The System ID is a special field in the system. It is a unique numeric value that is automatically assigned to a record in GraceBlocks. The IDs are specific to a tab and are NOT unique per tab.  In general, the numbers start at 1 and increment from there for each tab.  Any row that has been deleted in that tab uses up a System ID value that cannot be reused.  This article covers:

• Displaying the System ID on a record
• An alternative to using System ID (the counter field type)

Displaying the system ID on a record

Builders have two ways to configure the System ID to display as part of a record:

1. Configure the System ID to be part of the Record Identifier. 
2. Show the System ID for each record as the first column to display in the spreadsheet view.

Both of these options are defined by Tab properties.  To make these updates, see Managing tabs.

If you are relying on the System ID, we recommend using both of these options (shown in the image below as 1 and 2) to make this information visible to users.

Configuration for displaying System ID on a record:

When configured, the spreadsheet view looks like this:

An alternative to using the system ID (counter field type)

If you'd like more control over the number that identifies your records, or would like the ability to reset your record numbering after you've done some testing and cleaned up your data, consider using the counter field instead. This field also increments, but you can easily reset the counter field to get rid of numbers that were used up while testing rows, and you can set a start value that is higher than 1.  To learn more, see the related help article: Field type: Counter.  

Important note

🔔 Even if you do not display the System ID field, it is still available for use as a filter tool for finding records.  To learn more about filtering, see Filtering records.