Managing Smart Fields

Managing Smart Fields

Smart Fields are placeholders in your document templates, that make it easy to ensure critical administrative information about your project is updated in one place. We have all felt the pain of inserting redundant information like the solicitation number into a project that is 10-100 pages long. They help you automate this process and allows contributions from appropriate team members within your organization. Below we will go into an Administrator's responsibility when it comes to managing smart fields. 



Types of Smart Fields

Within DB, there are two types of variables - dynamic references and variables. As an admin, you can configure unlimited smart fields and insert them into templates. The Links are "Live" meaning when used the numbers of the documents/sections update automatically as content is added and removed and the table of contents numbering changes.

Variables names are created by admins on the configuration side. The data inserted into variables comes from the system, or your answers to questions. Once created, users on the project side will be able to populate them and input them into documents/sections as placeholders. 

Variables are populated using the $ symbol.

Default System Variables
The standard variables available in Document Builder include:
  1. $solicitation_type
  2. $solicitation_vehicle
  3. $solicitation_type_abbreviation
  4. $solicitation_vehicle_abbreviation
  5. $document_title
  6. $project_name
  7. $procurement_official_name
  8. $procurement_official_email
  9. $procurement_official_phone
  10. $page_number
  11. $total_pages
The variables for $page_numbers will not populate until you export your documents from Document Builder to PDF.


Dynamic References are similar to variables except that they populate documents and sections within your projects. Dynamic References are automated URLs to other documents and sections within your solicitation. For example, if you need to reference a specific document like a cost worksheet, you would use a dynamic reference to input that placeholder into your document/section. 

NOTE: After you type the "+" symbol, type a word that is unique to the title of the document or section you want to reference, and that will filter the list of documents and sections that contain that word.

Dynamic References are populated using the + symbol


















Creating Variables and References

Admins can create variables from the configuration page. References are also created when you create a new document template on the configuration side. You can update the variable for an existing question or create a new question and add a new variable. When creating a variable, ensure it is brief, concise, and accurately captures the essence of the question. 
Variables use the following format : word_word. Include an underscore for each new word.



For information on how to insert a smart field, refer to the article here.

    • Related Articles

    • Working with Sections

      Below we will walk you through how to configure your documents/sections to ensure you have the skills needed to release your projects. Let's get started! Please note that edits made to a document within a specific solicitation will not affect the ...

    • Creating Document Templates

      Template creation is the first step for many administrators managing projects and teams. Template creation is what will allow your teams to create and take ownership of new projects in service of your organization's procurement needs. This article ...

    • Creating Section Templates

      Template creation is the first step for many administrators managing projects and teams. Template creation is what will allow your teams to create and take ownership of new projects in service of  your organization's procurement needs. This article ...

    • Creating Variation Templates

      There might be cases where users might want to include a slightly different version of a standard document template depending on the specifics of the solicitation. To accommodate these situations, Document Builder allows admins to create multiple ...

    • Configuration Page

      In Projects, we briefly touched on the different project stages that can be templatized. In this article, we will outline how to create templates for each category under the configuration umbrella. To reiterate: it's important to understand these ...