Custom Fields and Capabilities

Custom fields & capabilities

Gubbins' built-in fields cover the basics, but every collection has its own attributes. Custom fields and capabilities let you record — and search on — exactly the properties that matter to your inventory.

Where to find it: the Classification tab of an item's details, once the Custom fields & capabilities capability is enabled (Modular UI).

Custom fields

A custom field adds your own labelled value to an item — Voltage, Material, Location code, Author, whatever your domain needs. Custom fields are typically defined per category, so every item in that category shares the same set.

You can search on them with the field: prefix:

field:material=steel

💡 Tip Because custom fields hang off a category, setting a category up once gives every item in it the right fields automatically — no need to re-add them item by item.

Capabilities

A capability is a weighted attribute — a property an item has, optionally with a numeric value. Think waterproof, voltage = 3.3, torque = 40. Capabilities power Gubbins' smartest searches:

• Presence — "items that are waterproof" (cap:waterproof).
• Comparison — "items with voltage over 3.3" (cap:voltage>3.3).
• Best-match ranking — when several items match, the ones whose capability is a better fit rank first, so the closest match rises to the top.

💡 Tip Capabilities are ideal for "find me something that can do X" searches — the part with enough current rating, the tool with the right reach. Give the capability a value and let ranking surface the best option.

Custom fields vs capabilities

ℹ️ Note

• A custom field records a fact about an item you want to store and display (Material = steel).
• A capability describes what an item can do and is built for ranked, comparative search (voltage ≥ 3.3).

Many items need only one or the other; use whichever matches how you'll look things up.

Related pages

• Search overview and Text query syntax — searching on fields and capabilities.
• Items — categories and the rest of an item's data.
• Tags, attachments & related items — the other Classification-tab tools.