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Adding, Editing or Deleting a Field into a Project

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 building the tables and adding contacts to your project. The fields belong to a project, so you need to create a project first. Adding fields is among the first steps of creating a project.


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. If the primary key is defined as mandatory, it will be next to this symbol: .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 mandatory , 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 online (when the tables are built). 


 Where are the Fields?

To add, edit or delete fields, this is the starting point:


Adding a Field to a Project 

There are two options to add a field: you may choose a predefined field from the library (you may edit it later if needed) or configure a new custom field. 

Notes: When adding a new field into an online project (when the tables are built), 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.  

In the project fields list, click on Create a field (on the section you want to add the field into):


Option 1: Adding a field from the library

  1. Click on the Library tab to display the list of predefined fields. 
  2. Check the field(s) you want and click on Add.
    **Note: The fields cannot be deleted through this window with the checkboxes (see Deleting a Project Field).

Option 2: Adding a custom field

  1. Click on the Custom tab
  2. Fill out the form with the required information depending on your needs. For more information, see this article.



Editing a Project Field

In the project fields list, select the field you want to modify and click on Edit:

If the project is still in preparation and is not online, all the information on this field may be edited. However, after building the tables, some constraints will apply: 

Editing constraints for an online project
Information to configureMay editNotes
Primary keyX
RequiredIt 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.

CodeX
Label
Description
FormatX
Length
(with the Text format)
It dependsBe 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. 
DefaultThis change will not apply to existing contacts.
Input format
(Type, Options, Input hint)

For more information, read the article on custom fields.  


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

If the delete iconis disabled, this means the field may not be deleted.

Fields you may NEVER delete
  • The Email, Firstname and LastName fields.
  • A field defined as a primary key , as required or both.

Organizing Fields with Sections 

The fields and sections of a project may be organized as you wish. This way, the fields are easy to find and the related information is in the same place. You may drag and drop a field from one section to another. 

The fields of the Identification section are generated by default (the section may be renamed when a project is created). Here are some possible actions with the sections: 



Next Step

After adding 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 click on Build tables to put your project online and start adding or importing contacts.

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