# Added custom property with JSON export/import - grayed out

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/added-custom-property-with-json-export-import-grayed-out/97173>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** ignition81\
**Created:** [October 11, 2024, 11:44pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/added-custom-property-with-json-export-import-grayed-out/97173 "2024-10-11T23:44:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![r123](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@r123](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/r123)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2024, 11:44pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/added-custom-property-with-json-export-import-grayed-out/97173/1 "2024-10-11T23:44:48Z")

</div>

I did a simple search and replace to add a Parameter to each UDT and then a custom property to each tag in the UDT with a binding to the Parameter.

Everything seems to work but I noticed that only the custom property I created manually in the GUI to then copy to other tags in the JSON file, is not grayed out.

![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/0/6/066e0a2c205c8523888ab4e8843a7c3b2a54d0e3.png)

![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/3/f/3fcbb6337233782644487f08d2e24da13c1bb437.png)

Everything seem to be the same in the JSON file.

If I double click on the custom property and click ok on the popup it is no longer grey until I hit apply, then it's grey again.

If I delete it and then recreate it, it then looks normal.

When I look and the value of the tag instance in the tag browser it has the current value and I can change it and see it update. It just makes me wonder if I've corrupted the tags.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nminchin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/nminchin/32/6911_2.png) [@nminchin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/nminchin)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2024, 6:47pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/added-custom-property-with-json-export-import-grayed-out/97173/2 "2024-10-12T18:47:40Z")

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The grey italic font means it's a binding, black means it's a static value.

When you manually added the value to the json, did you write it as a binding or as a static string? (check what value the binding has and you'll see that it is an object, not simply a string value)

I have a script that auto converts static values that look like they should be bindings for this purpose exactly, so I can drag in a UDT from a plc from the device browser, extract to notepad++, find replace the opcitempaths with simple strings to make them dynamic, run through the script to convert anything to bindings if needed, and then import back

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![r123](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@r123](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/r123)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2024, 2:38pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/added-custom-property-with-json-export-import-grayed-out/97173/3 "2024-10-14T14:38:15Z")

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It's odd as this morning all of them are now grey. Maybe there is an issue if the UDT is already there and you import the JSON adding a Parameter and then a binding to it?

I just added the parameter in the parameters section.

```python
    "Project_Phase": {
      "dataType": "Integer",
      "value": 1
    }

```

Then added the binding in the tags section.

```python
      "Phase": {
        "bindType": "parameter",
        "binding": "{Project_Phase}"
      }

```

If I manually add a new custom property (Phase2) and bind it to the same 'Project\_Phase' parameter, its not grey. While the one added Friday to the same tag in the same UST is.  
 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/c/b/cb7b83b4519ba76760680486cf5f2de352104ec0.png)