How can I setup and use Custom attributes in EB360

You can add custom attributes to your managed third parties, to supplement the standard fields such as contact name, address, location and language. Custom attributes can help you model additional business attributes of your suppliers, which can further help you sort and filter your supplier lists within the platform.

How to add, and remove custom attributes

To add a new custom attribute go to Platform settings and select Custom Attributes:

From here click on the 'Add' button at the top of the list, which will display the Add Custom Attribute dialog. For example:

From here you can set:

• The name of the attribute, which is required and will be displayed wherever the attribute is set or viewed in the remainder of the platform.
• The Description, which is used as a tooltip elsewhere in the interface where the attribute is displayed
• Status, Active, or inactive.  Inactive custom attributes will not be visible in the remainder of the platform.  However any data that has been entered into Third parties for this attribute when it was active will still be available if it is made Active again.
• Required, this determines whether it must be entered when a Third party is created, or updated
• Edit Permissions, this determines which roles can edit the custom attribute. It also enables the selected roles to view the custom attribute in Third Party Profile pages that are in 'Edit' mode. 
• Which roles can view, this determines which roles can  view the custom attribute in Third Party Profile pages that are in 'View' mode. 
• Type, this is the formal type of the attribute.  These are discussed in more detail below

Custom Attribute types

All custom attributes have a type so that they can be used and validated correctly in the remainder of the platform. The type must be one of the following:

• String, this is a free form text field 
• Double (Precision Number), a High precision number which can include decimal points
• Boolean, an attribute which can be True or False
• Date, a single date value
• List of Strings, a set of possible options that the custom attribute can be set to
• Country, the attribute can be set to a specific country (from a pre-defined list)
• User, allows the selection of a specific user from the Users section of the Platform settings
• Rating, allows you to define a scale on which risk can be measured,
• Multi-select String, a list of strings that the user can select multiple values from
• Multi-select Country, a list of countries where the users can select multiple countries at the same time for that Third Party.

Ordering Custom attributes

The order that the custom attributes appear in the Configure Third party and third party details page is the same as appears in the Custom Attribute list.  You can press the 'reorder' button at the top of the list and the drag and drop the Custom attribute to reorder them if you have a specific view order requirement.

Removing Custom attributes

Via the Custom attribute list Actions column you can delete a deactivated custom attribute.  This will remove both the attribute and all data that may have been entered for the custom attribute. You will be prompted to confirm this action.

Setting the values of the custom attributes

Having setup a custom attribute you can set their values through the Configure Third party dialog.  they will be listed under the Entity details section of the dialog

For existing third parties, you need to open them for editing (using the large pencil icon), and then update the attributes directly.

Viewing the custom attribute values

Custom attributes are displayed in Third Party Profile pages, under  Details > Custom Attributes. You can restrict which user roles can view them, using the permissions described below.

Custom attributes are also available as optional columns in the Managed Third Party list (use the columns editor to locate them), and as filter settings for the list view.  This can be particularly powerful when combined with User definable Managed Party Lists.

Permissioning custom attributes

Administrators can control which user roles can view or edit custom attributes, using 2 permissions:

• Which roles can view - allows users to view a custom attribute on Third Party Profile pages that are in 'View' mode.
• Edit Permissions - allows users to edit a custom attribute (properties and values), and to view it on Third Party Profile pages that are in 'Edit' mode.

Permissions must be set for each custom attribute individually.

To completely prevent someone from seeing a specific custom attribute in the Third Party Profile, you would need to assign them a user role that has neither of the above permissions. You would also need to make sure that they do not have another user role with higher permissions, as the higher role takes precedence - for example, if you have the 'Basic' role and the 'Admin' role, then you can do everything permitted by the 'Admin' role. 

How can I assign users to roles?

Users are assigned to roles under their user settings, see here for more details