Copy Field Values using System Utility

Centerbase contains a system utility to copy the value of one field to another for all items of a specified type.

To open the utility, open the system settings and click the Utilities link.  If you do not see the Utilities option, you most likely do not have the necessary permissions.

Item Type: Choose the type of item you want to copy field values for

Source Field: Choose the field that the values will be copied FROM

Destination Field: Choose the field that values will be copied TO

Overwrite destination field value: If this option is checked and the destination field has a value, it will be replaced by the source field.  If the source field does not have a value it will not wipe out the value currently in the destination field.  If this option is not checked, any destination fields that already have a value will be left alone, and only empty destination fields will get the source field value.

This is a one time copy operation that applies to all items of the specified type that have a value in the source field.  It does not matter if they are active or inactive.  As with most of our System Utilities, this operation ignores security settings, so utility permissions should only be given to people who are trusted to edit all data in the system.

Details and Limitations

• Property fields are currently not supported.  This includes name, class, active status, creation date, modified date, owner, creator, creation date, and modification date.
• Lookup fields can only be copied to other lookup fields of the same item type.  They cannot (for example) be copied to or from text fields or lookups of a different item type (such as matter lookup to contact lookup)
• Address fields can only be copied to and from other address fields.
• Only items that have a value in the source field will be affected.  Items where the source field is blank are ignored.
• If an item has a value in the destination field it will be ignored unless "Overwrite destination field value" is checked.
• Memo fields can be copied to other fields, but most regular fields have a size limitation. If the destination field is not large enough to hold a given source value, it will be skipped and a warning will be shown. All other valid field values will still be copied. Some examples are:
  • 4000 characters for text fields
  • 150 characters for phone fields
  • 256 characters for e-mail address fields
• Invalid values for true/false, numeric, date, and date with time fields will be skipped and a warning will be shown.  All other valid field values will still be copied.
• Once run, you will either get an error saying that your selections are invalid, a success message saying how many field values were copied, or a warning saying some field values were copied and some could not be (for any of the reasons listed above).