Configuring Custom Fields

Phabricator User Documentation (Configuration)

How to add custom fields to applications which support them.

Overview

Several Phabricator applications allow the configuration of custom fields. These fields allow you to add more information to objects, and in some cases reorder or remove builtin fields.

For example, you could use custom fields to add an "Estimated Hours" field to tasks, a "Lead" field to projects, or a "T-Shirt Size" field to users.

These applications currently support custom fields:

Custom fields can appear in many interfaces and support search, editing, and other features.

Basic Custom Fields

To get started with custom fields, you can use configuration to select and reorder fields and to add new simple fields.

If you don't need complicated display controls or sophisticated validation, these simple fields should cover most use cases. They allow you to attach things like strings, numbers, and dropdown menus to objects.

The relevant configuration settings are:

When adding fields, you'll specify a JSON blob like this (for example, as the value of maniphest.custom-field-definitions):

{
  "mycompany:estimated-hours": {
    "name": "Estimated Hours",
    "type": "int",
    "caption": "Estimated number of hours this will take.",
    "required": true
  },
  "mycompany:actual-hours": {
    "name": "Actual Hours",
    "type": "int",
    "caption": "Actual number of hours this took."
  },
  "mycompany:company-jobs": {
    "name": "Job Role",
    "type": "select",
    "options": {
      "mycompany:engineer": "Engineer",
      "mycompany:nonengineer": "Other"
    }
  },
  "mycompany:favorite-dinosaur": {
    "name": "Favorite Dinosaur",
    "type": "text"
  }
}

The fields will then appear in the other config option for the application (for example, in maniphest.fields) and you can enable, disable, or reorder them.

For details on how to define a field, see the next section.

Custom Field Configuration

When defining custom fields using a configuration option like maniphest.custom-field-definitions, these options are available:

• name: Display label for the field on the edit and detail interfaces.
• description: Optional text shown when managing the field.
• type: Field type. The supported field types are:
  • int: An integer, rendered as a text field.
  • text: A string, rendered as a text field.
  • bool: A boolean value, rendered as a checkbox.
  • select: Allows the user to select from several options as defined by options, rendered as a dropdown.
  • remarkup: A text area which allows the user to enter markup.
  • users: A typeahead which allows multiple users to be input.
  • date: A date/time picker.
  • header: Renders a visual divider which you can use to group fields.
  • link: A text field which allows the user to enter a link.
• edit: Show this field on the application's edit interface (this defaults to true).
• view: Show this field on the application's view interface (this defaults to true). (Note: Empty fields are not shown.)
• search: Show this field on the application's search interface, allowing users to filter objects by the field value.
• fulltext: Index the text in this field as part of the object's global full-text index. This allows users to find the object by searching for the field's contents using global search.
• caption: A caption to display underneath the field (optional).
• required: True if the user should be required to provide a value.
• options: If type is set to select, provide options for the dropdown as a dictionary.
• default: Default field value.
• strings: Allows you to override specific strings based on the field type. See below.
• instructions: Optional block of remarkup text which will appear above the control when rendered on the edit view.
• placeholder: A placeholder text that appears on text boxes. Only supported in text, int and remarkup fields (optional).
• copy: If true, this field's value will be copied when an object is created using another object as a template.
• limit: For control types which use a tokenizer control to let the user select a list of values, this limits how many values can be selected. For example, a "users" field with a limit of "1" will behave like the "Owner" field in Maniphest and only allow selection of a single user.

The strings value supports different strings per control type. They are:

• bool
  • edit.checkbox Text for the edit interface, no default.
  • view.yes Text for the view interface, defaults to "Yes".
  • search.default Text for the search interface, defaults to "(Any)".
  • search.require Text for the search interface, defaults to "Require".

Internally, Phabricator implements some additional custom field types and options. These are not intended for general use and are subject to abrupt change, but are documented here for completeness:

• Credentials: Controls with type credential allow selection of a Passphrase credential which provides credential.provides, and creation of credentials of credential.type.
• Datasource: Controls with type datasource allow selection of tokens from an arbitrary datasource, controlled with datasource.class and datasource.parameters.

Advanced Custom Fields

If you want custom fields to have advanced behaviors (sophisticated rendering, advanced validation, complicated controls, interaction with other systems, etc), you can write a custom field as an extension and add it to Phabricator.

To do this, extend the appropriate CustomField class for the application you want to add a field to:

The easiest way to get started is to drop your subclass into phabricator/src/extensions/. If Phabricator is configured in development mode, the class should immediately be available in the UI. If not, you can restart Phabricator (for help, see Restarting Phabricator).

For example, this is a simple template which adds a custom field to Maniphest:

<?php

final class ExampleCustomField extends ManiphestCustomField {

  public function getFieldKey() {
    return 'example:test';
  }

  public function shouldAppearInPropertyView() {
    return true;
  }

  public function renderPropertyViewLabel() {
    return pht('Example Custom Field');
  }

  public function renderPropertyViewValue(array $handles) {
    return phutil_tag(
      'h1',
      array(
        'style' => 'color: #ff00ff',
      ),
      pht('It worked!'));
  }

}

Broadly, you can then add features by overriding more methods and implementing them. Many of the native fields are implemented on the custom field architecture, and it may be useful to look at them. For details on available integrations, see the base class for your application and PhabricatorCustomField.

Next Steps

Continue by:

• learning more about extending Phabricator with custom code in Adding New Classes;
• or returning to the Configuration Guide.