Attachments

When you are adding attachments to an issue from both the add and edit screens, you use the PR_ADD_PROBLEM security permission key. This is not immediately obvious with regard to the edit screen.

Also note that the ATTACH_FILE_DESC permission key has special properties with regard to fields with a display type of document and image.

Field Name Title Definition
ATTACHMENT Attachments This field is used on reports to display all the fields that comprise the attachment record. All fields that may be placed on the attachment record are displayed, assuming they have read permission.
ATTACHMENT_ID Attachment ID The internal ID for the attachment. Used within the ATTACHMENT field and the ATTACHMENT_HISTORY layout.
ATTACH_CHANGE_TYPE Change Type The type of attachment change. Used on the ATTACHMENT_HISTORY layout.
ATTACH_CONTENT_TYPE Attachment Content Type The mime type of the attachment. Used within the ATTACHMENT field and the ATTACHMENT_HISTORY layout.
ATTACH_CREATED_BY_USER Attachment Created By The person who created the attachment . Used within the ATTACHMENT field and the ATTACHMENT_HISTORY layout.
ATTACH_DATE_CREATED Attachment Date Created The date the attachment was created. Used within the ATTACHMENT field and the ATTACHMENT_HISTORY layout.
ATTACH_FILE_DESC Attachment File Description The description of the attachment. Used within the ATTACHMENT field, the ATTACHMENT_HISTORY layout and on fields with a display type of IMAGE and DOCUMENT. This field has some special properties.
  • If PR_ADD_PROBLEM.ATTACH_FILE_DESC is writable, then the description for all upload objects is required on the add screen
  • If PR_ADD_PROBLEM.ATTACH_FILE_DESC is writable, then the description for all upload objects is permitted, but not required on the add screen
  • If PR_ADD_PROBLEM.ATTACH_FILE_DESC is neither writable nor readable, then the description for all upload objects is not shown on the add screen
  • If PR_RESOLUTION.ATTACH_FILE_DESC is writable, then the description for all upload objects is required on the edit screen
  • If PR_RESOLUTION.ATTACH_FILE_DESC is writable, then the description for all upload objects is permitted, but not required on the edit screen
  • If PR_RESOLUTION.ATTACH_FILE_DESC is neither writable nor readable, then the description for all upload objects is not shown on the edit screen.
ATTACH_FILE_NAME Attachment File Name The file name of the attachment. Used within the ATTACHMENT field and the ATTACHMENT_HISTORY layout.
ATTACH_FILE_SIZE Attachment File Size The file size of the attachment . Used within the ATTACHMENT field and the ATTACHMENT_HISTORY layout.
ATTACH_PATH Attachment Path The original path in which the attachment was stored . Used within the ATTACHMENT field and the ATTACHMENT_HISTORY layout.
ATTACH_HIST_TIMESTAMP Attachment History Timestamp The timestamp of attachment history. Used on the ATTACHMENT_HISTORY layout.
ATTACH_LAST_DATE_UPDATED Last Date Updated The last date the attachment was updated. Used on the ATTACHMENT_HISTORY layout.
ATTACH_LAST_UPDT_COMPANY Company The last date the attachment was updated. Used on the ATTACHMENT_HISTORY layout.
ATTACH_SELECT Select? An optional field. When the security permissions for this field are turned on, this causes a column on the attachment layout to be made visible, with a checkbox by each attached file added to the issue. This works in conjunction with another field, EMAIL_SELECTED. This field appears in the notification layout. When a user checks the EMAIL_SELECTED field, then each of the file attachments checked in the list of attachments is sent out as an attachment to the notification. In this way, file attachments can optionally be sent to users connected with an issue, when the issue is either added or updated. This field is also subject to control with the ADD and COPY business rules, as well as being available within user custom code.
ATTACH_THUMBNAIL Thumbnail Preview a thumbnail image of the attachment. Used within the ATTACHMENT field and the ATTACHMENT_HISTORY layout.
NUMBER_OF_ATTACHMENTS Number of Attachments This field may be placed on reports, or used as a report filter and provides a count of the number of attachments on an issue. For example, you may use this as an advanced filter to show all the issues that have attachments, when used as Number of Attachments > 0.

Behavior Settings

Setting Name Default Value Description
ALLOWED_ATTACH_SEARCH_FILE_EXT application/pdf,application/msword,application/vnd.ms-excel,text/csv,text/html,text/plain,text/rtf This is a list of the allowed mime types for attachment files to be searched for keywords, when the user checks the Search Attachments box. If the file in the list to be searched does not have one of these mime types, it is skipped. This is used to skip searching of files such as image files, to speed the search process
ATTACHMENT_CONTROL_FIELDS NO This setting is only used in conjunction with the Java user custom exit named ucAllowAttachmentOperation. This setting enables the functionality within this method. When the value is NO the user custom exit is not called. When the value is YES the code within the method is called and acted upon
ATTACHMENT_REPOSITORY_DMAX 999 The maximum number of files or directories that will be created under one node of the external directory structure. The default for this value is 999. It is not likely that this value needs to be altered
ATTACHMENT_REPOSITORY_OPT INTERNAL This setting controls whether attachments are stored internally within the database, externally on the file system, or in some combination of the two methods. If the value of this setting is INTERNAL, then all attachments are stored internally within the database. If the value of this setting is EXTERNAL, then all the attachments are stored on the external file system. Alternatively, you may provide a comma separated list of file extensions and then all files with these extensions will be stored externally while all others will be stored in the database. For example, if you set the value of this setting to "avi,png,gif,jpg" then files of these types will be stored externally. This strategy leaves the files stored internally in the database as searchable by keywords, while the image and video files are stored externally. The default for this value is INTERNAL. Also, ensure that the setting ATTACHMENT_REPOSITORY_ROOT is set correctly before storing attachments outside the database
ATTACHMENT_REPOSITORY_ROOT The name of the directory on the file system where file attachments will be stored. Before any attachments are stored externally, you must also provide a valid setting for the setting ATTACHMENT_REPOSITORY_OPT. You must also ensure that the path is valid from the application server(s) that are running ExtraView, and that you have all the permissions to read and write to the storage. You must also ensure that you set up a separate backup method for this external storage as backing up your database will no longer backup the file attachments
ATTACH_SELECT_CHECKBOX UNCHECKED This setting controls behavior of the Attachment Select box (ATTACH_SELECT) on the Add and Edit layouts. Valid values are UNCHECKED, CHECKED and CHECKED ON ADD. A value of CHECKED or UNCHECKED will set the checkbox for an attachment on entry to the screen or when a new attachment is added. A value of CHECKED ON ADD will cause the checkbox to be checked only when the attachment is first added, otherwise it will be unchecked
BLOCK_ATTACHMENT_EXTENSIONS If a user uploads an attachment, or a file into a document field or a file into an image field, with an extension that is in this list, the file will not be stored on the server, and the user will receive a message that informs them that they are not allowed to store files of that type. The default is that all files of all types are stored. The list of file extensions is comma delimited. For example, you might set a value of exe, js, com to prohibit end users from uploading files of these types.
COPY_ATTACHMENT_ON_CLONE YES When this setting is YES, attachments will be copied to the new issue when an issue is cloned
DEFAULT_ATTACHMENT_CHARSET UTF-8 The default character encoding for files being uploaded to ExtraView. This value is used to select the initial value presented to the administrator when creating a new user
SEARCH_ATTACH_THRESHOLD 100000000 The size of attachments to be searched, before the user is alerted of performance cost. If the size of attachments to be searched exceeds this value, then the user is shown a dialog box and asked to confirm whether they want to proceed with the search
THUMBNAIL_MAX_SIZE 150 This is the maximum number of pixels in either the horizontal or vertical direction to which thumbnail images will be generated. The aspect ratio of the original image will be retained. Thumbnail images are generated for file attachments and for fields with a display type of image. If you change this value, existing thumbnail images will remain at their original size and new thumbnails will be generated at the changed value
UPLOAD_DISPLAY_SETTING DND_DEFAULT This setting may have one of four values:
  • DND_DEFAULT - The attachment upload utility will default to offering the user the ability to use the drag-and-drop interface. The user may switch to the standard upload interface at any time.
  • STANDARD_DEFAULT - The attachment upload utility will default to offering the user the ability to use the standard file upload interface. The user may switch to the drag-and-drop upload interface at any time.
  • STANDARD_ONLY - The drag-and-drop upload utility is disabled and only the standard utility is available.
  • DND_ONLY - Only the drag-and-drop upload utility is available.

Note that the drag-and-drop utility uses a Java applet. This implies that the user's browser has Java runtime capability. If you do not allow users to access Java applets in your environment, then you should set this behavior setting to STANDARD_ONLY. If your network utilizes a proxy server, your user's Java runtime must be setup correctly to allow attachments to use the Java applet to upload attachments, as well as document and image fields. Please see the Appendix entitled Applets and Proxy Servers for instructions.