What is a Field?
In the Dialog Insight app, a field is used to collect and store information about your contacts like the name, email, address, preferences, language, etc. The fields you choose to use will be the structure of the contact profile. You may edit the fields later, however, it is recommended to set the fields before adding contacts to your project. The fields belong to a project, so you must create a project first to add them.
About the Primary Key and Required Fields
Each project has one primary key (composed of one or several fields). Normally, you will use only one field, but you may use more than one, depending on your needs.The primary key prevents the existence of duplicate contacts in your database and ensures that a contact does not receive the same message twice. If there were the same contact twice, the system would keep the first occurrence of that contact in the import file and ignore the other occurrences. The email address is most commonly used as the primary key, but you may choose any other field, such as a client number or a combination of fields. Some other fields might be set to be required, so that when a new contact is created, both primary key and mandatory fields must be filled. Defining the required fields and primary key from the beginning is recommended, as there are some constraints to editing the fields after the project is created. 
Access path: Project → Data Management → Project Fields |
Creating a Field Into a Project
Notes: When creating a field field into an online project, it may not be defined as required if you already have added contacts. Also, you may not add or remove the primary key status from a field when the project is online.
To add a new field, go to the project fields list and click Create a field (at the top of the section you want to add the field into):
Then, fill-in the required information:
Recommendations
- For a text Value type, it is recommended to use Short text (which has a 100-characters limit) and not using Long text
- To make a field Required, you must check "This field must be filled to add a contact". A required field is a field that must be filled when importing.
- For language or country fields, it is recommended to apply a standard value in order to convert non-standard values. You must finish creating the field and then edit it after to see that option.
| Short text | The value can contain text AND numbers. When this format is selected, you must also define the maximum length (number of characters) in the options. |
| Long text | The value can contain text AND. The number of characters is unlimited. This is a useful format for comment areas. |
| Integer number (1234) | Format that restrains the value to integer numbers, that is numbers with no sign or symbol such as commas, semi-colons, dollar signs, etc. |
| Decimal number (12.34) | Format intended to enter numbers with 4 decimals maximum. Only the decimal point is accepted as a separator: the comma is not valid for this use in the application. |
| Date and time | Format used to enter a date and a time, under the following format: YYYYMMDD HH:MM:SS (2009.01.25 12:01:23 = January 25, 2009 at 1 minute and 23 seconds past noon). Entering a time is not required; when the time is not specified, the value 00:00:00 is automatically added to the date. This format is useful to hold a Date of birth for example, which can be used to send birthday cards to your contacts. |
| Format used only to enter an email address. To be valid, the email address must conform to the standard syntax, such as UserName@domain.com. Commonly used as the primary key for messages to be sent. | |
| Boolean value (True/False) | Format used for fields where the answer is True or False. When no answer is provided, the False value is applied by default. This type of field can be useful to quickly create groups. For example, you might want to create a group of all contacts that have replied "Yes" to an invitation. |
| Identifier | The value (case and accents sensitive) can contain text AND numbers. When this format is selected, you must also define the maximum length (number of characters) in the options. |
| Input type | Description |
|---|---|
| Single line text | Multiline (not checked) - Field containing a value shown as a text box on one single line. The number of characters that can be entered depends on the field length defined in the field parameters. |
| Multiple line text | Field containing a value shown as a text box on multiple lines. The number of characters that can be entered depends on the field length defined in the field parameters. |
| Drop-down menu (valid for all field formats, except for Text -Email address fields) | Custom list - Field providing a choice of answers displayed as a drop-down list, where the values and labels are defined in the field edit window. Custom table - Field providing a choice of answers displayed as a drop-down list, where the values and labels are generated from the values contained in a custom table. NOTE - It can be a good idea to use a drop-down list or radio button format to define preset choices of values, instead of a freeform text box. Predefined values will help get better results when searching contacts or creating a group of contacts. For example, for the Gender field, it is recommanded to use a set of predefined values, such as M, F, Do not want to say, instead of freeform text box that could have multiple entries for the same value - Man, Woman, M, F, and any abbreviations thereof. |
| Radio buttons (valid for all field formats, except for Text - Email address fields) | Custom list - Field providing a choice of answers presented as radio buttons, where the values and labels are defined in the field edit window. Custom table - Field providing a choice of answers presented as radio buttons, where the values and labels are generated from the values contained in a custom table. NOTE - It can be a good idea to use a drop-down list or radio button format to define preset choices of values, instead of a freeform text box. Predefined values will help get better results when searching contacts or creating a group of contacts. For example, for the Gender field, it is recommanded to use a set of predefined values, such as M or F, Do not want to say, instead of freeform text box that could have multiple entries for the same value - Man, Woman, and any abbreviations thereof. |
| Checkbox (only valid for True/False fields) | Field that can provide multiple choices but where only one value can be selected by checking the corresponding box. |
Editing a Project Field
To edit a field, go in the project fields list, double-click the field you want to modify. If the project is published*, some information on a field may be edited.
| Editing constraints for an online project | ||
|---|---|---|
| Information to configure | May edit | Notes |
| Primary key | X | |
| Required | It depends | If the input of this field is empty for any contact already added/imported, it is impossible to set this field as required (you will need to fill the input for every contact to make this change). On the other side, you may define a field as not required at any time. |
| Code | X | |
| Label |  | |
| Description | | |
| Format | X | |
| Length (with the Text format) | It depends | Be aware that reducing the length below the length of inputs from the existing contacts is impossible (the system will prevent you from doing so). However, you may increase the length as you wish. |
| Default | | This change will not apply to existing contacts. |
| Input format (Type, Options, Input hint) | | |
*To unpublish a project, you must delete the list (make sure to read the warnings!).
Deleting a Project Field
Deleting a project field removes it from the contact profile and the data linked to this field in the project as well. To delete a field, click the garbage can icon at the end of the line n the field you want to delete. If the icon is disabled, this means the field may not be deleted.
Fields you may NEVER delete |
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Next Step
After creating fields, the next step in the project creation is to define the availability of the fields if you want some fields displayed upfront or hidden (it is an optional step). It may be relevant for your project to define the time zone and the available languages (you may set these configurations later). You may now start adding or importing contacts.