Screen Customiser

Being able to non-programmatically change field names, hide field names, change the one-line field help text, move fields around on the screen, reorder the <tab> key sequence, and add fields to screens is a common Administrator capability in current generation Asset Management software.

This does not require editing PHP, locales files, or the underlying database, but is done within the application using a visual editor interface via the browser. These changes survive a version upgrade, so need to be considered an overlay to the standard field labels and layout.

The editor allows for changes globally - so that every instance of "User", for example, is changed - or locally to a particular screen only - so "User" in the Computer screen only, for example.

It also supports adding and labeling a small number of 'custom fields' per screen. These custom fields come pre-established within the GLPI database, but remain unused unless the Administrator exposes them. There is a set/known number of them, so there might be:

- 5 * Text Field

- 5 * Numerical Field

- 2 * Dropdown

- 2 * Date

(These are an example only)

The Administrator might then use the Screen Customizer interface to expose (and label) 3 * Text and 1 * Date on a particular screen to capture customized user input. Presenting the captured data is via a customized report(s), but note that manipulating the fields is via code. So, if the Administrator wanted to compare an existing GLPI date field with the customized date field, they would have to write PHP code to do this.

Such a screen customizer would greatly improve the utility of GLPI, by making it easier and faster to tailor the user interface to business requirements. It represents a robust and enduring method of changing the screens that does not force Administrators to risk their operational instance editing code or .po files.