Organisation Administration - Managing Organization Lists

How to create and manage Org Lists.

About Organization Lists

Organization Lists are used in drop-down selection boxes in project Memos, Forms, and Actions. They can be added to Form, Action, and Memo templates by adding a List control and setting the List Type to "Org List".

They differ from Custom Lists and Project Lists as follows:

• Custom Lists are specific to a field in a template - they are defined in the template and can't be reused.
• Organization Lists are the same across all Projects. They are best used for lists where all items apply to all projects across a business (i.e. are not project specific) They can be updated by administrators, and users can also add new list items if the Organization List is unlocked. 
• Project Lists are similar to Organization Lists, except that they are specific to a particular project. For example, you might define a Site Inductee project list type that is referenced in templates, but the contents of this list would be different for each Project. They can be updated by administrators, and users can add new list items - they can not be locked to Admin use only.

The Organization List Register

Click Org. Lists in the Admin menu to see the Organization Lists Register screen as shown below.

Org List Details

Clicking the Details button for an Org List will show the items currently in that list. From this screen, you can Edit the list or Export the list to a .csv file.

Edit an Org List

The Edit screen allows you to change the list name, or to add, edit and delete list items.

Multi-column list items can be added, edited, and deleted from the mobile apps if the List is unlocked. However the Edit Organization List screen on the web currently only allows you to delete items from multi-column Org. Lists. To add or edit items when using the web app:

1. Export the Org. List.
2. Edit the output (a .csv file) outside of Damstra Forms, e.g. in Excel.
3. Import it.

UPDATE: We will soon be adding the ability for admins to more easily edit multi-column Org Lists within the web app (without need to export/edit/import CSV files!)

You can also lock the list to prevent mobile device users from being able to add, edit or delete items.

Create a new Org List

A new (single column) Organization List can be created by clicking Create from the Org List Register. 

Name is mandatory but the list items are optional (they might be created later, or by users adding to the list while using it in a Form - if the "Locked" setting isn't turned on).

Import

The Import screen allows you to create or update an Organization List from a .csv file. It also describes the requirements of the .csv file. Click the Browse button to select a suitable .csv file, then Import. The import process uses the file’s name as the name of the Org. List (minus the “.csv” extension).

Importing can be used to create multi-column Org. Lists, except for the following special tables:

Drawings & Docs Disciplines
Drawings & Docs Statuses
Drawings & Docs Types

Updating Lists using Import

The Import function can be used to change the number and type of columns in an Org List. Be careful to accordingly change any templates that use those columns.

Caution: If there is an existing Org List with the same name as the import file, then its contents will be replaced by the contents of the .csv file. 

Import File Format

Here is an example of the .csv file for a multi-column Org List:

The first row contains the label for each column, the second row contains the type of value for each column (String or Number), and the remaining rows contain the data for each item in the list. 

NOTE: If the .csv file contains only one column, the first two rows will be ignored. Single column lists always use “Name” for the label, and assume that the item values are of type “String”.

Using VLOOKUP with Organization Lists

Organization Lists can have multiple columns, and can be used in conjunction with the VLOOKUP function in formula fields. 

You can use the VLOOKUP function to look up an item in the first column of a multi-column Org List, and return what is in a subsequent column in the same row.

For example, you might have form users select an Employee name, then use a VLOOKUP formula to find the employee's ID number based on their name.