Custom fields for contacts, portfolios and securities
FA supports defining custom fields for your contacts, portfolios and securities through defining custom profiles in the system. You can use the custom profiles to extend the information available for contacts, portfolios and securities – this allows you to store information in custom fields.
Custom fields for contacts, portfolios and securities
This feature allows you to customize and extend the set of fields available for your contacts, portfolios and securities. You can use your custom fields to store information, and you can use this information for example in showing certain details, filtering your data, or categorizing your data.
Custom tabs in Contact, Portfolio and Security window
You can see custom fields in your Contact, Portfolio and Security window as new tabs. The custom tabs in the corresponding windows allow you to view the custom fields, and to manage the content of your custom fields for your contacts, portfolios and securities.
For contacts, the custom tabs(s) are shown after the Address tab, for portfolios, the custom tabs(s) are shown after the Basic info tab, and for securities, the custom tabs(s) are shown after the Extra info tab, or after the Basic info tab, if Extra info is not available for the security type.
You can have multiple profiles, or sets of custom fields, when each profile appears as its own tab in the corresponding window. If there are multiple custom tabs, they are shown in the corresponding window alphabetically based on the profile's code defined in Preferences (available from FA 3.8 onward).
Custom fields as columns on search views
You can also see your custom fields on Customers, Contacts, Portfolios and Securities views as selectable columns. These selectable columns allow you to view the content of your custom fields also when searching for contacts, portfolios and securities. The custom fields are available within the standard columns through the column selection icon 
, and are named with the field name and profile name in parentheses (e.g. "Risk level (Profiling)"). The content of the columns is also filterable and exportable to Excel.
Custom fields as dynamic group criteria
You can also build dynamic groups based on the information saved in custom fields defined for your portfolios or contacts. For dynamic group criteria based on profile attributes, define the criteria as a key and value pair. The key in the first field defines which custom field you want to use. The value in the second field defines which value of the custom field you want to use as the criterion (e.g. key "contact.profiling.riskLevel" and value "Medium"). You can find the keys related to your custom fields for example from Profile definition Preferences, or through the Versions of your contact or portfolio (look for "Profile attributes" in the version details).
Importing values to custom fields
In addition to defining content of your custom fields in the corresponding window, your custom fields are available when importing contact, portfolio and security information. For more information, see FA's file formats for importing contacts, portfolios and securities.
Defining custom fields in Preferences
You can define and maintain your custom fields through Profile definition Preferences. Each "profile definition" defines the content of a custom tab, and the profile definition preferences allow you to define whether your custom tab is shown for contacts, portfolios or securities, and to define the fields available within your custom tab. You can also control your profile’s visibility based on various criteria. These include which users can see the profiles and which contacts, portfolios or securities the profiles are visible to, providing you with tools to ensure only relevant custom tabs are visible for your users.
Profile definition Preferences as described here are available from FA 3.8 onward - FA 3.8 clarified the user interface for defining profiles and provided new options to control when custom tabs are visible.
Available profile definitions
Profile definition Preferences allow you to easily see all profiles (i.e. custom tabs) you have available in the system. Profile definitions are categorized under:
Contact section lists all profile definitions linked to "Contact", i.e. profile definitions that are available as tabs in the Contact window.
Other section lists
All profile definitions that are not classified as "Contact", "Portfolio" or "Security" profile. These profiles are not shown as custom tabs in the main windows, but are used to define the content of for example Custom designs in FA Front or Design-based importer extension.
All profile definitions that have been entered before FA 3.8 and have not yet been classified as "Contact", "Portfolio" or "Security" profile (see Linking a profile to contacts, portfolios or securities for more details).
The Portfolio section lists all profile definitions linked to "Portfolio", i.e. profile definitions that are available as tabs in the Portfolio window.
The Security section lists all profile definitions linked to "Security", i.e. profile definitions that are available as tabs in the Security window.
General settings
You can manage profiles through a single form, and even though the syntax to define the content of the profile is quite technical, the main controls are available separately. In addition, your most crucial inputs are validated on saving.
Code - define a unique identifier for your profile. You can also use the code to sort your custom tabs in the corresponding window: custom tabs are sorted alphabetically based on the code of the profile (available from FA 3.8 onward).
Name - define a name for your profile. Profile's name is used as the title of your custom tab in the corresponding window.
Where you want to use this profile - select between Contact, Portfolio, Security or Other. Allows you to easily determine whether you want to show the profile as a custom tab in the Contact, Portfolio or Security window. Select "Other" if you don't want to use the profile as custom fields, but you are using the profile to define the content of for example Custom designs in FA Front or Design-based importer extension.
Type - select between FA Back (XML UI) or FA Back and FA Front (Vaadin design). This selection determines which technical syntax you want to use to define the content of the profile (i.e. the fields within your custom tab). You can choose between old XML syntax, which only works for defining custom tabs in FA Back, or the modern Vaadin design, which works for defining custom tabs in FA Back, but which you can also use to define custom designs for FA Front.
Restrict this profile to be shown to roles - allows you to control the profile's visibility in FA Back with user roles, i.e. to show the profile as a tab in the corresponding window in FA Back only to users with a specific role. Define as a semi-colon separated list of roles to control who can see this profile. If left empty, all users can see this profile. For example, syntax "ADMIN;BO" would restrict this profile to be visible only to users with "ADMIN" or "BO" role.
Define criteria for when this profile is shown - allows you to control the profile's visibility in FA Back based on characteristics of your contacts, portfolios or securities, i.e. to show the profile as a tab in the corresponding window in FA Back only for certain kinds of contacts, portfolios or securities. Define as a comma-separated list of criteria that needs to be fulfilled for the profile to be shown. If left empty, profile is always shown. For example, syntax “group=FUND,type=INV;ASSET,language.code=EN” would show this profile to portfolios that belong to group “FUND” and which have either type “INV” or “ASSET” and which have language “EN”.
Editor / Preview / Generated XML - at the bottom, you can define the actual content of your profile. The Editor allows you to put in the technical profile definition syntax, the Preview allows you to see a preview of your profile (when accessing the tab, your profile definition is generated into a user interface), and the Generated XML allows you to see XML automatically generated out of your profile definition when saving.
The last two settings provide you with tools to ensure only relevant custom tabs are visible for your users. For example, your KYC profile might be shown to your "admin" (ADMIN) and "back office" (BO) users, and for contacts of the types "customer" (type=1) and juridical form "private person" (juridical.code=PE).
Linking a profile to contacts, portfolios or securities
You can easily use the Where you want to use this profile field to determine whether you want the profile to be available in the Contact, Portfolio or Security window and the Contacts, Portfolios and Securities views as columns. Your selection between "Contact", "Portfolio" or "Security" determines where your custom fields are available in. Furthermore, you can use the "Define criteria for when this profile is shown" to control profile’s visibility based on characteristics of your contacts, portfolios or securities.
In addition, the "code" of the profile definition specifies whether it is linked to a contact, portfolio or security. This logic was used before FA 3.8, and it still works in FA 3.8 for backwards-compatibility if your profile is classified as "Other". If a profile definition ID begins with "contact.", the profile definition is linked to contacts. If the ID begins with "portfolio.", the profile definition is linked to portfolios. If the ID begins with "security.", the profile definition is linked to securities. The profile definitions can also be linked to a specific contact, portfolio or security type by adding the type code after the profile definition ID. For example, if a profile definition starts with "contact.1." the profile definition is linked to contacts of the type Customer, and if a profile definition starts with "portfolio.INV.", the profile definition is linked to investment portfolios with the type code INV. The profile definitions for contacts can also be linked to a specific contact sub type by adding a semicolon and the sub type code after the type code in the profile definition ID. For example, if a profile definition starts with "contact.1:FC." the profile definition is linked to contacts of the type Customer and of the contact sub type fund company with the type code FC.
Defining the content of the profile
The actual content of the profile is defined with a specific syntax ("Vaadin design" or "XML UI"). See FA Developer guide for more details on how to build the content of custom profiles: Profiles.