Cannot change field name "Name" when creating a database

[fbrichs]

Creating a new database automatically creates two fields, Name and Description. I would like to change the Field Name for the first filed but it seems that is not allowed. Is this correct?
First field only allows me to do “Generate Name Using Formula”

Thanks.

[Chr1sG]

Can this be merged with this?

Allow more field name changes

Was asked to relay this feature request from team members. They want ability to rename all fields, specifically so we can make them Norwegian and /or give them clearer meaning to anyone that uses the field. One specific that comes to mind is the Workflow State extension. It allows renaming, but no other name seem to be valid.

[neil]

This seems like a new and breaking change. It’s not clear to me why Name is now mandatory, undeleteable, and uneditable. If you’re going to do something like that, it would be best to give it it’s own special namespace. What purpose does this field serve? I can’t find anywhere where it was announced that this change happened.

[Chr1sG]

@neil

I can’t find anywhere where it was announced that this change happened.

There has been no change - for certain fields it has always been impossible to rename them.

[neil]

I don’t understand how this can be - I have several tables that exist already which do not have this field.

[Chr1sG]

Databases created via integrations may have a primary field which has a title other than ‘Name’ but for databases created from scratch, there is always a Name field.

[cire12]

Has there been any change with this weird limitation?

I had planned on getting around this by hiding this field and creating a properly named “MAC Address” field for the table I’ve created. But once you combine this with the fact that ONLY the default Name field is searchable the whole idea breaks down.

Fibery is AMAZING, and the devs have done a great job, but there are these limitations that seem weirdly simple that they can’t or won’t resolve. I really don’t understand.

[mdubakov]

@cire12

I had planned on getting around this by hiding this field and creating a properly named “MAC Address” field for the table I’ve created. But once you combine this with the fact that ONLY the default Name field is searchable the whole idea breaks down.

Fibery is AMAZING, and the devs have done a great job, but there are these limitations that seem weirdly simple that they can’t or won’t resolve. I really don’t understand.

Well, not all design choices were good from the start. We are discussing how to make Name field optional internally, it is not super easy.
In the meantime, the simplest solution on your end is to create a formula for Name field and just set value from MAC Address field.

[YvetteLans]

@mdubakov

We are discussing how to make Name field optional internally, it is not super easy.

Does it need to be optional? It feels logic for me that every entity has a title. Since that’s also what you’ll see when opening the entity.

Most of the problems are caused because the field name is fixed and can’t be changed. If a user can set that themselves, I think most of Fibery users are really happy.

[Chr1sG]

@YvetteLans

It feels logic for me that every entity has a title.

Actually, there can be cases where an entity doesn’t need a title (or rather, the entity is implicitly described by the contents of other fields).
A classic example is a ‘helper’ database, e.g. task Assignments, where the entity has a relation field for the Task, a relation field for the User, and a date range field. In such a case it is common to generate the Name using a formula, e.g. Task.Name + " - " + User.Name + " : " + ToText(DateRange)

@YvetteLans

It feels logic for me that every entity has a title. Since that’s also what you’ll see when opening the entity.

In the above example, you seldom want to open a specific Assignment in entity view. Rather you want to see the Assignments in data views, e.g. Timeline of Assignments, with Tasks as lanes, and each Assignment showing the User.
In such a case, there is rarely a need to see or refer to the Name field.

[YvetteLans]

@Chr1sG

Actually, there can be cases where an entity doesn’t need a title (or rather, the entity is implicitly described by the contents of other fields).

Yes, that’s true. But I don’t see why that’s a problem that needs to be fixed if it’s really hard to change it.

If I speak for myself, the only real problem is when a user sees a field and they don’t know what they’re looking at. We’ve written tons of wikis for the workspace that we’ve built. Almost every wiki contains explanations like:

• Name → this is the title of the appointment, not the name of the attendee
• Name → this is the title of a book, not the name of the author
• etc.

Off course it would be better to solve all issues. But if that’s hard, then I don’t think it’s worth the time when only helper databases are suboptimal.

Allowing to change the name of the name field feels way less impactful than make name field optional.

@mdubakov

In the meantime, the simplest solution on your end is to create a formula for Name field and just set value from MAC Address field.

The problem with this in between solution is that it’s really confusing for a user why they can’t change the title of the entity when they open it. And when you hide name column, it still looks odd in the table view.