Halo Service Desk Guides
Documentation to assist with the setup and configuration of the Halo Service Desk platform
Custom Fields - Adding to Your Records
Custom fields can be used to collect additional information in any section. In the client view specfically however they can add a great depth of extra information, whether it's the support supplied by their contract with you, the loyalty of that customer or something more specific to you.
Adding a new Custom Field
Head to the configuration console and then navigate to "Custom Objects" under the advanced heading. This takes you to the lists of custom fields in Halo. Select the client entity to display all of your current custom client fields.
Clicking "New" in the top right-hand corner will take you to the creation screen. First, give the field a name and label. The "Name" is the name of the field in the database, this will contain no spaces but is a descriptor the field itself and should reflect the field label. The "Label" is what will appear within Halo and is what your agents will see to fill in.
Next is the data type, described below:
Type of Field | Description |
Text | Single lines of plain text. |
Memo | Multiple lines of plain text; longer descriptions or notes. |
Single Selection | A single option to be picked from a drop down. |
Multiple Selection | Multiple options to be picked from a drop down list. |
Date | This field type will prompt a date selection box when clicked. |
Time | A specific time on a 24 hr clock, for clients this could be the office opening time in your time zone. |
Checkbox | A binary selection of "Yes" or "No" in the form of a checkbox. |
Table | This is used to refer to custom tables within your database such as external information. |
Rich | A rich text box allowing a large number of formatting and editing styles. |
Field Configuration
The ways in which you can configure a field depend on which data type you have selected. The following field configuration methods are therefore split by data type.
Text Fields:
- Anything - this is any plain text input
- Integer - Whole number inputs e.g 13
- Money - A number with two decimal places such as 42.21
- AlphaNumeric - Plain text letters and numbers with no punctuation
- Decimal - A number with more than two decimal places i.e. 12345.98765
- URL - A web Address
You can then submit a default value for any of these inputs.
Memo
The only option here is the default value.
Single Selection
- Static list which is a fixed set of options set in a comma seperated string, e.g. Yes,No,Maybe.
- Dynamic list (SQL)
- This is a list which populates based on a SQL query input below.
- This can be used to pull information from the database to enable your agents to make a choice based on existing data.
Multiple selection
Choose values for the selections here, these are static and cannot be pulled from another query.
Date, Time and Checkbox
These have no configuration settings.
Table
Similar to the Dynamic List, this will extract data from the database but this time from any custom tables you have attached. These will start CT.
You can display any combinations of the information stored in any custom table.
Settings
These are more general for the fields itself with summary being a description of the information contained in the field and the hint being shown in gray when the field is being updated.
Copy values to Child Tickets
This setting decides whether the value of this field is copied to child tickets if this is present in a ticket type.
Tab
This setting determines the tab the field will be visible on; these appear on the client screen to the right of settings.
Visibility Restrictions
This setting decides which client you are restricting the field to be available to, if any.
Once you have completed the creation of your custom field, if it is a ticket or action level field, don't forget to add this to it's respective field list in the relevant configuration area.
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