Multiple Property Values

[loesche1]

Hi all!

Does anyone know a possibility to store multiple values from a drop-down / selection list in one Vault Property?

For example a document should be valid for different sizes of a machine. All sizes are available in a selection list and the user is able to select one or more. Therefore it should be possible to search for this values.

We're using Vault Pro at the moment without Data Standard but this will come up soon...

Thanks in advance!

[Neil_Cross]

Oh, originally I thought you meant you just want a pick list, but you want a pick list and if the user selects 2+ things from the pick list then both those values are stored in the property?

Nope.

Soz.  

You can just pick one value from the list and that's pretty much it.  IdeaStation candidate.

[Anonymous]

Yes, ideastation candidate for sure. That data type is commonly called a "Multi-List" or in mySQL it is called an SET of ENUM values.

For systems like MS-SQL, that don't have a data type for this kind of data, it can be stored as a delimited list of value ID's.

Array would be a handy one as well sometimes, but in the end it really just ends up being a multi-level delimitted attribute.

My company has some attributes that we hacked into multi-lists, but they are just text properties with semicolon delimited values in them (don't use commas, vault treats commas in text attributes really strangely.)

[Anonymous]

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-ideastation/multi-select-lists-for-properties/idi-p/3876449

Just kidding, I already put it in as an idea and supposedly it was accepted...

[loesche1]

Dear both,

Thank you for your replies!

Hmm, the idea was accepted in 2014 - then we may have an implementation in Version 2017!?

Does anyone know if there was someone who has done a little programming to provide a Vault-extension to simulate multiple value handling?

I could imagine that the multiple values are stored with a defined seperating character. A small dialog with source code behind (Data Standard-based???) does the interpretation of that separated values and provide the belonging selection list.

Best regards

Lars

[Anonymous]

All of our apps that interact with properties work with the authoring tools (i.e. our apps add and fill out the iProperties or Autocad block attributes) then they go into Vault via the standard means. When they get read into the downstream system our integration interprets the delimited list as a multiselect and inputs them as we intended.

As far as the vault setup, they are just standard text properties. If these are mapped onto drawings, I would suggest using a semicolon. If they are just system properties or you aren't particularly concerned with how they look, I would use a bar "|". Almost no one would ever want to use it as a punctuation in the list values, so you rarely run into conflict.

Don't use a comma. If you store two values in a property separated by a comma, vault won't display the comma for some reason,... it makes absolutely no sense.

Unfortunately for you,... I don't code, so I can't help you with a snippet. You might post this in the Vault customization forum though.

[loesche1]

Hi TMoney!

Thanks for your input! On ACAD- and Inventor-site I already did a little programming to handle multiple values. I used the semicolon as seperator...

But for that present use case we need a solution to handle multiple property values on objects like folders that only appear in Vault. Therefore I was hoping that someone is experienced in programming of some kind of Vaut extension.

Its a good idea to switch to the Vault Customization board! I'll take a look at it...

[Anonymous]

I would be interested to see what you come up with.