Cross Module - Supplemental Information Fields

Overview

The Kuali Research system allows institutions to create custom fields in all of the major modules to capture data elements that are not part of the core system design. This allows schools to capture data to drive business processing and reporting that may not be standard across institutions. This system allows an institution to setup this data for Proposal Development (PD), Institutional Proposal (IP), Award, Subaward and Negotiation. It also allows a school to configure their fields to pull data forward from Proposal Development, to Institutional Proposal, to Award.

Create Your Supplemental Information Field

The first step to setting up a custom data field is to create the field in the maintenance tables.

Navigate to All Links in the Dashboard and search for Custom Attribute and select.

Perform an open search for existing Custom Data fields and select the next available ID.

Note: It is recommended that if you are implementing multiple modules that you sort your Custom Data IDs by the module to aid in search organization on this screen. Proposal Development, IP, and Award have to share IDs in order for data to pull from one module to the next, so using 1-99 for PD, IP and Award, using 100-199 for Negotiation, and 200-299 for Subaward will allow you to sort by ID in the Custom Attribute lookup and easily organize the fields by module.

Next press the "create new" button in the upper right hand corner of the screen and complete the following fields in the Custom Attribute Maintenance screen

• Description: Enter a description per your institution's naming standards.
• Id: Enter the next available Id for the module you are creating a Custom Attribute for.
• Data Length: This is an optional field. If it is left blank then the full database potential length of 2000 characters will be used. This limitation will be enforced via a validation error.
• Data Type Code: Choose one of the five options below
  • String: A custom attribute of this type will accept any combination of letters, numbers, and spaces.
  • Number: A custom attribute of this type will only accept integers.
  • Date: A custom attribute of this type will accept dates in the format MM/DD/YYYY and will populate a date picker in the application when you link this to a module.
  • Boolean: A custom attribute of this type will display a Yes and a No radio button that the user can select.  The values saved in the database for these answers are "Yes" and "No". Since these values match the entries in the yes_no_flag ArgValueLookup dataset you can change a String custom data field linked to this dataset to a Boolean custom data element and all the existing data will display properly in the Boolean format.
  • Long String:  A custom attribute of this type will accept any combination of letters, numbers, and spaces in a text box that allows better formatting/display of longer text entries. Also, note with Long String type that in the text box it will automatically display a placeholder/watermark in the text area that tells the user how many characters are allowed based on the maxLength.
• Allows Multiple Values:  If checked it will allow multiple selections for the same field.  Please note, if you have this checked and you're also using a Lookup you will have to select a Default Value. Please note, if you are using this with a Long String, the combined total of all entries in the field must be within the maximum length of 2000 characters. 
• Default Value: If you list a value in this field then all documents will initiate with this value already entered in this field. The user will be able to modify the field while completing their document.
• Group Name: This controls which panel or tab this custom data field will display in. All fields with identically labeled Group Names will display in the same Panel. In order to change the name of a Panel you must change the Group Name on all Custom Attributes within a given Group.
• Label: This is name of the Custom Attribute field that will display in the module. Labels must be 30 characters or less.
• Lookup Class: If you want this field to be linked to a lookup in the system you will select the Kuali Table the user will search to find valid values here.
• Lookup Return: If you want this field to be linked to a lookup in the system you will select the column from the Table above that should provide data for this field here. (The Arg Value Lookup option works differently than the rest of the Lookup Classes. For details on how this options functions please see the Cross Module Functionality - Argument Value Lookup article)
• Name: This is a machine readable name for this field. This name must have no spaces.

Once you have completed these values press the submit button at the bottom of the screen.

Editing Custom Attributes: Once a custom attribute is linked to one or more modules the linkage does not need to be modified to change the field. If you link a field to PD, IP, and award and then decide you want to change the label, or the Group Name you only have to modify it in the field itself, and your changes will automatically populate all affected modules. If you want to change the Group Name of a group with multiple fields in it you will need to make the change in each Custom Attribute though. This is done by looking up the fields in the Custom Attribute search and clicking the edit button next to the fields you wish to change.

Linking a Custom Attribute to a Kuali Research Module

Now that you've created a Custom Attribute you need to link to a module(s) so it will populate your grant documents.

Navigate to All Links in the Dashboard and search for Custom Attribute Document and select.

Click the "create new" button in the upper right hand corner of the screen and complete the following fields on the CustomAttributeDocument Maintenance Document screen.

• Description: Enter a description per your institution's naming standards.
• Custom Attribute ID: Enter the ID for the field you created during the previous step
• Document Type Code: Select the Kuali Research module you want this field to display in.
• Required: If you want completion of this field to be required in order to submit the document type you have listed in the Document Type Code click the checkbox. If it is left unchecked then the field will be optional.
• Type Name: This field is not used by the system. It is recommended that you list the field label here to make it easier to navigate searches in the Custom Attribute Document lookup.
• Active: Keep this checked.  If you ever want to retire a field, but need existing documents to retain the data that is stored in the field you can edit this record and make the Custom Attribute Document linkage inactive.  If you want to remove the field from all records then you can delete the Custom Attribute Document entry.
• Sort Id:  This is a numeric field used for controlling display logic for the custom data field within the given group.
• Copy to New Documents:  Allows you to control whether in a Proposal or Award if a user copies a record if that custom data value will also copy or leave as blank.  Default is checked  (Yes) but if you uncheck (No) it will not copy.

Note: The custom data fields within a given group will sort based on the following criteria:

1. Sort ID Numerically from lowest to highest.
2. Alphabetically
3. All fields with no sort ID listed will appear at the bottom of the list and sort alphabetically.

If you link the same field to PD and IP in the Custom Attribute Document table, then when a Proposal Development document is submitted to sponsor the data in the field will be populated into the IP record.

If you link the same field to IP and Award in the Custom Attribute Document table, then when an IP is linked to an Award using the Initial Funding merge type then the data entered in the field in IP will automatically populate the Award document.

The Custom Attribute fields display slightly differently in Proposal Development where they appear on the Supplemental Information page and in the other modules where they appear on the Custom Data tab.

Institutional Proposal Custom Attribute Display

Proposal Development Custom Attribute Display