11.3. Create User Defined Fields

User Defined Fields Administration Tool icon

The User Defined Fields Maintenance window is accessed by clicking the User Defined Fields Administration Tool icon.

The User Defined Fields module allows you to add user-defined fields to some of the SICS business object s. This enables you to attach specific details to various object types.

User defined fields can be defined for the following objects types:

• Bank
• Business Partner
• Person
• Cession
• Benefit
• Business
• Insurable Object
• Claim
• Claim to Section link
• Marine Claim
• Headline Loss
• Ledger Detail
• Light Claim (SICS Cede only)

For each business object type, one or more user defined field layouts can be defined. A layout can have up to 26 user-defined fields.

Once a layout has been defined, the user-defined fields-according to the layout-appear in a separate Notebook tab (or window), accessible from one of the existing SICS windows.

Example 1:
If a new user defined layout is defined for Business Partner, there will be a new notebook tab on the Business Partner Properties window. This notebook tab contains the user-defined fields.

Example 2:

User Defined Conditions button

If a user-defined layout is defined for Business(for example, Proportional Treaty), these user-defined fields can be accessed by clicking the User Defined Conditions button on the main Business window.

The following data types and Graphical User Interface(GUI) controls (widgets) are supported:

User Defined Fields only supports columns which in total are 20: 5 Decimals, 5 Percentages, 5 Strings and 5 Booleans.

Creating a User Defined Layout #

Three steps must be followed in order to create a new user defined layout:

Step 1: Decide what business object type the new layout should be used for

Select New from the pop-up menu in the Layouts list. You see the Create User Defined Fields Layout window.

Use the Layout For drop-down list to select what type of object the layout should be used for (for example, Business Partner).

Enter a unique Layout Identifier. (This identifier is not displayed on any of the user windows).

Enter the layout title. This title is used to label the Notebook tab-or the window-on which the user-defined fields will appear.

Click OK to save the layout.

Step 2: Define the selection criteria for the layout

The selection criteria are tailored to fit the object they are for. For example for a business partner layout, you can defineone layout for brokers and another one for insurers. For business and claims, the selection criteria can be made more specific. They can for example be a combination of Base Company, Level of Business, Type of Business, Main Class of Business and Class of Business.

1. Open User Defined Fields Administration
2. Select one on the layouts from the Layouts drop-down
3. In the Selection Criteria section, select New or Edit to open the Edit Selection Rule window
4. If for Business or Claims, in the Base Company section of the window, select wanted Base Company/Companies from the available list
5. Select a Classification Type
6. Select from the Available List
7. Press OK

Base Company: When base company is part of the selection criteria, the following rules will apply:

• Base Company is the highest priority of the selection criteria.
• If you select more than one base company, the User Defined conditions apply for business with one of the base companies Main Class and Class of Business: If you want to specify that the same layout is to be used for Main Class of Business “Property” and Main Class of Business “Motor,” you must create two different selection criteria-one containing Motor (in addition to any other relevant criteria, such as Level of Business), and the other containing Property. If you select both Motor and Property in the same selection criterion, it means that the selection criterion only matches Businesses having both Motor and Property in its Main Class of Business coverage list.

Type and Level of Business: Since a Business can only have one Type of Business (method), a selection criterion can contain many Type of Business values. The layout is then used for all Businesses that match any of the Type of Business values.

Apply to All: If you leave one of the selection criteria types blank (no items specified), it means that this particular criteria type is ignored. If, for example, no values are selected for Type of Business, it means the criterion matches all types of business.

Avoid Overlap: Care must be taken to avoid creating overlapping selection criteria for different layouts. The system does not detect such overlap. If a business matches the selection criteria of two different layouts, you cannot be sure which layout the system will select when you access the user defined fields for that business.

Creating overlapping selection criteria for the same layout does not cause any problems.

Step 3: Define the User Defined fields for the layout

Select Add/Remove Fields from the pop-up menu of the Fields in the Selected Layout list.

Then select Add Field from the pop-up menu on the new window that appears.

Choose what type of field you want to add to the layout (for example, DATE) and click Save.

Upon returning to the Edit Layout Fields window, enter a label for the field. This text is used as a label for the field on the resulting user-defined fields notebook tab/window.

You can also enter an informational description of the field. This text is not displayed on any GUI.

The system automatically picks a database code for the new field. This database code corresponds to a column in the User Defined field database table. In other words, the choice of database code decides in which table column the field values for the new user defined field will be stored. You may change the database code. However, after the layout has been used for entering data, the database code must not be changed.

The system automatically picks a GUI field number for the new field. This number specifies which position the field should be placed in on the resulting notebook tab/window.

There are 26 positions available. Each position corresponds to a fixed location on the resulting window. You can at any time change the positioning of the fields-even after data has been entered for the user-defined fields.

If selecting a string field, you may enter up to 254 characters as free text on the GUI.

Select the Preview Layout option from the pop-up menu to view the resulting window. In the preview window you can also test the layout by, for example, entering values and clicking the buttons. (None of the entered data will be written to the database).

In order to see the how the layout will appear in relation to the Business Partner window, you must open a Business Partner that is defined with Business Partner type “Broker” (if Broker is what you defined). You see that the Business Partner Properties window has an additional notebook tab, labelled “Broker Details” (i.e. the name of the user defined layout). Clicking this tab reveals the user-defined fields (as shown above).

User Defined Reference Data #

One of the available user defined data types is Reference Data. If you select this data type when adding a new field to a layout, you must also specify the reference data type to be used. This is done by clicking the Select Reference Data Type button that appears on the Select Attribute Type window.

Clicking the Select Reference Data Type button opens another window which shows all SICS reference data types.

To select a data type, click the data type and then close the window. The selected data type will be “brought back” to the Select Attribute Type window.

You can select any of the existing SICS reference data types. You can also define your own Reference Data Type.