Data Templates and Custom Fields

Data Templates and Custom Fields

If you're in a company that often works with customers on a day-to day basis, then you likely have to manage a lot of their data in multiple files and folders across various locations in your computer or on the cloud. You also may have faced a number of difficulties in organizing and managing your customers' data effectively.

In WorkDrive, you can create data templates and associate the required files and folders with them by adding custom information or properties. Once you associate files and folders to a data template with custom values, you can easily search for and manage data using the Data Templates filter.

Data Templates is ideal for any company that stores data in files and folders and manages them daily or at regular intervals.

Sample use cases for data templates and custom fields are given below:

Insurance Agencies - Classify insurance based on its type, such as vehicle, property, and medical, and organize them by insurance date, coverage limit, renewal date, and insurance provider.

Training Institutes - Classify certificates based on courses, and organize them by completion status, certificate issued date, and certificate validity.

HR Teams - Classify candidates based on designation, and organize them by educational qualifications, experience, expected salary, certifications, and willingness to relocate.

Design Teams - Classify images based on their use, and organize them by name, size, format, designer, and created date.

Marketing Teams - Classify articles based on industries, and organize them by author, created date, published date, and words count.

Educational Institutions - Organize students by name, admission date, admission class, age, blood group, and emergency contact number.



  1. This feature is only available in the WorkDrive's Business edition. Check the details of all editions of WorkDrive here.
  2. Only Team Admins can create and manage data templates and their custom fields from the Admin Console. 
  3. Only files and folders in Team Folders can be associated to data templates.
  4. Team Folder members with edit access can associate or disassociate files and folders with data templates.

Create Data Template and add Custom Fields

1. Click your team name at the top-left corner and select Admin Console from the dropdown. 
The Admin Console page will open in a new tab.

2. Click the Data Templates tab in the left pane to open it on the right.

3. Click + CREATE DATA TEMPLATE in the top-right corner.

4. Enter a data template name and description, then click CREATE.
A data template will be created and shown on the screen.

5. Click the + Add Custom Field button below Create Custom Field.

6. Select an appropriate custom field type from the dropdown.

The following custom field types are available:
  1. Single line text (you can set the maximum characters)
  2. Multi-line text
  3. Number (you can set the minimum and maximum value)
  4. Date & time
  5. Date only
  6. Yes/No
  7. Choice (you can choose a type and provide choices)
  8. Email address
7. Enter the custom field values as required for your template.
Field name - Add a custom field name
Field description - Add a description, if needed
Default value - Specify the default value to be taken if no value is given

8. Mark the checkbox below to make the custom field as mandatory for members when they associate files and folders.

9. After you've given the custom field values, click Create.
Similarly, you can create many custom fields for a data template.



Example:

Data Template: Recruitment 2020

Custom Field 1: 

Field name: Role
Field type: Choice
Choice type: Dropdown menu
Choices: 
      Option 1: Developer
      Option 2: Designer
      Option 3: Marketer
 
Custom Field 2: 

Field name: Experience
Filed type: Choice
Choice type: Dropdown menu
Choices: 
      Option 1: 0-5 years
      Option 2: 5-10 years
      Option 3: more than 10 years

Custom Field 3: 

Field name: Willing to relocate
Field type: Yes/No


Associate files and folders to Data Templates

After you create data templates in the Admin Console, your team members can associate files and folders from Team Folders to the required data templates.

Once files and folders are associated with data templates, members can easily find and update data in the associated files and folders in the future.

  1. Team members must have at least edit access on a file or folder to associate it with a data template.
  2. Files and folders in My Folders cannot be associated with data templates.

To associate files and folders with data templates:

1. Select a file or folder from a Team Folder.

2. Click the Show info icon in the top-right corner, next to List view.

3. Click Associate under Data Templates.

4. Select a data template and click ASSOCIATE.

5. Enter custom field values based on the custom field type.
You must enter values for all mandatory custom fields to proceed.

6. After you enter all the required custom field values, click ASSOCIATE.



  1. You cannot associate files and folders from My Folders.
  2. You cannot associate files in the Draft state to data templates.
  3. If files and folders from a Team Folder have been shared with you with edit access, you can associate those items with data templates.
  4. You cannot select multiple files or folders at once and associate or disassociate them from a Data Template.
  5. You can associate a maximum of five Data Templates per file or folder, but there's no limit on the number of files or folders you can associate to a data template.

To edit custom field values of files and folders:

1. Select a file or folder from a Team Folder that is associated with a data template.

2. Click the Show info icon in the top-right corner, next to List view.

3. Click on the required data template to open it.
You can see the previously added custom field values there. Click the Edit icon next to the data template name to make changes.

4. After you make the required changes, click UPDATE.

5. To disassociate a file or folder from the data template, click the Disassociate icon next to the data template name.

Search files and folders using Data Templates

Once files and folders in a Team Folder are associated with data templates with custom field values, any team member can easily search and find them.

For example, consider a Human Resources Team where profiles or resumes of hundreds of thousands of candidates with different job categories, experience levels, and expectations are managed on a day-to-day basis.

In this case, when you associate files and folders of the candidates with data templates with custom field values (in this case, Role - Developer/Designer/Marketer, & Experience - 0-5 years/5-10 years/more than 10 years), you can easily search and find files or folders of the candidates in no time, all by simply using the Data Templates filter in Search.

To search files and folders using data templates:


2. Click the Search icon in the top-right corner.

3. Click the dropdown arrow next to Search All, then select Data Templates.

4. Select the required data template from the list.

All matching files and folders that are associated with the selected data template will be shown.

5. Add the required custom field criteria for the data template.

6. Click the + icon below to add a new criteria, then select AND or OR as the condition.

7. Click Search to view results.



Available search criteria for different custom field types:

(for Single line text, Multi line text, and Email address)
      is equal to
      is not equal to
      starts with

(for Date only & Date and time)
      is equal to
      is not equal to
      is before
      is after

(for Number)
      is equal to
      is not equal to
      is below
      is above

(for Yes/No and Choice)
      is equal to
      is not equal to

Let's say a Human Resources Team has gotten 1,000 applications in response to their job opening ad on Social Media. The agency has created the above data template Recruitment 2020 with three custom fields and associated all of the 1,000 files to it. Let's see how a user can now search files and folders quickly in this case.

1. A user can simply start by selecting the Data Templates filter in the Search bar.

2. The user has to select the required data template from the list, which is 'Recruitment 2020' in this case.
All files and folders associated with this Data Template will be shown.

Let's say we want to see the candidates who have 0-5 years experience and are willing to relocate for work.

3. Click Add custom field criteria next to the data template name.
4. Choose the required custom field, in this case, Experience.
5. Choose is equal to as the criterion.
6. Choose 0-5 years as choice.
7. Click the + icon below to add a new criteria and select AND as the condition.
8. Choose the required custom field, which is Willing to relocate in this case.
9. Choose is equal to as the criterion.
10. Choose Yes as the choice.
11. Click Search to view results.

Manage Custom Fields

1. Click your team name at the top-left corner and select Admin Console from the dropdown.
The Admin Console page will open in a new tab.

2. Click the Data Templates tab in the left pane to open it on the right.
Data templates created in your team will be shown on the screen.

3. Click on the required data template.
Custom fields added to the data template will be shown on the screen.

4. Click on a custom field to view its details.

5. Hover on a custom field and there will be two options:
- To delete the custom field, click Delete.
- To edit the custom field, click Edit.

6. After editing the custom field, click UPDATE to save the changes.



7. To add new custom fields, click + Add Custom Field at the bottom.

  1. When you delete a custom field from a data template, the custom field, along with its values of all the associated files and folders, will be deleted permanently.
  2. When you edit a custom field name and description, all the changes will reflect on the associated files and folders.
  3. When you edit options for the Choice field type, the corresponding values previously added to all associated files and folders will be deleted.
  4. When there is a change in custom field properties (i.e., maximum characters for Single line text, minimum/maximum value for Number, default value, and mandatory field status), all new files that you associate after the change will have the new custom field settings.
  5. When you update custom field values on already associated files, you will then be asked to update your values based on the new custom field settings.
  6. You cannot change the field type of a custom field after creating it.
  7. Modification or deletion of custom fields will be scheduled to reflect in associated files and folders.

Manage Data Templates

1. Click your team name at the top-left corner and select Admin Console from the dropdown. 
The Admin Console page will open in a new tab.

2. Click the Data Templates tab in the left pane to open it on the right.
Data templates created in your team will be shown on the screen.



3. Hover over a Data Template and click the Settings icon. There will be three options:
- To edit the template, click Edit Template. All custom fields added to the Data Template will be shown on the screen.
- To edit the name and description of a Data Template, click Edit name & description.
- To disable the template, click Disable Template.

4. To enable a template, hover over a data template and click the Settings icon, then click Enable Template.

5. Click the Search icon in the top-left corner and enter a keyword to search for matching data templates.

6. You can sort data templates by Name or Recently Added. To do so, click the dropdown arrow next to Name or Recently Added, then select a sort option.

7. You can filter the data templates by All Data Templates, Active Data Templates, or Disabled Data Templates. To do so, click the dropdown arrow next to All Data Templates and select a required filter.

  1. When you disable a template, you will not be able to edit the template. You must enable the template again to make any changes.
  2. When a template is disabled, you cannot associate new files and folders with it, but you can still disassociate files and folders from it.
  1. To edit custom field values and associate or disassociate files and folders from data templates, members must have at least edit access on those files and folders.
  2. New Data Templates can only be created by Team Admins from the Admin Console.
  3. You can add a maximum of five custom field criteria (with four conditions - AND/OR) for your search.
  4. You can also start by searching with a keyword, then apply the Data Templates filter to find any associated files and folders.

Limitations

Maximum number of Data Templates per team
200
 
Maximum number of Data Templates that can be associated to a file/folder
5
 
Maximum number of Custom Fields per team
1000
 
      600 - Single line text, Multi line text, Email address, Choice (dropdown menu/radio button/checkbox), and Yes or No
      200 - Date only & Date and time
      200 - Number
 
Maximum number of options in Choice field type (dropdown menu/radio button/checkbox)
100 (No. of characters for each option - 256)
 
Maximum number of characters for Data Template and Custom Field names
50
 
Max number of characters for Data Template and Custom Field descriptions 
200
 
Max number of characters for single-line text
200
 
Max number of characters for multi-line text
2048

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