I've successfully created a new Data List type in Alfresco, but was struggling to figure out what the tag is called to achieve a description under a field. I consulted the Data Dictionary, but was unable to find it.
It may not exist, but the this screenshot makes me hopeful. As you can see, the Modified Date field has the DD/MM/YYYY help text under it. This is exactly what I want to put under the Program Name field, but with my own string.
<property name="orpdl:programName">
<title>Program Name</title>
<type>d:text</type>
<helptext>What's this tag called?</helptext>
<mandatory>true</mandatory>
</property>Eeuh that's just a div in the control field for all the date fields.
Take a look at alfresco/site-webscripts/org/alfresco/components/form/controls/date.ftl
The message you see is in this div:
<div class="format-info">
<span class="date-format">${msg("form.control.date-picker.display.date.format")}</span>
<#if showTime><span class="time-format<#if disabled>-disabled</#if>">${msg("form.control.date-picker.display.time.format")}</span></#if>
</div>
So you want a string, just create your own custom controller based on textfield.ftl and put whatever string you like. Probably best to do that by passing it through the control-params.