What Are Custom Fields?

Custom Fields are a great tool for customizing AmeriCommerce to meet your company's needs. They allow you to store information about customers, orders, products, or stores for use elsewhere in AmeriCommerce. Here are just a few of the potential uses:

• Your company has multiple departments and must label which department a particular order is for
• You need to obtain a license number from your customer
• Each product has a unique number of connecting points that you need a dedicated field for

Types of Custom Fields and Where They Appear

• Customers
  
  • When creating an account with your store, customers will be asked to enter this information
  • In your administration console, the value will be visible on the "Edit Customer" page.
  • To display this field in your customer emails, add the following merge code to your template: ##CUSTOMERCUSTOMFIELD[FieldName]##
• Orders
  
  • When customers place an order, they'll be asked to provide this information.
  • In your administration console, the value will be visible on the "View Order" page.
  • To display this field in your order emails, add the following merge code to your template: ##ORDERCUSTOMFIELD[FieldName]##
• Products
  • To assign a value to a product, open the Product Editor and click the "General" tab, then scroll down to the "Custom Fields" section.
  • This can only be filled out by administrators and not customers.
  • To display this field anywhere that product information is available, use the following merge code: ##PRODUCTCUSTOMFIELD[FieldName]##
• Stores
  • To view or change the value for each store, navigate to "Stores > {Store Name} > Store Settings". On the next page, click the "Custom Fields" tab.
  • This can only be filled out by administrators and not customers.
  • Store Custom Fields cannot be displayed in other locations.

Accessing the Custom Field Editor

1. Navigate to "Global Settings > Custom Fields".
   
2. Near the top-left corner of the page, you'll see a drop-down menu between the green and orange navigation bars. Select the type of custom field from the drop-down and press Go. This will retrieve all of the custom fields for that type.
   

Creating a Custom Field

To create a custom field, first navigate to the custom field editor. Make sure you are working with the correct type, fill out the following fields, and then save your changes. Here is the interface for adding custom fields:



These are the fields for working with custom fields:

• Name - This is the title/name of the custom field, which is used throughout the site in your merges.
• Be sure to assign a unique name so it will be easily identifiable.
• Label - When customers or admins are asked to fill out your custom field, this text will appear next to the field.
• Input Type - When customers or admins fill out the custom field, this controls how your field appears. The graphic below displays examples of each Input Type:
• Value Type - This determines what type of data can be entered. Options include String (plain text), Integer (whole numbers), boolean (true/false), or Date.
• Field Width - Field Width determines the maximum length of the data that can be entered.
• This only affects fields using the "String" Value Type.
• Entering 0 will disable the limit.
• Sort Order - This controls the order in which each custom field is displayed.
• Fields with lower numbers will appear first. For example, if you have five fields with the sort orders set to 0, 20, 8, 1, 15, these fields will display (from top to bottom) 0, 1, 8, 15, 20.
• This field is optional. If left blank, the fields will display in default order.
• Show on Stores - This allows you to limit the visibility of Custom Fields on the frontend by store.
• This option only appears if you have multiple stores.
• Private - If set to private, the field will only be accessible to admin users. It will be used for manual order or customer creation through the admin console.
• Required- Determines whether this field is required or optional. If a Customer Custom Field is set as required, the customer account cannot be created until it is filled out. Likewise, if it is an Order Custom Field, your store will not allow customers to continue ordering until the field is filled out. The following describes what triggers the Required field:
  • String fields: empty string triggers validation.
  • Integer fields: -999 or leaving a field blank that expects a number.
  • Boolean fields: false triggers validation. (accepting terms, etc).
  • Date fields: leaving the field blank.
• Searchable - If this option is enabled, admin users can use it as a search field in the admin console. For example, if there's a searchable Customer Field that's labeled Driver's License #, an admin user can search for customer accounts with DL# 55555555.
• Display Location (Order Custom Fields Only) - Changes where the custom field will appear.
• This only affects Order Custom Fields.
• Show On Order Page (Customer Custom Fields Only) – If selected, this field will appear on the checkout page (OnePageCheckout.aspx).