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:

   my $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:

   my $MySession = GetSession();
   my $Owner = GetFieldValue("owner")->GetValue();
   my $UserEntity = $MySession->GetEntity("users", $Owner);
   my $FullName = $UserEntity->GetFieldValue("fullname")->GetValue();

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

   my $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:

   my $name = $Defect->GetFieldValue("Cfield.Ufield.Name")->GetValue(); 

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