since it is possible for scripting to exist that involves getDisplayValue()-10 years of scripting. 🙂 Besides already adding a field on a lot of our forms that display the name in addition to the ID, this is another reason to not change the display value to "name" instead of "user_name".

Thanks for all your help!!!

Mark Stanger · ‎09-20-2018

You're welcome!