Symptoms

Reference field is not showing the expected display value when selected or it appears blank

Release

ALL

Cause

It could be due to one of the following reasons:

1. It is likely that there is more than one field in the dictionary fields for that table where the display field has a value of true.

2. The other possibility is that there is a dictionary override on the field.

Resolution

When you have a reference field that is not showing you the expected display value there is going to be one of two most likely causes.

1. The first is that the field in the dictionary for the table in question or a parent table has been set so that the display field is checked. You can only have one field per table set to display true. This is the field that will be used for the value for any reference fields that use this table.

So for example, if the first_name field was set to display true on the sys_user table that means that any reference fields against sys_user would show first name for the display value of that reference field. So the first step is to confirm that the right value is marked as display true for the target table your reference field is pointing to (not the table the reference field is part of).

2. The second place you can affect the display value for a reference field is with a dictionary override. These are stored in the sys_dictionary_override table. You can see all the records that would affect the display value of a table using the following URL:

../sys_dictionary_override_list.do?sysparm_query=display_override%3Dtrue

Remember to look for entries that are for the table your reference field is pointing to (not the table the reference field is part of). This would include parent tables for the target table as well.

Additional Information

You can find additional information on dictionary overrides in our documentation here.