What are the best practices for using the `display` field in the data model?

General Q&A
1

What are some useful practices for defining the <display> </display> tags in my data model?

Specifically:

Should certain parts be text and others format strings?

What are good delimiters for displaying multiple field and relationship data in this tag?

Where is the data I enter here exposed to the developer?

Where is the data I enter here exposed to the end user?

2

Should certain parts be text and others format strings?

It does not have to be, but it could be. You could use either of these examples:

<display>{load_no} - {shipment_date}</display>

or

<display>#{load_no} - date: {shipment_date}</display>

What are good delimiters for displaying multiple fields and relationship data in this tag?

This depends on your personal preference and what you are trying to achieve, here is a good example of one that uses : and -:

<display>{date} - (300ml) EA : {drinkage_bottle_total} (Tab) EA : {drinkage_litre_total} </display>

Where is the data I enter here exposed to the developer?

See my answer below

Where is the data I enter here exposed to the end-user?

There are three areas where the display values are exposed:

  1. Back-end data browser: The display names are used to populate the display values for each row of a selected object as well as the display name for belongs-to relationships.
  2. Editor: The developer can access the display value of an object using the .toString() method.
  3. App: By default, the display name is used in view components if the object is referenced directly. Examples include the object-dropdown and object-table component.
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3

Can I use XML Functions to format the data as well?