Why settle for using meaningless numbers or text to reference items?

More and more companies are looking to SharePoint as a platform to host their business applications. One of the big challenges application designers face is the rigidity that SharePoint imposes on item identifiers. A simple numeric counter might ensure uniqueness, but it misses an opportunity to communicate information about an issue, invoice, call ticket, order, etc. It also cannot guarantee values are unique outside of the current list.

The Bamboo Custom Identifier addresses this need by providing users with a method to customize the format of auto-generated values. Construct your own custom identifier by combining a numeric counter with text, date/time, site name, list name and column values. You also have the option to let users enter their own unique text in the form of a social security number, employee number, etc. These values, whether they are automatically or manually entered, are then checked for uniqueness within the current list, current site, or across the entire site collection.

What does it do?

How does it work?

Create a custom identifier by selecting one or more of these constructs...

Once you know what type of values you want, they can then be combined to define your identifier:

"01/14/2010-IRC-00321"; "Ticket:3:Project A Site"; "Appointment: Smith,S 01/14/2010 11:15:53 AM"; etc