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How to enable the user defined fields even when the whole document is completed?


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Hello,

         I like Acumatica’s user defined fields feature, I can add fields without writing code.
But these fileds are disabled when the shipment is completed, while I’d like to keep it being enabled.

    Is there a way to do it?

 

 

       I’ve found a similar question above, but as I checked, I can not find the “UDF” in automation steps. So I can not enable it.

      Is there any other way to do it?

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Best answer by Irina 11 May 2021, 15:57

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Userlevel 6
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To those who are interested, I shall add up some my findings:

 

Per my understanding,  Acumatica is using “state and workflow”  to handle the things “automation steps” did before. 

I can not find the UDF in “automation steps”, but I can find them out in “state and workflow”

But still, unfortunately, for some unknown reason, it is not working.

Look below: after publishing, the fields are still being disabled

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UDF’s come from the “Answers” table - the following is an example from Opportunities, not Shipments:-

I haven’t tried it with a UDF, but what happens if you add the Answers Table to your Completed state in your extended workflow, and make sure the “Disabled” flag isn’t checked?

In my case I wanted to enable an attribute after an Opportunity was Won to allow editing, which also had the advantage that the “Last Action” on the Opportunity wasn’t updated (I use that in a Performance KPI for a sales team, so didn’t want the user re-opening a Won Opportunity just to modify the Attribute value and then having to re-close it)

If I get sometime over the weekend I’ll try it out with the Attribute added as a UDF, in the meantime see how you get on with my suggestion and let me know how it goes please @ray20 

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@GrahamMartin  Hello, thank you for pointing out a new direction.

However, the “anwsers” object is not allowed to be picked from the list on shipment workflow screen.

 

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@GrahamMartin  Hello, thank you for pointing out a new direction.

However, the “anwsers” object is not allowed to be picked from the list on shipment workflow screen.

 

Hi @ray20  - I thought it was a bit too obvious :relaxed:

Sorry it didn’t help - back to the drawing board ...

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Hello @ray20, @GrahamMartin 

You’ve been going in the right direction: this should be done through Workflow (or through Automation Steps for forms not supporting Workflow). But this is not depending on the Answers table (this table stores values of the fields which is different from the field itself and its properties on the form).

To enable UDF fields, you should specify the corresponding attribute (for example, Color) in the Fields section of the State Properties tab of the respective state (Completed on our case) and clear Disabled check box.

 

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@Irina 
Hello, thank you for giving the right direction.
May I know on what version you are taking the screenshot?
Because I actually did the same thing like you did, just I am on shipment screen, and I am working on 2020r2 built 6, the fields are still disabled.

 

 

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@ray20, scenario with shipments looks like a bug. Please submit a support case for further investigation.

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Hi @Irina, thank you for clearing up the point on the Answers table - is it possible to access attributes if they aren’t attached to the form as a UDF but instead exist on the “Attributes” tab?

I have a customer who uses Attributes heavily (setup before UDF’s existed). I could do an export of all the Attribute data, move all these to UDF’s and then re-import the data to the new UDF “version” of the attribute, but it would be easier if I could just access the Attribute directly.

I’m specifically trying to alter a value at the point the user changes an Opportunity from Open to Won or Lost (because they keep forgetting to do it as part of a manual process).

@ray20 this may help you as well in the short term - not sure but worth asking ...

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@Irina  Thank you for your confirmation. I have used customized fields instead of UDF to fulfill my need. And I have reported the shipment UDF issue to support team.
@GrahamMartin 
I have used customized fields instead of UDF to fulfill my need.
If you just need your specific situation (an Opportunity from Open to Won or Lost ), you can try customized field for the short team workaround.

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Dear @GrahamMartin,

We plan to deprecate attributes in future releases and use UDF instead. So it was not planned to support Attributes in workflow.

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Thank you @Irina that early information helps me greatly.

I will now, as part of upgrading my customer’s instance to new version and to include new features they purchased, be able to migrate them away from Attributes tab and onto UDF. As I said they have used them a lot, so I have a lot of work to do but can plan for it well in advance now - thank you again.

 

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Hi @Irina,

I’ve added a UDF selector to the AP301000 screen.  The field works as expected.  However, I want to enable it for posted transactions. I followed your steps above but I get this error:

Is it not possible to modify this screen like the one you show in your example?

I am developing in 2020R2.

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Hello @joe21 ,

Please refer to the following article for the information about which forms support workflow in which version.

 Currently, workflow automation customization is prohibited for AP301000 form in all versions.

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Thank you @Irina.  That is good to know.  I get the same error in GL301000 so I am guessing that is the case there too.  In order to work around this, I created a button that points to a custom graph that is a simple screen to modify the UDF value in the APRegister table.  It is clunky but it works.  The only downside is that when you click the button, you are redirected to a new window.  After you make the change to the table, it does not automatically update the AP301000 screen.  You have to manually refresh the page.  Hopefully my customer won’t find that “unacceptable”.

I tried to unlock the field using automation steps but I’m not having luck with that.  @Naveen B might be able to help me with that. 

Even if this can be done in an Automation Step, I’m going to stick with my work around since the Automation Step doesn’t appear that it would work in 2021 R1 and I can’t do a Workflow customization on the AP301000 screen anyway.

 

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@Irina - I’ve added a UDF to the Adjustments screen (IN303000). I created a new workflow and want the UDF to be available even when the adjustment is released. I added it as a Field on the Released state properties tab. Object Name = Receipt, Field Name = my UDF. When I publish, the UDF is not available when in released status. Any ideas what I’m missing? I’m on 21.111.0019. Thanks!

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Hello @hayleehicks18 ,

It is by design for all forms except AP & AR Invoice Entry.  All UDFs are part of primary cache, and here we have hardcoded behavior for all other forms in Confirm state to completely disable editing of primary DAC.

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@Irina - So it is not possible to open up the UDF for all statuses on the adjustments screen without adding a code customization? Thanks for the quick response.

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@hayleehicks18 yes, only overwriting primary DAC via customization will work.

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Note on the shipment screen the workflow is hard coded to Disable all fields on Confirm Shipment, Invoice Creation, Partial Invoice Creation, and Complete States. I have a similar issue with the Method DisableWholeScreen in the Shipment Worfklow. It seems, in order to modify this you have to override the workflow configuration or create a workflow from scratch so that it ignores this code. 

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Hello @ray20@GrahamMartin 

You’ve been going in the right direction: this should be done through Workflow (or through Automation Steps for forms not supporting Workflow). But this is not depending on the Answers table (this table stores values of the fields which is different from the field itself and its properties on the form).

To enable UDF fields, you should specify the corresponding attribute (for example, Color) in the Fields section of the State Properties tab of the respective state (Completed on our case) and clear Disabled check box.

 

Irina,

I have the exact same need. We need to leave 2 UDFs editable after the shipment is completed. I followed your instructions and was unable to do it. The customer is on 22R2 build 214. Here is what I did:

 

 

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks!

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