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Use conditional formatting in Text Mode

Last update: Fri Jan 12 2024 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

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The standard interface builder provides a great range of flexibility when creating reporting elements to meet the needs in your organization.

You can apply conditional formatting in a view by using the standard interface.
For more information about applying conditional formatting to a view, see Use conditional formatting in views.

Access requirements

You must have the following access to perform the steps in this article:

Adobe Workfront plan
Any
Adobe Workfront license

New: Standard

Or

Current: Plan

Access level configurations*

Edit access to Filters, Views, Groupings

Edit access to Reports, Dashboards, Calendars to edit views in a report

Object permissions

Manage permissions to a report to edit views in a report

Manage permissions to a view to edit it

For more detail about the information in this table, see Access requirements in Workfront documentation.

Conditional formatting in Text Mode

Text mode enables you to create more complex views, filters, groupings, and prompts by allowing you to use fields that are not available in the standard interface.

For a complete list of all our reportable fields, see the API Explorer.

For more information about using text mode syntax, see Text mode syntax overview.

You can also use text mode to format views in reports and lists. Using conditional formatting, you can change the views of your reports by changing the font type and background of the results in the report, as well as icons and flags. We recommend that you always build your views using the standard interface first and switch to the text mode interface only when absolutely necessary.

NOTE
Using CSS styling to customize conditional formatting is not supported. Instead, you must use the predesigned formatting options that are available in Adobe Workfront.

Add conditional formatting to Views

For more information about applying conditional formatting to a view in the standard builder interface, see Use conditional formatting in views.

To add conditional formatting to a view in the text mode interface:

  1. Go to a list of objects.
  2. Expand the drop-down menu of a view to which you want to add conditional formatting.
  3. Click Customize View.
  4. Click the column in the view to which you want to apply conditional formatting.
  5. Click Switch to Text Mode.
  6. In the Show in this column: area, click Click to edit text.
  7. Add the code samples provided in Format Views using Text Mode at the bottom of the text in the column you selected.
  8. Click Save, then click Save View.

Format Views using Text Mode format-views-using-text-mode

You can add the following components to a column in a view to conditionally format it in text mode:

Column settings column-settings

You must be familiar with the text mode interface before you can add conditional formatting to your views.

You can customize the following elements of a column when using conditional formatting in a view:

Column headers column-headers

To change the displayed column header, add the following code to your column: displayname= [Name of column]. For example, to name a column Project Owner, the text code would look like:

displayname=Project Owner

Format dates format-dates

Dates can be configured to display in various formats.

For more information, see Format dates in text mode reports.

Format numbers format-numbers

You can format numeric values to display information that best suits your reporting needs.

For more information, see Format numbers, currency and percentage values in text mode reports.

Column rules column-rules

Column rules allow for the addition of images, color, formatting, and text overrides within a view. Column rules can be established independently or can contain multiple conditions for a column.

Conditional formatting conditional-formatting

A specific text mode statement must be applied when incorporating color or formatting text.

NOTE
Conditional formatting may not be supported in merged columns.
For more information on merging columns with Text Mode, see View: merge information from multiple columns in one shared column.

Insert the following code in any column where you want to add conditional formatting to:

styledef.case.0.comparison.leftmethod= [field name]
styledef.case.0.comparison.lefttext= [field name]
styledef.case.0.comparison.righttext= [field value]
styledef.case.0.comparison.operator= [qualifier]
styledef.case.0.comparison.operatortype= [data type]
styledef.case.0.comparison.icon=false
styledef.case.0.comparison.truetext=
styledef.case.0.comparison.trueproperty.0.name= [format option]
styledef.case.0.comparison.trueproperty.0.value= [format style]
NOTE
The styledef.case.0.comparison.icon line is always false unless working with icons.
The styledef.case.0.comparison.truetext line is always left blank until working with overwriting text.
The styledef.case.0.comparison.righttext line is blank when the qualifier is notblank.

For example, if we wanted to show the Company Name in green text on a project report, you can use the following code:

styledef.case.0.comparison.leftmethod=company:name
styledef.case.0.comparison.lefttext=company:name ;
styledef.case.0.comparison.righttext=
styledef.case.0.comparison.operator=notblank
styledef.case.0.comparison.operatortype=string
styledef.case.0.comparison.icon=false
styledef.case.0.comparison.truetext=
styledef.case.0.comparison.trueproperty.0.name=textcolor
styledef.case.0.comparison.trueproperty.0.value=03a219
NOTE
  • While this statement could be applied to a Company Name column, it could also be applied to any other column on the report. Green text would only be displayed if the project had a Company associated with it. Remember the [field name], [value], and [qualifier] drive whether or not the conditioning ultimately displays on the column.
  • When working with qualifiers, we recommended using cicontains rather than equal. By default, equal looks for ID numbers. Using the cicontains qualifier, you can access items by their name.

Whether Text Color, Alignment, Font Style, or Background Color are applied to a text mode, the same statement (shown above) is used.

The following lines must be modified to reflect the corresponding formatting needed for the column:

styledef.case.0.comparison.trueproperty.0.name= [format option]
styledef.case.0.comparison.trueproperty.0.value= [format style]

Use the following tables to identify which lines must be modified and what values you should specify to define the format style of your column:

Text Color
Line: textcolor=
Black
000000
Dark Blue
0c6aca
Teal
1b878c
Green
03a219
Purple
6408c4
Grey
767676
Red
d30519
Yellow
e19503
Alignment
Line: align=
Left alignment
left
Right alignment
right
Center Alignment
center
Font
Line: fontstyle=
Bold
bold
Italic
italic
Background Color
Line: bgcolor=
Teal
dcf6f7
Green
def6e2
Grey
e8e8e8
Blue
e8f1ff
Purple
e9def4
Red
eac6c9
Yellow
feecc8
White
ffffff

Multiple conditional formats multiple-conditional-formats

You can apply more than one formatting style to a statement. The core statement would remain unchanged and any additional formatting expressions would be added to the statement.

For example, using the earlier statement to include Company Name in green bolded text. The statement would be written using the following code:

styledef.case.0.comparison.leftmethod=company:name
styledef.case.0.comparison.lefttext=company:name
styledef.case.0.comparison.righttext=
styledef.case.0.comparison.operator=notblank
styledef.case.0.comparison.operatortype=string
styledef.case.0.comparison.icon=false
styledef.case.0.comparison.truetext=
styledef.case.0.comparison.trueproperty.0.name=textcolor
styledef.case.0.comparison.trueproperty.0.value=03a219
styledef.case.0.comparison.trueproperty.1.name=fontstyle
styledef.case.0.comparison.trueproperty.1.value=bold
NOTE
When including more than one conditional formatting expression, it is necessary to numerically identify each expression in the statement. Notice that expression 0 and expression 1 have been identified.

Apply text apply-text

If you want to replace the default values that populate in a column with a value of your choosing, it is possible when applying text to the column.

For example, on a project report, set the Planned Start Date column value to not display the planned start date for the project, but rather the text ‘Not Today.’ Use the following code for the Planned Start Date column:

case.0.comparison.leftmethod=plannedStartDate
case.0.comparison.lefttext=plannedStartDate
case.0.comparison.righttext=2013-04-10T10:45:00:000
case.0.comparison.operator=ne
case.0.comparison.operatortype=date
case.0.comparison.icon=false
case.0.comparison.truetext=not today
styledef.case.0.comparison.leftmethod=plannedStartDate
styledef.case.0.comparison.lefttext=plannedStartDate
styledef.case.0.comparison.righttext=2013-04-10T10:45:00:000
styledef.case.0.comparison.operator=ne
styledef.case.0.comparison.operatortype=date&
styledef.case.0.comparison.icon=false
styledef.case.0.comparison.truetext=not today
NOTE
The lines that start with case.0. use case comparisons to identifying the use of text. The lines that start with styledef.case.0. are early conditional formatting statements where we identify the use of text through the truetext expression. Make sure to set truetext to a value, rather than leaving it blank.

Apply row formats apply-row-formats

If you would like to apply a condition to the entire row, use the following code with your column code:

styledef.case.0.comparison.icon=false
styledef.case.0.comparison.isrowcase=true
styledef.case.0.comparison.leftmethod= [field name]
styledef.case.0.comparison.lefttext= [field name]
styledef.case.0.comparison.operator= [qualifier]
styledef.case.0.comparison.operatortype= [data type]
styledef.case.0.comparison.righttext= [field value]
styledef.case.0.comparison.trueproperty.0.name= [format option]
styledef.case.0.comparison.trueproperty.0.value= [format style]
styledef.case.0.comparison.truetext=
row.0.styledef.applyallcases=true
row.0.styledef.case.0.comparison.icon=false
row.0.styledef.case.0.comparison.isrowcase=true
row.0.styledef.case.0.comparison.leftmethod= [field name]
row.0.styledef.case.0.comparison.lefttext= [field name]
row.0.styledef.case.0.comparison.operator= [qualifier]
row.0.styledef.case.0.comparison.operatortype= [data type]
row.0.styledef.case.0.comparison.righttext= [field value]
row.0.styledef.case.0.comparison.trueproperty.0.name= [format option]
row.0.styledef.case.0.comparison.trueproperty.0.value= [format style]
row.0.styledef.case.0.comparison.truetext=

Apply images apply-images

Similarly to formatting with text, images can be used to display information in reports. Workfront has a number of built-in images to convey visual information in a report setting. To use images in the conditional formatting setting the following statement is needed:

image.case.0.comparison.leftmethod= [field name]
image.case.0.comparison.lefttext= [field name]
image.case.0.comparison.righttext= [field value]
image.case.0.comparison.operator= [qualifier]
image.case.0.comparison.operatortype= [data type]
image.case.0.comparison.icon=true
image.case.0.comparison.truetext=

For example, on a project report, you want to build a column where you would show a frown face for every Planned Completion Date that does not equal to today’s date. Use the following text mode code to add the icon to your column:

image.case.0.comparison.leftmethod=plannedCompletionDate
image.case.0.comparison.lefttext=plannedCompletionDate
image.case.0.comparison.righttext=2013-04-10T13:00:00:000
image.case.0.comparison.operator=ne
image.case.0.comparison.operatortype=date
image.case.0.comparison.icon=true
image.case.0.comparison.truetext=/interface/images/v4_redux/icons/casebuilder/emoticon_frown.gif
NOTE
Notice that the statement uses the icon=true expression. This statement is also different from other conditional formatting statements in that it does not use the style.def format, but rather a unique image format.

To use the images available, apply the following code and values:

Icon
Line: image.case.0.comparison.truetext=
Frown Face
=/interface/images/v4_redux/icons/casebuilder/emoticon_frown.gif
Happy Face
=/interface/images/v4_redux/icons/casebuilder/emoticon_smile.gif
Blue Flag
=/interface/images/v4_redux/icons/casebuilder/flag_blue.gif
Green Flag
=/interface/images/v4_redux/icons/casebuilder/flag_green.gif
Red Flag
=/interface/images/v4_redux/icons/casebuilder/flag_red.gif
Yellow Flag
=/interface/images/v4_redux/icons/casebuilder/flag_yellow.gif
Black Circle
=/interface/images/v4_redux/icons/casebuilder/light_black.gif
Blue Circle
=/interface/images/v4_redux/icons/casebuilder/light_blue.gif
Grey Circle
=/interface/images/v4_redux/icons/casebuilder/light_grey.gif
Green Circle
=/interface/images/v4_redux/icons/casebuilder/light_green.gif
Orange Circle
=/interface/images/v4_redux/icons/casebuilder/light_orange.gif
Pink Circle
=/interface/images/v4_redux/icons/casebuilder/light_pink.gif
Purple Circle
=/interface/images/v4_redux/icons/casebuilder/light_purple.gif
Red Circle
=/interface/images/v4_redux/icons/casebuilder/light_red.gif
White Circle
=/interface/images/v4_redux/icons/casebuilder/light_white.gif
Yellow Circle
=/interface/images/v4_redux/icons/casebuilder/light_yellow.gif

Conditionally format a valueexpression conditionally-format-a-valueexpression

To display a calculated value in a column, you can replace the valuefield line of code in the column with a valueexpression. A calculated value allows you to display a new value for an object based on the calculation between two existing fields on that same object.

For more information about how to format the valueexpression line, see Text mode syntax overview.

You cannot conditionally format a column which contains a valueexpression line of code. Instead, you can add a Calculated Custom Field to a Custom Form and associate it with the objects you are displaying in the report. Then, you can conditionally format the columns displaying this field.

For more information about Calculated Custom Fields, see Add calculated data to a custom form.

Add an aggregator value in a Text Mode column

We recommend that you build the column in the builder interface first, add the aggregator value there, and then edit the column in Text Mode.

Consider the following when adding aggregators to a column in Text Mode:

  • The values in the column must have a format that can be summarized. For example, they must have one of the following formats:

    • Number
    • Date
    • Currency

  • You can add an aggregator to a column that displays a calculation. The aggregated value displays in the grouping of the view or report. For more information, see Grouping: display the result of aggregating multiple calculated values in a grouping.

  • The lines of code for the definition of the column must be identical to the lines of code introducing the aggregator and preceded by “aggregator.” For example, if you have a column where you display Planned Hours on a project, the text mode of the main lines of the column is:

  valuefield=workRequired
  valueformat=compound

When you want to aggregate the values of all the lines in the grouping of the view, we can add the following code to add the aggregator values:

aggregator.valuefield=workRequired (the aggregator.valuefield line must be the same as the valuefield that describes the column)

aggregator.valueformat=compound (the aggregator.valueformat line must have the same value as the valueformat that describes the column)

aggregator.function=SUM (this is a mandatory line that indicates how you want to aggregate the column, in this case, you want to add all the individual Planned Hours into one number in the grouping line)

aggregator.displayformat=minutesAsHoursString (because hours are stored in Workfront in minutes, we want to indicate the displayformat for hours when they are stored in minutes)

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