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Question on if a feature made it into 8.5

Custom Properties column ordering.

I've long since begged for the ability to re-order my Custom Properties columns in the back end. Over the years, my organization has built up around 50 different custom properties and in many cases, several fields are related and it would be nice to keep them 'grouped' together. It's administratively 'annoying' to have to enter the "Circuit ID" in (for example) column #9, but the "Circuit Provider Tech Support" is in column #23, etc.

Has the ability to re-order the Custom Properties columns been added into 8.5? If not, please...please, include it in the next minor update or hotfix.

Thanks.

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FormerMember

No. That's not in 8.5. I won't be a in hotfix. Hotfixes are to repair broken functionality. We don't add features in hotfixes or service releases.

chris.schear

Then, quite frankly the question remains, who do I have to (insert your favorite expletive here) to get this feature into a release? I've contacted support in the past, who said to post it on the message boards, which I've done multiple times. Damned if I can find any of those posts now, however. It might have been pre-thwack. I don't specifically recall.

The ability to control the column order of the Custom Properties is becoming very critical to my usage of Orion. When I add a wireless access point, the various custom properties I need to enter for this Node exist in Columns 12, 13, 14, 26, 30, and 44. It's a significant pain in the rear to keep common fields separated. I want to re-order them so I can have all my wireless-related Custom properties in 12-17, etc. In the past, when my Custom Properties have become so split up that I can't stand it any more, I perform the following steps:

1. Export all custom properties
2. Delete all custom property fields/columns
3. Re-Create all custom properties in the re-sorted order I desire
4. Import all my custom properties back in, manually changing the comma separated order in Excel

I'm growing weary of having to perform this export/import, simply because I want to move Column 'Z' next to Column 'A', 'B' and 'C'. And, each time I delete all my custom properties and re-create them, all my custom reports (about 35) have to be recreated because while the custom property column might be the same, it's not actually the same variable. I also have to redo all my custom resources (9 custom resources, with over 50 custom properties, total) on my details pages, which display those custom properties. All my basic (5) and advanced alerts (34) have to be modified.

Exporting, deleting, recreating, importing involves a lot more than just resorting columns. In my opinion, column sort order isn't a major feature and could be implemented fairly easily.

FormerMember

Well, that would be me, and while I appreciate the offer, I'm going to have to pass. :-)

I appreciate that that this feature is a high priority for you, but there are many feature requests from many customers literally every day. I do my best to prioritize. This feature is in the queue, but it's not going to happen in a hotfix.

Network_Guru

I second this request!
In Custom Property Editor, I end up dragging the column in question next the others in the group I want to edit, but of course when the app is closed it reverts back to the default order.
Another feature I requested was the ability to save your filters as favorites so you don't have to recreate them every time you want to edit info for a specific group.

These 2 features would greatly improve the functionality & usability of the Custom Property Editor.

(I may be able to secure some developer resources to write an "out of band" CPE which gives similar functionality to edit the DB directly via VB app or web GUI - I'll post more info if I get this to work).

vhcato

Chris,

Do you have SQL running on a separate server? If so, ordering of the tables can easily be done through SQL Enterprise Manager. Not sure if you knew that...

chris.schear

Yes. My Orion points to a separate SQL server. I assume ordering the tables would result in the columns following suit? I don't manage the SQL server, so I'd have to request that activity of our database folks.

vhcato

Yes, that's what I meant to say... Ordering of columns within the tables...

All you have to do is right-click on a table from within Enterprise Manager (ex. Nodes), then select "Design Table". From within this view, you can select the column to be moved by clicking on the little box beside a column that you want to move, then simply drag to where you want it.

We use custom proprties quite extensively, and having them in some logical order makes things much easier.

Oh, and I believe it has to be the Standard or Enterprise version of SQL. If you're simply running the MSDE version on another server, I'm not sure that it has the ability to do this.

For some added weight, I'd also like to see this for similar reasons.

A work around for you may be to add/remove columns in the order that you would like to see them.

gbrance

We use custom proprties quite extensively, and having them in some logical order makes things much easier.

Oh, and I believe it has to be the Standard or Enterprise version of SQL. If you're simply running the MSDE version on another server, I'm not sure that it has the ability to do this.

FYI I tried this and it worked great. This is a work around that is not to difficult.