What are Custom Fields?
Custom fields allow you to upload information about your contacts beyond our standard fields (first name, last name, and phone number). Custom fields have two main uses in GetThru: to append information that you want available on export or to add information to ThruText messages or to a ThruTalk script.
- For some integrations, you will need to map the VAN IDs (or other unique IDs) to be available on export.
- If you want to, for example, add the name and address of a contact's polling location to a ThruText or ThruTalk script, you will need to upload that information as custom fields.
NOTE - Custom fields are limited to 255 characters.
Creating a Custom Field
Before you can map any custom field during group upload, you must first create the custom field in your account. Start by going to the Custom Fields section under the Account Tools menu:
Next, click the "New Custom Field" button
Then, specify a title and code for your custom field - the code is just a shorter version of the name that will be used for inserting the field into messages. For example, if the custom field is Polling Location, you might choose PollLoc as the custom field code.
Editing a Custom Field
You can edit a custom field's name or code by clicking the "Edit" button to the right of the field.
Once you've completed your edits, click "Update" to save your changes and return to the custom field landing page:
Archiving a Custom Field
The archive button is a convenient way to clean up your list of custom fields and hide custom fields that you are no longer using. Archived custom fields will be hidden from view while uploading new groups to eliminate unwanted clutter from your field mapping.
Archiving a custom field hides the field from use on new uploads - the field will remain attached and in use on all existing groups that it is mapped to and can be unarchived later if you would like to use the field again at a later date.
An archived custom field will still be viewable from the Custom Fields page and will be denoted with an "archived" tag. Use the "unarchive" button to make the field usable again on group uploads:
Deleting a Custom Field
Custom fields can only be deleted if they have never been used on a group. Once a custom field has been used on any group upload, it can only be archived or edited. You will see a "delete" button in place of the "archive" button if your custom field is unused and able to be deleted:
Including a Custom Field in Exports
1-3 Custom fields can be configured to be included in your ThruText and ThruTalk exports. Simply edit the custom field and check the "Include in Exports?" box, and update. You may need to edit a custom field to remove the "Include in Exports?" flag to add a new custom field if a maximum of 3 is already set.
This is how it will appear in your custom field index:
NOTE - If your account is configured with one of our integrations, certain custom fields must be included in exports for the integration to work as expected. Please reach out to support@getthru.io prior to removing an exportable custom field to ensure the health of your integration.
Using Custom Fields
Once you've created your custom fields, you can add them as variables to your ThruText messages or ThruTalk Script. For more detailed information on how to do this, check out our guides:
For ThruTalk, open your custom fields page and copy and paste the custom field "code" directly into your script. Then add % symbols before and after the code. This is especially helpful when adding custom field variables to your ThruTalk Script.