Custom properties can be arranged on custom property pages and the pages applied to document types and folder types. Users can then type property values on the property pages for documents and folders created from those types.
Depending on your overall computing environment, using many custom properties can cause poor system performance, particularly when application links are enabled. For information about optimizing performance of application links with empty properties, see Configure Empty Property Synchronization.
Deleting a property makes the property and all of its existing data unavailable in the vault's history. Only delete a property that you know will never be needed again. To retain a property for vault history but make it unavailable for future documents, clear the property for all objects on the Applies to page, but do not delete the property.
Create a Custom Property
To create a custom property:
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In Configurator, expand Property Sets in the configuration tree to list the existing property sets.
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Expand the property set to which you want to add a new property.
The names of the properties currently in the selected property set appear.
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On the Edit menu, click New Property Definition.
The New Property Definition dialog box appears.
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Click options or type values using the descriptions in the following table.
New property options Option Description Name
Type a name that you want to appear in the Meridian client applications.
You cannot assign a name that is the same as a system property.
The dialog box does not allow typing spaces in the property name. This is to prevent spaces in the optional corresponding VBScript property name that is set to the same name. If you want the name to contain spaces, finish creating the property and then edit the Display Name property described in the following table.
Type
Select the data type for the new property. For more information about the available data types, see Configure Property Data Types.
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Click OK.
The new property appears in the configuration tree and its property pages appear in the right pane.
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Click options or type values using the descriptions in the following table.
Custom property options Option Description Display Name
The default is the name that was typed when the property was created. This name will appear in the Meridian client applications and can be changed, if necessary.
Name
This name is used internally by Meridian Enterprise and cannot be changed once set. The default is the same as Display Name.
Type
The data type of the property. For more information about the available data types, see Configure Property Data Types.
Effectivity
Select an option to control the effectivity of changes to the property's value. For more information about the available options, see Configure Property Effectivity.
Enable for scripting
Select this option to make this property available to VBScript expressions and Visual Basic extensions. For more information, see Configure Properties For Use With Visual Basic And VBScript.
VBScript name
A default name is calculated for the property to be used in VBScript expressions. Accept the default in most cases. Available only if Enable for scripting is selected. For more information, see Configure Properties For Use With Visual Basic And VBScript.
VB Designer name
A default name is calculated for the property to be used by custom client extensions created with the Meridian Visual Basic designer. Accept the default in most cases. Available only if Enable for scripting is selected. For more information, see Configure Properties For Use With Visual Basic And VBScript.
Include in Key Find
Value separator
Type a separator character to delimit multiple values selected from a lookup list or table. We recommend the semicolon (;) character. The default value of this field is an asterisk (*).
If any value is typed for this option, it causes the property to appear as a drop-down combobox control on property pages from which users may select multiple values. The selected values will then appear as a single string delimited by this character. Available only if Enable for scripting is selected.
For this option to work correctly, the following restrictions apply:
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The property's Type option must be set to String.
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The property's Select a value from option the on its Validation page must specify the values to show in the combobox control.
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Users must have the Get values privilege to any tables specified for the Select a value from option.
The combined length of selected values and separator characters are limited to the String data type maximum of 255 characters.
Note:To create multi-value data without the Meridian combobox control (for example, in a database for import into a vault or with the Set Property Value command), you must use the same separator character as specified here regardless of the locale setting of the computer. This is true for all properties, not just multi-value properties.
Do not change the separator character after it has already been used by some documents. Doing so will cause incorrect values the next time that the document's properties are edited.
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Click OK.
You may now add the property to a custom property page, as described in Create And Edit Panel Elements.
Edit a Custom Property
To edit a custom property:
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In Configurator, expand Property Sets in the configuration tree to list the existing property sets.
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Expand the property set that contains the property that you want to edit.
The names of the properties currently in the selected property set appear.
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Click the name of the property that you want to edit in the configuration tree.
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Click Edit.
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Select or type options for the new property using the descriptions in the preceding table.
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Click OK.
Delete a Custom Property
You cannot delete a property definition that is used as a condition in a workflow definition or as a level in a navigation view.
To delete a custom property:
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In Configurator, expand Property Sets in the configuration tree to list the existing property sets.
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Expand the property set that contains the property that you want to delete.
The names of the properties currently in the selected property set appear.
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Click the name of the property that you want to delete in the configuration tree.
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On the Edit menu, click Delete.
A dialog box opens, asking you to confirm your choice.
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Click Yes.
The property is deleted.
