DBM - Adding a Custom Column

The majority of the columns which DBM can display are baked-in, and you can configure them via the "Columns" page of the Settings dialog. However, administrators can define custom fields, and you may want to also see them in the "entries" grid.

Custom fields are defined by an internal name that contains one forward slash (/) that separates two words, like "CUSTOM/MYFIELD". By default, they cannot be displayed. To add custom fields to available columns, an administrator must display run the Administrator tool or use the DPE Admin page. Open the "DBM" branch of the GLOBAL or LOCAL Digas registry. Add a "CustomSearch" folder unless it is already present.

In the "CustomSearch" folder, add an entry of type "string". The entry's name must exactly match the internal custom field name. The value is what will be displayed as the column title – this should be a short word so that you can still read it when the column is made narrow.

Restart DBM. Then go to the Settings dialog and open the "Columns" page. The list of available culomns will now offer the newly defined custom field(s).

Defining Sort Order

Custom fields are, by default, ordered alphabetically. This is fine in many cases, but when a custom column contains numbers, the resulting order will be rather surprising. For example, 1 comes before 10, and 10 comes before 2.

To define numeric sort order, Once more open the 2CustomSearch" folder in Administrator or DPE Admin, and edit the value of the entry for the respective column. Add a vertical bar (|) and the character I if the custom field contains integer values, or F if it contains floating-point values. After the next restart of DBM, the column will be ordered reasonably.