General UI-related questions with regards to custom fields

[Stevo Milosevic]

• it seems we cannot create a custom field as a dropdown - you can create field types such as Text, Number, and Checkbox which is basically a boolean. The best we can do is create 5 checkboxes: for iOS, Android, Cloud, Ops, and Mobile to differentiate between our platforms 

• even following this way - it seems there’s no way to import these values via the standard import - except for Entity name, Entity type, and Entity description

• The rest would have to be edited manually (which is quite a hassle for the 500+ components we have) as it seems Compass does not provide any bulk update

• There appears to be no option actually to search components by the created custom field

[Andrew Freedman]

Hey Stevo, thanks for calling this out.

1. Correct, we kept the custom field types very basic. Our thinking was that scorecards are the place where policy should be captured. If you define a list in custom field config then that fragments that policy into two places. We still need to add the ability to set a scorecard criterion to check if a string is contained in a set and we'd also like to add suggestions when users enter values into custom fields (so that they enter "Cloud" rather than "cloud"). All of that to say, we agree that there's a clear need for this feature, but just have a different plan — does what I'm describing sound like it would work for you?
2. Also, unfortunately, correct — our importers are still quite basic and definitely need some further work. I'll add your feedback to our user stories.
3. Ah, yes. Also, also correct, sadly. We don't have a bulk editor right now, but we do have an API first product, so it's possible to make bulk changes by scripting against the catalogue. I understand that that's not the most convenient path, but it does make it possible while we get more of these features shipped.
4. Quick search works on text custom fields — so if you create a CF foo and set the value to bar then search for bar your component will appear. What we still need to build is the advanced search filters for custom fields.

Overall, totally valid feedback and we agree with all of it — it's really helpful to get customer validation of the things that we also feel are rough spots, I appreciate you sharing!