The getFieldInfo() SOAP API call

IMPORTANT  The SOAP API entered a limited enhancement phase in Q4 2020. Access to version 1.6 will be deactivated.

The getEntityInfo() API call returns an array of EntityInfo objects containing descriptive information about available SOAP API entities. The details include the actions that the API can perform on each entity, whether or not the entity supports user-defined fields (UDFs), and what actions the logged-in user's permissions allow.

NOTE  To learn about the REST API version of this call, refer to The entityInformation REST API call.

Definitions

getFieldInfo() returns the following information for each field.

Data Description
Name as String Name of the field element. This is not what you see in the UI.
Label as String Name of the field in the UI.
Type as String The field element data type
Integer: Whole number with no decimal places
String: Can contain alpha-numeric and most special characters (note: some fields have specific lengths)
Double: Like Integer but can contain decimal places
DateTime: Contains the date and time as one value like a time stamp
Date: Date only, no time
Boolean: True (Yes) (1) or False (No) (0)
Description as String The long Description of the field element.
IsRequired as Boolean True or False. Returns True (Yes) if the element is required to update or create.
IsReadOnly as Boolean True or False. Returns True (Yes) if the element cannot be updated or created.
IsQueryable as Boolean True or False. Returns True (Yes) if the element can be searched on.
IsReference as Boolean True or False. Returns True (Yes) if the field contains the id value of another entity type.
ReferenceEntityType as String If the element IsReference is True (Yes), indicates the Entity Type of the reference.
IsPicklist as Boolean True or False. Returns True (Yes) if the element is a picklist, specifically a drop-down list. For more information, refer to our Understanding picklists article.
PickListValues() as PickListValue If IsPicklist = True, then this will hold the values of the Drop Down List.
The picklist values elements include the following:

Value as StringThe picklist value of the item.
Label as StringThe name of the item as it appears in the drop-down list.
IsDefault as BooleanIndicates whether the item is the default value for the field.
SortOrder as BooleanIndicates the order of the items as they appear in the list.
ParentValue as StringIf the picklist is a child of another field, identifies the parent field.
IsActiveIndicates the active/inactive status of the value.
IsSystemIndicates if the value is a system value.
PicklistParentFieldName If IsPicklist=True for the current field, and if the value for the current field depends upon another field for this entity, then PicklistParentFieldName holds the name of the field. Use the known value for this field to filter the picklistValues for the current field.
IsSupportedWebhookField True or False. Reflects whether the field is a webhook-capable field that can either trigger a callout or is always part of the information (Payload) sent to the WebhookURL.

Sample getFieldInfo() SOAP XML

The following sample code gets the field info for the Account entity.

            <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <soap:Header>
    <AutotaskIntegrations xmlns="http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_6/">
      <IntegrationCode>[insert your own tracking identifier]</IntegrationCode>
    </AutotaskIntegrations>
  </soap:Header>
  <soap:Body>
    <GetFieldInfo xmlns="http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_6/">
      <psObjectType>Account</psObjectType>
    </GetFieldInfo>
  </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>