Fields and formulas

Every kind of field, links to your other apps, line items, formulas, totals of lines, rules for when a field shows or is required, and who sees it.

Adding a field

Open a model and its Fields tab, press Add a field and pick its kind. Drag fields to change their order. Each field gets a key like x_due_date that never changes (used by the API, imports and formulas).

Kinds of field

• Basic - Text, Long text, Rich text (bold, lists, links), Colour.
• Numbers - Whole number, Decimal, Money, Percent, Duration (hours:minutes), Rating (stars).
• Dates - Date, Date and time.
• Choices - Choice (one), Choices (many), Yes / No, Tags. Choices can have colours; a Choice can show as a status bar at the top of the form.
• Links - Person (a user of your business), Link to one record and Link to many records - of your own models, or of your other Ellibo apps: customers, vendors, products, employees and projects. Tick Show a count button to get a button like "3 Checkouts" on the linked record.
• Line items - a table inside the record, for example parts used on a job. Studio makes a line model for it; open it to add its columns.
• Files - File, Image, Signature (drawn with a finger or the mouse).
• Contact - Web address, Email, Phone, Location (an address and a map point - press the target to use where you are).
• Calculated - Related value, Formula, Total of lines, Auto-number.

Rules on a field

• Required, Read-only after it is saved, No two records the same, lowest and highest numbers, a pattern for text (for example a vehicle number).
• Default value: a fixed value, Today for dates, the person who adds it for people.
• Show it only when, Required when and Read-only when - for example show Reason for refund only when Decision is Refund. The form follows these as people type, and the server checks them again on save.
• Hidden from and Read-only for some roles.

Formulas

A Formula field works out its value each time the record is saved. Write field labels in square brackets:

• [Price] * [Qty] * (1 + [Tax %] / 100)
• IF([Amount] > 50000, "Big", "Normal")
• DAYS([Due date], TODAY()) - days left
• ADD_DAYS([Start], 30), ADD_MONTHS([Start], 12)
• CONCAT([First name], " ", [Last name]), UPPER([Code]), [City] & ", " & [Country]

Operators: + - * / % ^, & joins text, = <> < <= > >=, AND OR NOT.

Functions: IF, IFS, AND, OR, NOT, SUM, MIN, MAX, AVG, ROUND, ROUNDUP, ROUNDDOWN, ABS, INT, MOD, POWER, SQRT, CONCAT, UPPER, LOWER, PROPER, TRIM, LEN, LEFT, RIGHT, MID, REPLACE, CONTAINS, STARTSWITH, TEXT, VALUE, ISBLANK, COALESCE, TODAY, NOW, DATE, YEAR, MONTH, DAY, WEEKDAY, DAYS, HOURS, ADD_DAYS, ADD_MONTHS.

Besides your fields you can use [Name], [Number], [Stage], [Owner], [Priority], [Created on] and [Changed on]. The box checks the formula as you type. Choose what the answer is - number, money, percent, text, date or yes/no.

Formulas are worked out safely by Studio: they cannot run code or reach other businesses' data.

Related values and totals

• Related value shows a value of a linked record - the email of the linked customer, the price of the linked product.
• Total of lines adds up (or counts, averages, finds the lowest or highest of) a column of the line items - for example the parts cost of a job. A formula can then use it: [Labour] + [Parts cost].

When a field a formula uses changes, the records are worked out again.