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Category Fields - Add/Edit

Add or Edit Category Field

This page lets you create or edit fields, which can be one of three types, described below.

Field Name

This is the internal or "short name" for the field. This is a required field and must be a single word with no spaces or punctuation. The field name must be unique within the site, which means that you cannot have two category groups each containing a field with the field name of "extra". The short name is typically used as the variable name in your category related tags.

NOTE: Some words are reserved and cannot be used. Please see the list of reserved words for details.

Field Label

This is the descriptive name for the field. This is a required field and it may contain spaces or punctuation. Unlike the Field Name, the label does not need to be unique, so you can use the same descriptive label on multiple fields in the same category field groups. The label is what will be displayed next to the field on the entry form in your Edit Category page.

Field Type

You may choose what type of field this is. There are three choices:

  1. Text Input: This is a single input line for text. It is the type of field you might use for a title, name, or other short information.
  2. Textarea: This is a standard text entry box with multiple lines. This is what you would use for a main entry body.
  3. Drop-down List: This creates a standard HTML <select> drop-down list. You can define the contents of the list manually or pre-populate it from another custom field.

Default Text Formatting

This option determines the default formatting selection for this field. (The formatting option can be changed on a per-category basis when creating new categories if needed.) This preference will only set the default value for categories created from that point forward. There are three default choices:

  1. None: No automatic formatting is done; the text is left as-is. This might be useful if you want people to be able to use full HTML in this field.
  2. XHTML: The field content will be formatted with ExpressionEngine's Auto XHTML feature.
  3. Auto <br />: All line breaks in the field content will be converted into <br /> tags.

Additionally, any ExpressionEngine Plugins you have installed will be listed, allowing you to specify a plugin to use for formatting the field. Plugins such as "Textile" and "Markdown" can be used for this.

If you select the checkbox when you set up the field, then the new formatting choice will also be applied to this field for all existing entries.

Is this a required field?

You may determine whether this field is required. If the field is required and the user leaves it blank, upon submission they will receive an error message prompting them to correct it.

Field Display Order

You can determine the order in which the fields appear on your weblog entry screen.

Text Direction

Many foreign languages have text that is written from right to left instead of left to right, like in English. This preference allows one to change the direction that text can be written in the Textarea and Text Input custom field types.

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