Last updated June 27, 2012. Created by Itangalo on May 14, 2012.
Edited by kwseldman. Log in to edit this page.
Clicking the edit link for an entity field brings you to a page full of settings for that field, while a click on the widget name opens a corresponding page for the widget. (You can switch between these pages using the tabs at the top of the page.)
The settings available for a field depend on its field type and its widget. Usually the help texts explain quite well how the different settings are used. Below are descriptions for the most common settings.
- Required: Users will get an error message if trying to save a node (or other entity) while required fields are empty.
- Help text: Any help text will usually be displayed in small font below the input field. Best practice dictates that every field should have help text, unless there is a good reason otherwise.
- Default value: This sets the default value when creating new nodes/entities. (The default value will not be automatically used if the field is left empty – it just saves the effort of filling in the most common value by hand.)
- Number of values: If there is a need, fields can accept multiple values. For example, you may allow users to upload several images to an article. This setting either allows a fixed number of values (normally just one), or unlimited. This second option provides a button with the text add another item below the field, allowing the user to add more items when required. If the field uses a check boxes/radio buttons widget, multiple-value fields will be displayed as check boxes instead of radio buttons.
- Allowed values (list fields only): In this text area, you may enter a list of values the user should be able to select from - one per line. It is possible to separate the data stored in the database and the value presented to the user by writing lines on the form stored data|displayed data. Only the data stored in the database has to match the field type – a number list could, for example, have 0|free of charge as a possible value, displaying free of charge to all users while still storing a number in the database.
- Text processing (text fields only): This option determines if a text input should be able to hold markup, or if it is always plain text. See the section on text formats in Chapter 5 for more information.