Custom Fields

The standard fields in Jomablue include:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Job Title
• Company
• Email
• Mobile

Custom Fields are non-standard fields or data attributes.  Examples of Custom Fields might include:

• Dietary Requirements
• Postcode
• State
• Country
• Office Phone Number
• Marketing Campaign ID

Jomablue accepts Custom Fields through Jomablue Registration, bulk import, or manual entry.

When using the Select type, there are a few commonly used options you can choose from:

• Country
• Australian States
• Dietary Requirements
• Yes/No

Plan your Custom Fields

Custom Fields are a powerful tool for collecting and structuring data from your attendees. To maximise their effectiveness, it is important to carefully plan how you will use them before creating them in the Portal.
You have the option to select which custom fields are allocated to a specific product. For example, in a Student Admission, you may want to request a Student Number; however, this custom field would not apply to a Delegate Admission. Additionally, you could remove the Title and Company fields from the Student Admission.

Clean, Structured Data

One of the key considerations when planning Custom Fields is ensuring that the data collected is as structured as possible. Structured data simplifies the event planning process and makes the data collected at the end of the event more meaningful.

When structuring your data, it’s vital to keep it clean and consistent, especially if you plan to feed the data collected by Jomablue back into your organisation's CRM or similar system. We recommend structuring your Custom Fields to align with your CRM for easy importing and interpretation.

Wherever possible, use single selection fields or radio selectors, and only resort to free text entry where absolutely necessary. Jomablue supports an "Other" option with single selection fields, which is advisable for fields where most attendees will fall into one of a few defined options.

Event Logistics Fields

Custom Fields can be used to gather and organise data related to event logistics. Examples of Event Logistics-related fields include:

• Special Dietary Requirements: A Custom Field can be used to collect attendees’ dietary requirements
• Accessibility Requirements: A Custom Field can gather information on attendees’ accessibility requirements, such as spatial/physical access or hearing induction loop requirements
• State/Country: A Custom Field can collect information regarding where your Attendees are coming from to better accommodate them
• Item collection: If attendees are entitled to receive a t-shirt, this field can present a list of styles, sizes, and colours for selection

Sales and Marketing Fields

Custom Fields can also capture data useful for your Sales and Marketing teams to better target attendees with relevant materials. These fields can be used to capture information about Attendees, including:

• Areas of Interest: Custom Fields can help gather information about Attendees’ interests during the registration process
• Industry, Organisation Size, Employment Level, etc.: Custom Fields can collect information related to Attendees’ organisations to create tailored sales and marketing content

Intelligent Networking Fields

Custom Fields can be configured to enhance the Intelligent Networking algorithm within the Networking feature of the Event App. Gathering information on Attendees’ interests and other relevant details through Custom Fields can help recommend attendees to each other effectively.

For additional information, please see the article: Community Networking and Messaging.

Define Custom Fields

While you can add Custom Fields in Jomablue via Registration or bulk import without defining them, defining Custom Fields allows for more robust interaction. Once a Custom Field is defined, you can:

• Make it editable by Jomablue users
• Filter Campaigns for specific groups of attendees
• Include it in Vendor Lead Exports
• Add pre-defined values to each field

Create a new Custom Field or review an existing Custom Field:

1. Navigate to Settings within the Event Configuration group in the left navigation pane
2. Go to the Custom Fields tab and select the New Custom Field Definition button to add a new Custom Field, or select an existing Custom Field to review
3. Follow the guide to populate the definition

Copy fields from another event

This option allows you to replicate the settings of an existing Custom Field definition from another event in your instance. Click to choose a definition to add to the current event and complete the following fields:

Key
An identifier for the Custom Field. It can't contain spaces or special characters. (e.g., job_role or dietary_requirements). This field is limited to 191 characters in length.

Label
This is what will be displayed to users in Jomablue (e.g., Job Role or Dietary Requirements). This field is also limited to 191 characters in length.

Validation Rules
By default, no validation is applied (blank). If you want to restrict what a person can enter into the field, you can add one, or many validation rules. For additional information see the Creating Validation Rules for Custom Fields section below.

Available in Vendor Lead Export
If set to Yes, this Custom Field will be included in Vendor Lead Exports. This is useful for fields like State or Postcode, assuming the data was collected initially.

Allow the field to be edited
If set to Yes, a Jomablue user can see and edit the Custom Field values on a Person record. If set to No, the Custom Field will be read-only. 

Display by default and require this field in the portal person record?
This option indicates whether the field is required for portal users (not paid Registration pages).

Type
This determines what kind of Custom Field it is. Options include:

• Short answer
• Radio Select
  Recommended only for limited values (e.g., Yes/No; Option 1/Option 2/Option 3).
  
• Dropdown Select
  Recommended if more than three values to be offered. This can be used for a list selection, such as dietary requirements (e.g., Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Gluten Free, Dairy Free).
  
• Checkboxes
  Allows multi check values
  

Default Value

Available for Radio, Select Value, and Checkbox type Custom Fields. Select one value from your options to set a default for users. For example, you may have a Select field for "Country" and you could set the Default Value to the country of the event as it's likely most of your audience will be selecting this anyway. 

Field Options

This is accessible for Radio, Select Values and Checkbox type Custom Fields. First, select Edit Values. You can select from preconfigured lists from the buttons on the right (e.g., Yes/No, Australian states, or a full list of countries) or add your own options by entering them in the field (one value per line). You can also paste values from an external list (e.g., Excel or Google Sheets) but ensure there are no leading or trailing spaces.

Show in the list of merge tags available in the email or SMS template editors

This setting determines whether a Custom Field will be available as a Merge Tag in the Email Template Editor.

Set Fallback Values for Custom Fields

When personalising your campaign with merge tags, it's wise to set default values for recipients who have not provided data (values) for a custom field.

Setting Fallback Values

1. Navigate to Settings > Custom Fields Tab
2. Select the Custom Field
3. Add the fallback value
   
   
   

Example of Fallback Values:

Consider two different people receiving an SMS. In this case, the Merged field was "Role Type," with a fallback value of "people".

James had a Role Type of "Marketers"

Sarah did not have a value set, so the fallback was used:

Create Validation Rules for Custom Fields

Custom Fields can have specific validation applied to ensure that Paid Registration users enter the desired values during activation.

Examples include:

• Limiting a Custom Field called "Member Number" to 11 numeric characters only
• Asking for a link to a LinkedIn profile and validating it to ensure it is a valid URL
• Ensuring a valid email address is entered in the "Alternate Email" field

Add Validation

Validation is added under Event Configuration > Settings > Custom Fields.

A blank field means no validation rules are being applied.

Validation Rules

Validation rules can be applied individually or combined in the Validation Rules field. If combined, they must be separated by a pipe (|). For example: “between:1,11|numeric.”

To use validation rules, simply paste the validation rule (e.g., "alpha" or "alpha_dash" into the Validation Rules field of the Custom Field.

Available validation rules:

alpha: Must only contain alphabetic characters

alpha_num: Must contain alphabetic characters or numbers (no spaces or special characters)

alpha_dash: Must contain alphabetic characters, numbers, dashes or underscores.

between: Must have a numeric value within a specified range (e.g., ‘between:1,11’)

digits: Must be numeric and have the specified number of digits.

email: Must be a valid email address

max: Must not exceed the specified length (e.g., ‘max:11’)

max_value: Must not exceed the specified maximum value (e.g., ‘max_value:500’).

min: Must not be less than the specified length (e.g., ‘min:3’)

Min_value: Must not be less than the specified value (e.g., ‘min:100’)

numeric: Must only consist of numbers

url: Must be a valid URL

Copy Custom Fields

If you have multiple Events, you may have Custom Fields that are common to more than one Event. Rather than re-creating each Custom Field in every Event, you're able to copy a Custom Field from one Event to another.

To copy a Custom Field from another Event, create a new Custom Field in the target Event and use the "Copy field from another event" drop-down menu. Select the field you wish to use and it will instantly fill out the Custom Field information. Be sure to click Save to save your work!

Update Custom Field Values after registration launch

During the active sales period for your event, you may want to update some Custom Field values (this option is available in a dropdown box). This usually occurs when you notice that a portion of your audience is selecting "other" options during registrations, and you want to gain more insight into their preferences.

Pro Tip: To view a breakdown of responses in a friendly pie chart, navigate to Insights > Audience.

Can I remove values?

While it is technically possible to remove values, we do not recommend it. Values may have already been submitted by people when activating their Registrations. If a person record contains a removed value, then that field will appear blank.

We always suggest not removing values but rather adding values and refining the list for the next event you launch.

Can I add values?

Yes, adding values has no impact on existing or new Registration Activation. Once new values are added, there will be an available option for Registration Activation from that point forward.

Note: Field Labels, Field Descriptions, the order of fields and the inclusion of fields or not (set under Admissions) can be updated at any time without any impact on users.

Delete a Custom Field Definition

A Custom Field definition can be deleted if it has not been applied to other records or functions within Jomablue. To delete a Custom Field:

1. Select Settings in the left navigation menu
2. Select the Custom Fields tab
3. Click the Delete button on the right side of the relevant field

If the Custom Field has been applied to a person record or functionality, a popup will appear, indicating how it has been applied. To proceed with the deletion, you must resolve each relationship prevention, which may include:

• Applied to a CX Badge Layout
• Applied to a Smart Badge or Kiosk Badge Layout
• Applied to a Person record
• Used in a Registration Admission
• Used in an Engagement Scoring segment

If none of these relationships exist, a confirmation popup will appear. The Custom Field will be deleted upon selecting the Delete button on the popup.

Note: To delete a custom field from a person record, see the article: Importing People under the section Delete a Custom field.

Order Custom Fields (track marketing campaigns)

Jomablue supports the use of tracking parameters in both Online Free Registration and Online Paid Registration. Using these parameters allows you to identify the source of each Registration/Order, which can help assess the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, sales representatives, and more. This is achieved via invisible fields in an Admission named 'Order Custom Field (hidden)'.

This is the result of a registration site having URL parameters. For example, ?referrer=ref_id&uniqueid=unique_id_value, the Registration Form can be configured to create:

• the Custom field referrer with the value of the ref_id
• the Custom field uniqueid with the value of the unique_id_value

To map URL parameters to custom fields, the key of the URL parameter needs to be entered into the Order Custom Field (hidden) field.

In the above example, the referrer and uniqueid fields have been added, so values for those fields in the registration URL will map to Custom Fields with matching keys and values in the Person record.

For additional information, please see the article: Managing Campaigns.

Note:

• If multiple URL parameters with identical keys are in a registration site URL, multiple Custom Fields will be created in the Person Record
• If a URL parameter with an empty value is in the registration site URL, no Custom Field will be created
• If a URL parameter does not have a matching Order Custom Field (hidden) field, it won't be mapped to a Custom Field on a Person record. This can be leveraged to map certain Order Custom Fields to People Custom Fields, depending on which Admission type is registered.

There is no need to define the custom fields (in portal settings) when doing marketing parameters to custom field mapping.

Add 'Order Custom Field' to Custom Field Mapping

When registering, Order Custom Fields can be directly passed to Custom Fields on a Person record via invisible fields in an Admission.

For example, if a registration site has URL parameters (e.g., ?edm=edm01&sales_rep=rep02), the Registration Form can be configured to create Custom Fields ‘edm=edm01’ and ’sales_rep=rep02’.

Configuration

A field is available for addition to a Registration form: "Order Custom Field (hidden)". To map URL parameters to custom fields, the key of the URL parameter must be entered into the Order Custom Field (hidden) field.

For example, if “edm” and “sales_rep” tracking fields have been added to the registration URL, the values for those fields will map to Custom Fields with matching keys and values in the Person record.

Features of Custom Field Mapping

• If multiple URL parameters with identical keys are present in a registration site URL, multiple Custom Fields will be created in the Person Record.
• If a URL parameter has an empty value in the registration site URL, no Custom Field will be created.
• If a URL parameter does not have a matching Order Custom Field (hidden) field, it won't be mapped to a Custom Field on a Person record. This can be leveraged to map certain Order Custom Fields to People Custom Fields based on the Admission type being registered.

Requirements when using the People Import Tool

When using the Import Tool, Custom Fields will appear in the dropdown menu in two groups:

1. Pre-defined: Fields defined under Settings > Custom Fields
2. Existing but not pre-defined: These are a result of previous imports (see below)

You can create a new custom field key during the import process (using letters, numbers and underscores only). These will be categorised as “Existing but not pre-defined” fields. You may define these later, but it is not mandatory.

To remove a custom field from a person’s record, see the article: Managing People.

Note: Custom Field definition is not a required setting. Custom Fields can be added to Jomablue via Registration, or bulk import without defining them.

Referenced articles