!!Features of User Defined Fields

||Pro||Con
|End users can create these and no special knowledge of the system is required|The data is stored in an abstraction table and is not natively linked to the table it is related to.
|[Date Sensitive|DATE SENSITIVE] changes will carry forward the values|This abstraction has the potential, if there are a lot of user defined fields, to impact performance
|UserCalcs can read (not update) these values|Any use of a user defined field in any kind of processing (programming, where clauses, lists of values) is not recommended.  Instead, please consider the use of a [user defined column|USER DEFINED COLUMN]
|Workflow UserCalcs cannot access the NewValue of them|
|Supported by [Object Security|IMOS] and [Form Object Security|IMFOS]|
|Interface programs like [UEEF] and [UPPHF] can access these natively, within the tables identified|
|Can be accessed using the [P2K_SMGETUDF] function by external report writers and by [P2K_SMPUTUDF] by stored procedures to set the value.|
|Does not require database access or system restart|

!!Setup and Use of a User Defined Field 
Use the [IMUF] screen to define the User Defined Field on the table you want the data related to.  Note that in a parent-child table relationship where there are date-sensitive children, the parent table is often not permitted to have user defined fields (as seen on [IMTD])


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![Notes|Edit:Internal.USER DEFINED FIELD]
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