Fields

Fields represent the individual pieces of information that will be stored for records belonging to a given family. For example, records stored in the Full Inspection family will contain information related to full inspections. Therefore, the Full Inspection family contains fields that help define the inspection. Using data spreading, fields that are common to all families within a branch of the hierarchy can be defined on a family and then spread down to subfamilies.

Each field that is defined for a family corresponds to a column in that family table. Any field that you define for a family can be displayed on a datasheet so that values can be displayed and collected. Additionally, fields can be used in queries, graphs, reports, and other utilities to help you retrieve and display specific information about records in the database.

Fields can store:

Letters and numbers (e.g., Equipment or Equipment-123).
Numbers only.
Boolean values (i.e., true or false).
Dates and times.

Note: All dates and times are stored in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). They are displayed to each user according to the time zone that is defined in his or her Security User record. For example, if a time is stored as 6:00:00 P.M. UTC, if you are logged in as a Security User with the time zone (UTC - 05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada), you will see the time as 1:00:00 P.M.

System Field Details

In addition to the fields that you define manually for each family, each record that you create will also contain system fields. System fields:

Are identified by a field ID (i.e., you cannot define a field caption for them).
Are managed automatically as you perform actions within GE Digital APM.
Cannot be modified or configured in the same way that family fields can be managed or configured (e.g., you cannot define custom rules for them).
Do not appear in many of the places where family fields appear (e.g., on datasheets).
Can be included in queries.
Are referenced throughout GE Digital APM, but in ways that most end users do not see (e.g., in rules).

The following system fields exist for every record.

Field ID	Description	Behavior/Usage
CONTENT_GUID	A global unique identifier that uniquely identifies a record across all databases.	This field is populated automatically with a system-generated value when a record is instantiated (i.e., when you initiate the record-creation process). If you include this field in a query, when you run the query, values will not be displayed in the CONTENT_GUID column.
ENTY_CAPTION_TX	A field that stores a copy of the Record ID.	This field is updated when the ENTY_ID field is updated.
ENTY_ID	The Record ID of a given record.	This value is controlled by the ID Template defined for a family. This field is populated automatically when a record is created and when one of the fields that are defined in the ID Template is modified.
ENTY_KEY	A value that uniquely identifies a record within a given database.	This field is populated automatically with a system-generated value the first time a record is saved.
FMLY_KEY	A value that identifies the family to which a record belongs.	This field is populated automatically when a record is first saved with the unique key value that identifies a family within a database.
LAST_UPBY_SEUS_KEY	A value that identifies the user who last updated the record.	This field is updated automatically when a record is modified.
LAST_UPDT_DT	A value that identifies the date that a record was last updated.	This field is updated automatically when a record is modified.
LOCK_SEQ_NBR	A value that is used internally by GE Digital APM to indicate how many times a record has been modified.	This field is updated automatically when a record is modified.