Organization Admin: Database Fields

Organization Admins and Legal Holds Organization Admins can store important information about databases and matters, such as billing information or practice area, in database fields. These fields are visible to all Organization Administrators and Legal Holds Organization Administrators, and you can make them visible to users on your projects and databases. 

Requirements

The following requirements apply to working with database fields on Everlaw:

• To access database fields, your organization needs to be on an annual subscription and have access to the Organization Admin page.
• To create database fields, you need to have Org Admin permissions. 
• To edit the values for database/matter fields, you must be an Organization Admin or Legal Holds Organization Admin. To learn more about this, visit the article section Manage Legal Hold Organization Admin Permissions.

Access database fields

Organization Admins create and manage database fields from the Database Fields tab of the Organization page. To access this tab, go to Organization home > Projects & Users > Database Fields.

This page lists all existing fields, their field type, if they are a required field, and the visibility settings.  From here, you can see existing fields, create new fields, and edit existing fields.

Create database fields

To create a new fields:

1. Select + Add new field in the top right corner. This opens a panel to fill in the information about the field.
   
   
2. Enter a field name.
3. Select the visibility of this field under Visible to. A field can be visible to:
   • All users 
   • Database and Organization Administrators
   • Organization Administrators and Legal Hold Organization Administrators only.
     Note that, to be visible to Database Admins or to all users, a field must additionally be pinned, which is covered below.
4. Select the Field type. A field’s type dictates what values that field can take on. The options for field type are:
   • Date
   • Multi-select drop down: Allow databases to take on multiple values from a preset list
   • Number
   • Single-select drop down: allow a single value from a preset list
   • Text
     When creating a multi or single-select field, you will be asked to populate the preset list that users can choose from. Text fields can take on freeform text.
5. [Optional] Select Required field to require that anyone creating a database or matter fill in a value for this field. 
   If databases already exist and you edit a field to make it required, no changes can be made to the existing database field values until this required field is set.
6. Select Submit.

Edit existing fields

To edit an existing database field:

1. Select Edit in the row for that field.
2. Make the changes.
3. Select Submit.

Delete existing fields

To delete an existing database field:

1. Select Edit in the row for that field.
2. Select Delete field. This opens a confirmation dialog.
   
3. Type the name of the field.
4. Select Delete.

Pin database fields

Organization Admins can pin up to three important fields to display their values wherever the database name is displayed. 

Users on a project will see any field values that are both pinned and that have their visibility settings set to All users. These field values are displayed underneath the project name on the project selection drop down.

To pin a field:

1. Go to your Organization home.
2. Go to Projects & Users > Database Fields.
3. Select the pin button in the table's Field name column.
   
   A preview of the pinned fields is shown at the bottom of the screen.
   

To modify the order in which the fields are displayed, drag  and drop names of the fields into the order you prefer.

Bulk update fields

To bulk update the field values for multiple databases at once, you can import a CSV with your desired field data. The importer can not create new database fields, nor can it create new single and multi choice field options. Please ensure that all fields are created before importing.

To bulk update values for database fields:

1. Go to Organization home >Projects & Users.
2. Select the import custom field data button.
    
   This opens the import field data wizard. There are two steps: Upload file and Summary.
3. If you haven’t already, create a CSV file with the database/matter fields you want to import. We highly recommend starting with the pre-filled template that we provide. To download it, select Download CSV template.
   
   The template contains a complete list of all databases in column A, all existing custom fields in the organization as column headers (row 1), and previously defined field values in their corresponding column.
   Enter any new values that you want to add.
   
   You should apply the following formatting rules:
   • For multiple-select fields: Separate multiple field values in your CSV with commas enclosed within outer quotation marks.
   • For date fields: Use a yyyy/mm/dd format. If your date field also includes times, use a 24-hour format (e.g. 15:00 instead of 3:00 pm). Times will be uploaded in your local timezone.
4. When your file is ready for import, select browse to search for the CSV file on your computer, or drag and drop it into the dialog.
   
   This immediately moves you on to the wizard’s Summary step.
   
5. On the Summary step, you are shown a summary of your data uploaded in list form. Review this data for errors.
   If you find an error, select Previous to return to the previous page and reupload your corrected CSV file.
6. [Optional] For additional settings, select Edit Advanced settings.
   
   This opens the Advanced settings dialog. In this dialog:
   1. [Optional] In the Empty cells field, choose between: 
      • Don’t update existing field value (default): If the CSV contains an empty cell, the existing field value will not be updated
      • Delete existing field: If the CSV contains an empty cell, the existing field value will be cleared and left empty
   2. [Optional] In the Multiple-select fields field, choose between:
      • Replace existing field values (default): If the CSV contains values that are different from the current values, the field will be updated to contain only the new values
      • Add to existing field values: If the CSV contains values that are different from the current values, the field will be updated to contain both the current and new values.
   3. Select Save to close the dialog.
7. When you are ready to complete the import, select Submit.

Edit Database Field values

Organization Administrators can edit the database field values from the Projects & Users tab. To edit the field values for a given database from the Projects & Users tab:

1. Navigate to the Projects & Users tab on the Organization Admin page. 
2. Click on the row of the database you would like to edit. This opens a side panel with information about the database.
3. Select Database details. This opens a panel with information about the database.
4. Select Edit custom field data. 
   
5. Edit the values for any fields you'd like. If a field is required, and does not yet have a value, you will not be able to save any edits without giving the required field a value.
6. Select Save.

Organization Administrators and Legal Holds Organization Administrators can edit the database field values from the Legal Holds tab. To edit the field values for a given database or matter from the Legal Holds tab:

1. Navigate to the Legal Holds tab on the Organization Admin page. 
2. Select the three-dot menu of the database or matter you would like to edit.
3. Select view/edit custom database/matter fields. This opens a dialog panel with the fields.
4. Edit the values for any fields you'd like. If a field is required, and does not yet have a value, you will not be able to save any edits without giving the required field a value.
5. Select Save.

Database sizes

You can filter the table on the Database Sizes tab of the Organization home page by any non-date database field value. You can also change the view of the table to be organized by a specific field. 

Filter and export by database field value

To filter, type the value you want to filter by into the text entry box next to Filter.
The table will filter down to just those databases with a value for any field that matches your entry. 

To export the filtered view to CSV, select the export button above the table and configure your export. You can choose to include database fields. The resulting CSV export reflects the filtered table. Learn more about your configuration options in our article about database sizes.

View and export by database field

You can view this table based on a database field. When you do so, the table sums the size of all databases with a particular field value and shows a breakdown of size by field value.

To view by database field, select the box next to View by, and choose which field to view the table by.

To export a CSV of the table organized by this field, select the export button to configure your export. The resulting CSV includes a column with a row for each field value, along with columns displaying the summed value for each database with that value for that field, for the columns you selected to export. Learn more about your configuration options in our article about database sizes.