What is a data field?

Workspace comes with many predefined data fields and categories. However, you can create your own. When you create a custom data field, you add it to one of the following categories.

Single-Value Category

A single-value category is a group of single-value data fields. Each single-value data field can store only one user-entered value at a time, for example, a project leader or a due date. Some single-value data fields can have multiple options. For example, the Status data field contains the options Not Started, In Progress, and Completed, but this data field can store only one value at a time, so a user can select only one of the available options. The following image shows examples of single-value data fields on a form.

Data Table

A data table is a group of data fields that can have rows of values. For example, a project usually has several tasks and each task has information about what it is, who it is assigned to, and when it is due. This information is best represented in a data table, where data fields are the columns and user-entered values are the rows. The following image shows an example of a data-entry table on a form.

Usually, users enter data about their projects through form controls, such as text boxes, drop-down lists, or data pickers. In forms, some data is connected and some is unconnected. When a user enters a value in a form control that is connected to a data field, the value is stored in the project and can be shared. When a user enters a value in a form control that is not connected to a data field, the value is stored in the form and cannot be shared.

For example, Project Name is a connected data field. If a user enters a project name in one form, the project name is updated in all forms that contain the Project Name data field. Additionally, if a user deletes a form that contains Project Name, the project's name is still available in other forms because its value is stored in the project, not in the form. By contrast, Prepared Date is an unconnected data field. In this case, the date a form is prepared is only relevant to the form, not the entire project. Therefore, if a user deletes a form that contains an unconnected data field, such as Prepared Date, the user-entered value is deleted, too.