Making Custom Columns Available in RecordPoint

Owned by RecordPoint (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jul 07, 2017
3 min read
 Article Contents

If a non-standard Column has been added to an item on the Active Site, a RecordPoint Non Electronic Content Type has been modified, or a custom Non Electronic Content Type has been created with non-standard Columns, extra steps are required for these Columns to be registered by RecordPoint (So that they can be reported on, searched on or added as a Column in Browser views). This article details those steps.

These steps will push the Column value for any future items with that Column into RecordPoint correctly, but any existing items will need to be Resubmitted for the value to be registered.

We recommend you design your Content Types and perform this setup before there is any content in RecordPoint.

Adding a custom column to be used in RecordPoint

Electronic Records and Files

Create a Site Column on the RecordPoint Site with details that matches the Column on the Active Site and add it to the File or Record Content Type as appropriate.

  1. Note the details of your custom Column on the Active Site
  2. Login to RecordPoint
  3. Navigate to Site Columns (Site Settings → Site Columns)
  4. Click Create
  5. Enter the details as noted above then click OK
  6. Navigate to Site Content Types (Site Settings → Site Content Types)
  7. Under the RecordPoint Group, click either File or Record (File for Columns added to Folders / Document Sets, Record for Columns added to documents)
  8. Click add from existing Site Columns
  9. Select the Column which has details matching the Active Site Column, click Add, then click OK

Physical Content Types

Add any Columns not present by default on the RecordPoint Non Electronic Content Types to the corresponding RecordPoint Content Type.

  1. Login to RecordPoint
  2. Navigate to Site Content Types (Site Settings -> Site Content Types)
  3. Click on the Physical Content Type which has been modified or your custom Content Type
  4. Note the Parent Content Type and any Columns added to the type that are not default RecordPoint Columns
  5. Navigate back to Site Content Types (Site Settings -> Site Content Types)
  6. Under the RecordPoint group, click on the appropriate Content Type:
    1. For Columns added to the Non Electronic Box Content Type or present on Content Types derived from Non Electronic Box, click the Box Content Type
    2. For Columns added to the Non Electronic File Content Type or present on Content Types derived from Non Electronic File, click the File Content Type
    3. For Columns added to the Non Electronic Record Content Type or present on Content Types derived from Non Electronic Record, click the Record Content Type
  7. Click add from existing Site Columns
  8. Select all of the Columns which have been added to the Content Type, click Add, then click OK

Refresh the Content Types for RecordPoint

  1. Login to RecordPoint
  2. Go to Management → Settings → Storage Settings and click Refresh for “Refresh the Content Types for RecordPoint”
  3. Go to Management → Settings → Cache Settings and click Refresh

Create a new item which has a value populated for the new Column

  1. Add a new Box, File or Record (Depending on which type/s the Column was added to) with the new Column populated with a value or edit an existing item to populate the new Column
  2. Wait for the queue to process the new item / edit
  3. Ensure that the value is populated for the new column by selecting the new or edited item then clicking ‘View Item’ (not ‘View Metadata’)

Get RecordPoint to index the new Column

  1. In Central Administration, run a full crawl on the RecordPoint Content Source (Application Management → Manage Service Applications → RecordPoint's Search Service Application → Content Sources → Click on the RecordPoint Content Source → Select Start Full Crawl from the context menu)
  2. In RecordPoint, go to Management → Settings → Search Settings
  3. Click Refresh on ‘Refresh the Search Metadata for RecordPoint’
  4. Navigate to Site Settings
  5. Click Search Schema
  6. Confirm the presence of a new Managed Property. For a Column named "Field Added", the RecordPoint Manage Property "RecordPointXIXFieldXIXAdded" should now exist. Filtering this list by "RecordPoint" and inspecting it is usually the best way to confirm this.
  7. Go to Management → Settings → Cache Settings and click Refresh 
  8. You should also now be able to add the column to the search forms and browser view as well. The process for adding these Columns to RecordPoint views is detailed here.

Refresh Cache

Once you have added the Columns to Search / Browser pages, you may need to refresh the RecordPoint Cache for other users to see the Columns on these pages: 

  1. Select Settings from the Management drop down menu
  2. Click Cache Settings
  3. Click Refresh (Across from the text "Refresh the Rules Cache for RecordPoint")
Please note that the user account you are using to refresh the Search Scopes & the Search Metadata with from the RecordPoint Site is required to be an administrator of the Search Service and Managed Metadata applications with the Full Control permission level.