Best Practices – Dictionary Overrides

Dictionary Overrides allow system administrators to override field settings on extended tables. This article describes how to use this capability to change the initial state values for incident and problem tables.

 

Using Dictionary Overrides

In instances, information is stored in tables, organized by parent and child classes. The incident and problem tables are both extended from the parent task table. The default state on the parent task table is New. On the incident table, the initial state should be Active. On the problem table, the initial state should be Awaiting Review.

For extended tables, the field settings should be changed from the default state to the correct initial state. Dictionary Overrides enables changes to the field attributes without affecting the task tables and their extended tables. 

 

All

Using Dictionary Overrides to change field settings on extended tables.

To change the initial state on incident tables:

1. Navigate to Incident > Create New.
2. In the State field, open the choice list.
   The initial state is selected as New.
3. Right-click State and select Personalize Dictionary.
   The state value is specified in the Dictionary Entry for this field. The state field is defined on the task table, with a default value of 1.
4. Go to Choices.
   This displays a list of choices and corresponding values on the state fields. Active fields have a value of 2.
5. Personalize the list columns to view the table and corresponding choices:
   
   • Click the gear icon.
   • Add Table to the list.
   • Click OK.

The initial state is New because it corresponds to the default task state value of 1. The initial state for incidents should be Active, with a value of 2. Use Dictionary Overrides to make changes only to the table specified.

To change the default value:

1. Navigate to Dictionary Overrides > New.
2. In the Table field, select Incident.
3. Select Override default value.
4. Enter a value of 2.
5. Click Submit.

When a new incident is opened, the initial state is now Active with a default value of 2.

Use the same steps to set the initial state and values for problem tables.

Dictionary Overrides