How to Apply a Custom Field Value

Now that your Custom Fields have been created and added to the site, we can begin assigning values and collecting data. The custom field Target you chose will determine the location where the custom field values exist and where it can be manually edited within the site. This article will walk through how to manually and automatically apply custom field values to each of your Targets.

This section will walk through how to apply a Custom Field Value to a User. This will apply to when you are creating a custom field under one of the three following targets:

There are two methods that can be used to apply custom field values to a user

*This terminology will change depending on the role the user is a part of. For example, if they are an applicant, it will read "Applicant custom fields". If they are members of multiple Roles, the custom fields will appear under the corresponding roles.

In some cases, you may wish to apply Custom Field values to users in bulk. If this is the case, you can do so using the Add User Import.

This section will walk through how to apply a custom field value to an Application. This will apply to when you are creating a custom field under the following target:

Custom Fields where Application has been selected as the Target can be viewed in the Manage Applications page.

Through the Columns dropdown on this page, you will be capable of adding individual custom field columns to your administrative view.

To manually edit Custom Fields in the administrator application preview:

This section will walk through how to apply a custom field value to a program. This will apply to when you are creating a custom field under the following target:

In order to apply a custom field value to a program:

This section will walk through how to apply a custom field value to an Application Decision. This will apply to when you are creating a custom field under the following target:

In order to apply a custom field value to an Application Decision:

In some cases, you may require that custom field values be applied within your site based on an automated action. If this is the case, you can set up an automation which will apply a specific value to one of your targets based on an activation.

For example, you may require that when an applicant completes their application form, the Applicant custom field is populated with the mailing address of the user.

If you wish for a User Custom field to be updated based on a specific action within the site, you can set this up using Automations.

In order to set this up:

Example:

In this example, we want the user Custom field automatically updated when the applicant has been awarded for a program. This is for the case where we don't want the applicant to be awarded to more than one program.

WHEN TO APPLY

CONDITIONS

Not required for this scenario

DO

You would then be able to reference the user custom field when making your decision to ensure that if you have multiple programs in your site your applicants are only awarded for one.

Automations can also be used to apply a value to a Custom Field based on a specific action within the site.

To set this up:

Example:

Updating the custom field with the current semester. 

WHEN TO APPLY

CONDITIONS

Conditions to match: ALL

DO

If necessary, you could then duplicate the automation then update the conditions and the action for the Winter semester as well.

If you are making your award decisions and wish for the application decision field to be applied automatically when the decision is made, you can set this up using Automations.

In order to set this up:

Example:

In this example, we want the Award Decision Custom field automatically updated when the applicant has been awarded for a program. This is for the case where we want to keep track of the year that the transaction is for.

WHEN TO APPLY

CONDITIONS

Not required for this scenario

DO

A common question that gets asked is "What is the difference between Applicant Custom Fields and Application Custom Fields?"

The difference between this is that the Applicant Custom Field gets applied to the User's account, it's typically used for information that is specific to the user when they log in to the site. No matter how many applications the user creates, that custom field is going to be consistent across all applications. For example, the user's address, or their school student number, or even their favourite colour. That information is based on the Applicant that is logging into the site to create the application.

An Application Custom Field, on the other hand, is applied to the application they create, and in cases where an applicant has multiple applications within the site, the values in the custom field may vary from application to application. An example may be if you wish to input the semester that the application is applying for. So if you have multiple cycles or semesters where an applicant can apply to the same program, you can keep track of the Fall application vs. the Winter application.

Example:

Let's use the example of our applicant, Tom Jenkins:

We created an Applicant Custom field and enabled "Add to User Sign Up form." The field we created was for Phone Number so that we can easily contact the user by phone in the future.

Now when we access Tom Jenkins's user profile we can quickly access his phone number that he input during registration.

However, Tom Jenkins is creating multiple applications in the site:

From each of these applications, we want to keep track of the semester in which the application was created. For example, "First Application to Program A" is Tom Jenkins's application in the Fall to Program A, and "Second Application to Program A" is his application in the Winter to the same program.

Therefore, we set up two automations to apply the custom field when the application is created, with the condition based on the dates the application is created.

As the "First Application to Program A" was created between September 1st and December 31st we can set an automation to apply the custom value of Fall to the Application Custom Field.

Now the custom fields will appear as such:

As you can see from the example above, only one user response is required to collect the user's phone number. However, as the semester information is different for each application, an Application Custom Field is used.