I freaked out a little in my first look at K2 blackpearl 4.6.9 — I didn’t see the Environment Fields node in the Object Browser.

Oh no! Why would they take away the environment fields? I RAVE about these things, and for good reason — they allow for string values to be injected into a process at runtime. I use this magic in the form of e-mail text and other data the business might want to tweak at will, because it saves me from having to recompile and redeploy the solution — a workflow process will grab the value when it needs it.

Fortunately, one of my team members was able to talk me down from the ledge: Environment Fields are still very much a part of blackpearl — the folder just won’t exist until you create an environment field.

Here’s how: Open your blackpearl project, and navigate to the object browser. Right-click on any of the existing nodes, and click on Add new field… .

You should see the familiar Add New Field dialog appear. Here’s the key: Select Miscellaneous Field in the Item Type drop down list. Name your field and give it a value. Fill in the Field Description field for extra credit and click the black OK button in the dialog’s lower right corner.

The Object Browser should refresh. A wild Fields node appears!

It’s super effective!

By the way, if you remove the single Environment Field you just created, the Fields node will disappear again.