Add New Property Definition

To add a property definition, first select the required Class type and Object type from the Property Definitions window.

Select New to display the Property Definition window.

Enter values in the Property Name and Caption fields. The Property Name is mandatory and a message is displayed if no value is entered into the field.

If no value is entered in the Caption field, the value in the Property Name is used.

Select the data type of the property (Text, Numeric (decimal), Numeric (integer), or True/False) from the Data Type dropdown list.

If the new property has units, check the Has Units checkbox (not present for instrument property types).

If data entered for the new property is to be restricted to the values in a pick list, select the green arrow in the Pick List field.

The Select Picklist window is displayed:

Select the required Picklist Name by double-clicking, or by a single click followed by Select. The window exits and the selected pick list is displayed in the Pick List field.

If a numeric data type was selected in the Data Type field, the minimum and maximum values that may be entered for the property may be specified in the Minimum Value and Maximum Value fields.

For any data type except True/False, entries for the property may also be validated against a regular expression entered in the Regular Expression field.

Select OK to return to the Property Definition window.

When all the required data for the property definition has been entered, select OK to return to the Property Definitions window where the new definition will now be listed.

If the Has Units checkbox was checked, a property definition for the units of the new property is automatically created at the same time.

If the property is to be available when constructing queries for custom reports (refer to the Common Functionality of AVEVA Instrumentation documentation for more information), select the Available for Custom Reports checkbox. Note that a maximum of 1024 properties can be made available.

The name of a units property definition will be the name of the new property suffixed with the units suffix specified in the Please enter a new Units Suffix window (see Preferences—the default suffix is "Units"). The data type of units property definitions is text. Neither this or the name may be changed.