Using field path names to retrieve field values

A field path name provides the path to a named Entity. You can use GetLocalFieldPathNames for a given record type and then use the returned fieldpaths to retrieve FieldInfo objects and their contents. These field paths use a dotted path notation (for example "owner.fullname").

When you call GetFieldValue to get a FieldInfo object, you normally do something like this, to get the value of the object:

   Dim Owner 

   Owner = GetFieldValue("owner").GetValue() 

If you wanted to get the full name of the owner and not the login name, you could write the following:

   Dim MySession 

   Set MySession = GetSession() 

   Dim Owner 

   Owner = GetFieldValue("owner").GetValue() 

   Dim UserEntity 

   Set UserEntity = MySession.GetEntity("users", Owner) 

   Dim FullName 

   FullName = UserEntity.GetFieldValue("fullname").GetValue() 

Using field path names, you can achieve the same result as follows:

   Dim FullName 

   FullName = GetFieldValue("owner.fullname").GetValue() 

For example, if a record type named Defect has a reference field Cfield to a record type named Customer and that record type has a reference field Ufield to a User record type with a field Name, then the field path of Name is:

   "Defect\Cfield\Ufield\Name" 

The field path name (or "dotted name) of Name is:

   Defect.Cfield.Ufield.Name 

You can use this path name to retrieve the value of Name. For example, using Perl:

   $defect->GetFieldValue("Cfield.Ufield.Name")->GetValue(); 

You do not need the initial Defect if you already have a variable ($defect) referencing the Defect.