Introduction
Our amazing engineers and product team have been hard at work with revamping how custom fields work. Now custom fields support data validation and you can use them in reporting, integrations, and more!
Start the video at 16:28
Do you have special information that is needed to provide context around a project or task? Custom fields can help slice reports by any segment, help recipes speak the language of any system, and simplify navigation with shortcuts in custom columns.
Overview
What can you do with the new custom fields:
Purpose of Custom Fields
Custom Fields have long been popular at the project level, but as of early 2024 they can also store even more granular values at the task level. For example, if you need to remember the point of contact's cell phone number, you can save that in a custom field. With new enhancements you will be able to use custom fields in reports, recipes, and more!
How to Create Custom Field Labels
Navigate to the triple dot icon in the top left and choose the “Custom Fields” management section.
Click the “+Add Custom Field” button in the top-right to create a new custom field label.
Choose the data type from the first drop down. (Note: this can not be changed or migrated later)
Choose the object type of project or task from the “Apply Custom Field To” menu. We will eventually expand this to other objects like customers and users. Let us know what your preferences and use cases are for expanded custom field objects in our roadmap portal.
*Optional* set the “Placeholder” with any gray background helper text you want to appear in the field before population to provide context around the meaning of the field.
Then when they were wondering which dates to consider, that grayed out background helper text from the placeholder would render in the project details drawer like this:
Select “Internal Only” if the field contains sensitive information that customers shouldn't see. If this is left unselected, values will be visible to customers and can be used in Merge Tags when instructions and messages are dynamically personalized with values from these public fields.
Set Validation Rules for Custom Field Values
Finish custom field configuration by optionally setting the final few validation rules by setting a default value, min/max length, or requirement to populate a custom field value during creation of a project or task.
One of the most powerful ways to force validated entries in custom field values is to use the single-select drop down data type. When that is chosen, the drop down menu values are set in the bottom right corner of the field creation pane.
Populate Custom Field Values in the Edit Drawer
In the past, the most popular place to populate values was in the edit drawer. That is still supported in the project details pane but is now also available in the task drawer as well.
Edit Custom Field Values in the Global Projects Page
Now the new preferred method for updating views is through in-line edit. That is done by customizing columns and selecting any custom field in the top right of the projects page.
Then for each data type, different input interfaces will appear to make the population of values consistent and convenient.
Projects Tab for Customers to View
Even though free customer accounts cannot edit custom field values, they can still view and interact with custom fields if you want to point them to specific links or contact information. This is done in the “Custom Fields” tab in an individual project’s page or in the task details drawer.
User Access by Role
Admins, Managers, and Guides can create, edit, and populate Custom Fields.
Task Owners can utilize already populated custom fields at the task level.
ALL users can view and benefit from custom fields.
API + Connector for Integrators to Automate Recipes
The API has been expanded to include these new custom field granularities and properties. These updates are backwards compatible with the former endpoints so any previously built recipes will continue to operate without extra updates.
Just make sure to update to the latest version of the connector in Recipe Builder to take advantage of the new data types, object types, and validation parameters.
Dataset for Analysts to Customize in Report Builder
Providers who have purchased the Report Builder add-on will also have access to new datasets for Project Custom Fields and Task Custom Fields.
Then they can easily combine those custom fields with any of the other datasets to segment and filter any GUIDEcx data based on those values.