Table of Contents
Introducing Custom Fields
EasyCatalog provides an easy way to transform and supplement your existing data using Custom Fields.
Using Custom Fields allow you to sum or average data within a specific group, display conditional content based on the value of one or more existing fields, or to extract or transform field content.
Custom fields may be broadly grouped into the following segments:
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| Barcodes | Convert numeric barcodes to the glyphs required for a barcode font |
| Grouping data | Manage data based on group levels (e.g. categories or sub-categories within your catalog) |
| Logic/Conditions | Test and return values based on common logic expressions |
| Maths functions | Perform mathematical calculations and transform data |
| Specific PDF management | |
| String manipulation | Manipulate existing data values to provide additional data for use within your catalog |
| XML | Manage XML nodes, elements and XSLT (Requires EasyCatalog XML data provider) |
| Miscellaneous | Additional functions used for specific catalog production |
Referencing content from an existing field
The Custom Field FIELDSTR and FIELDVAL are used extensively within additional Custom Fields in a typical EasyCatalog panel.
FIELDSTR returns the formatted content of a given field (including any formatting, prefixes or suffixes applied using ).
FIELDVAL returns the raw numeric content of a given field (excluding any formatting, prefixes or suffixes).
| RRP field | FIELDSTR(RRP) | FIELDVAL(RRP) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sample data | $24.00 | $24.00 | 24 |
Combining multiple Custom Fields
One of the major benefits of using Custom Fields within EasyCatalog is the ability to nest multiple custom field functions within a single field.
For example, the following syntax combines the IF, FIELDVAL and CONCAT custom fields:
IF(FIELDVAL(‘RRP’),'<‘,1,CONCAT(FIELDVAL(RRP),’c’),CONCAT(‘$’,FIELDVAL(RRP)))
This syntax conditionally appends a ‘c’ character after the RRP for all RRP values under one dollar, and a ‘$’ character before the RRP for all other RRP values.
EasyCatalog Custom Field Reference
To learn more about using specific Custom Fields please visit our EasyCatalog Custom Field Reference guide.
Comparing EasyCatalog Custom Fields and Computed Fields
In many instances a transformation undertaken with a Custom Field can instead be achieved at the time of pagination by using a Computed Field. Learn more about the difference in our Should I use custom fields or computed fields to transform my data? guide.