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[usit-rt.git] / docs / extending / external_custom_fields.pod

=head1 External custom fields

=head2 Description

C<External custom fields> is an extension to custom fields that allow
you to define CFs with dynamic lists of values. Loading values into
these custom fields requires writing a little Perl code to fetch the
data from the external source.

=head2 Introduction into writing source of values

For each type of data source that you want, you'll need to put a file in
F</opt/rt4/local/lib/RT/CustomFieldValues/> (or equivalent if you
installed RT into someplace other than F</opt/rt4>). To get a sense of
the code that you'll need to write, take a look at the code in
L</opt/rt4/lib/RT/CustomFieldValues/Groups.pm> for a simple example
which just uses RT's API to pull in a list of RT's groups.

Running C<perldoc /opt/rt4/lib/RT/CustomFieldValues/External.pm> will
show you the documentation for the API that needs to be fulfilled;
copying and editing the C<Groups> example is probably a fine place to
start.

Later in this doc we'll describe the example a little bit more.

=head2 Configuration

After the custom code is written, you need to tell RT about its
existence by adding something like following to your RT_SiteConfig.pm:

    Set(@CustomFieldValuesSources, "RT::CustomFieldValues::MySource");

The value in quotes should be the name of the class that you created.

Stop and start your web server to enable any config changes. Open the
web interface as an administrative user (such as root), and create new
custom field. Set its type to be a Select or Autocomplete field, and
save the changes.  You should now you have ability to select a "source"
for values.  Choose the class you wrote from the list and the save
changes.

=head2 How to write custom source

You have to implement a subclass of L<RT::CustomFieldValues::External>.
There are two main methods you want to override:

=over 4

=item SourceDescription

This method should return a string describing the data source; this is
the identifier which the administrator will see in the dropdown in the
web interface. See L</Configuration>.

=item ExternalValues

This method should return an array reference of hash references.  The
hash references should contain keys for C<name>, C<description>, and
C<sortorder>. C<name> is most important one; the others are optional.

=back

Here's a simple static example:

  package RT::CustomFieldValues::MySource;
  
  # define class inheritance
  use base qw(RT::CustomFieldValues::External);

  # admin friendly description, the default valuse is the name of the class
  sub SourceDescription {
      return 'My Source';
  }
  
  # actual values provider method
  sub ExternalValues {
      # return reference to array ([])
      return [
          # each element of the array is a reference to hash that describe a value
          # possible keys are name, description and sortorder
          { name => 'value1', description => 'external value', sortorder => 1 },
          { name => 'value2', description => 'another external value', sortorder => 2 },
          # values without description are also valid, the default description is empty string
          { name => 'value3', sortorder => 3 },
          # you can skip sortorder too, but note that the default sortorder is 0 (zero)
          { name => 'value3' },
      ];
  }
  
  1; # don't forget to return some true value