Input Field Settings and Rules

This article describes the settings and rules of the input fields. Learn more about what options are available, how they work, and best practices for their use. 

For each Input field, you have settings that allow you to have more control over what data to accept and how it should be inputted. This makes it easy for you to customize the Create form and ensure that it reflects your company taxonomy. 

You can access the field settings by clicking on the settings icon on the bottom right of the Field editor. Rules can be found at the bottom of the settings panel. 

> List of available settings 

• Set as visible
• Set as required
• Set as read-only
• Set default value
• Set date format
• Remove query string parameters
• Delimiter (Multiselect field only)
• Allow edits after submission
• Use allowlist / denylist
• Include dependencies

The settings 'Set as visible' and 'Set as required' are applied by default. Uncheck them to hide a field and /or make it optional. 

Set as visible

It makes a field visible. This setting is always pre-selected and makes all fields visible by default.

Unchecking this box would hide the field.

Best practice
This setting is often used in combination with conditions. E.g., when a field should be visible only in certain circumstances. 

Example 

You want the date input field 'Published on' to appear only when 'Paid Ads' is selected. 

Setting: Uncheck the setting 'Set as visible'.

Condition: Show when the value in 'Medium' is 'Paid Ads'.

Set as required

It makes a field mandatory, meaning that the form cannot be submitted without the field being filled out. When the field is left empty, a warning is displayed.

This setting is always pre-checked by default. Unchecking this box makes a field optional and an ‘Optional’ tag will appear on the field.

Best practice
A Create form should always reflect the company taxonomy. In this view, fields that let the user input data that are strictly necessary to the taxonomy must always be 'Set as required'. 

The optional feature lets users input data that are not essential but that could still be of value - this is more ‘nice to have’ data, that could add granularity to the taxonomy.

Example

Company taxonomy: 

URL, source, medium, campaign name.

Create form: 

URL (required), source (required), medium (required), campaign name (required), ID (optional), content (optional).

Set as read-only

It makes the content of a field visible but not editable.

When this setting is enabled, a field becomes disabled but its content is still visible. 

Best practice
This setting is often used in combination with the 'Set default value' setting. E.g., when a user can view the default content of a field but not edit it unless certain conditions are met.

Example 

You want the default value of a text field 'Campaign' to be viewable to everyone but editable only to employees of the company. That is, when the user attribute 'Is agent' is not checked. 

Setting: Check the setting 'Set default value' > Input a value

Condition: Set to read-only when the User attribute 'Is agent' is checked.

Set default value

It lets you predefine a default field value. 

When this setting is enabled, a preselected value shows in the field. However, the user could still click on it and change the value. 

Set date format

It lets you set a custom date format using macros. 

Supported macros: 

• {Y} - full numerical representation of a year
• {y} - 2-digit representation of a year
• {F} - full textual representation of a month
• {M} - short textual representation of a month
• {n} - numeric representation of a month
• {m} - numeric representation of a month, with leading 0
• {W} - week number in a year
• {l} (lowercase L) - full textual representation of a day of the week
• {D} - short textual representation of a day of the week
• {j} - numeric representation of a day of the month
• {d} - numeric representation of a day of the month, with leading 0
• {q} - numeric representation of a quarter of year

Note: Macros are numeric representations. You still need to add delimiters to format your date. 

See a detailed list of all supported macros here. 

Examples

• {Y}{m}{d} = 0220801
• {Y}/{m}/{d} = 2022/08/01
• {Y}.{m}.{d} = 2022.08.01

Remove query string parameters

It lets you specify query parameters that should be trimmed from an URL.

When this setting is enabled, all specified query string parameters are automatically stripped from an existing URL. 

Tip
Query parameters can also be specified in the form of tags. 

Use case
When reusing a previous tracking URL to create a new record, you may want to make sure that there are no duplicate query parameters.  

Delimiter

In multiselect field types, it sets a custom delimiter used in between selections.

In an output, values from multiselect input fields are separated by a delimiter (DSV). This setting lets you define a symbol of your choice to be used as the delimiter.

The default delimiter is an underscore (_).

Use case
When extracting data from the Records table and feeding it to another platform, you may want to consider the data format accepted by the third-party service. E.g., Adobe Analytics. 

Allow edits after submission

In all fields, this setting determines whether the field remains editable or completely locked after submission of the Create form. 

Indeed, when editing records is enabled for a project, this setting lets you selectively lock fields in records to prevent that any changes are made to their original values. This ensures data integrity and security.

Note: The 'Allow edits after submission' is enabled by default for all fields. Uncheck it to apply the editing restriction on the field. 

Locked fields will appear disabled and have a tooltip indicating so. Attempts to modify these fields trigger an error message. This can happen if the values become invalid due to conditions, dependencies, or if it's no longer available. For example, deleting a value, or if the value didn't exist at the time of record creation, or eligibility issues due to dependencies can trigger an error.

To resolve these, the edits must comply with the restrictions. If this is not possible, changes can be discarded, or the field needs to be adjusted through the project configuration. This requires a Project manager or Admin role.

Use allowlist / denylist

In select fields, this setting appears when a dataset with available allowlists or denylists is added. It allows you to apply or remove these lists to the field.

Allowlists and Denylists are subsets of dataset options that can be applied to control which options are available for selection in a field. This ensures data consistency while allowing flexibility in dataset usage. 

Learn more about how to create and apply allowlists / denylists here. 

Include dependencies

In select fields, this setting appears when a dataset with dependencies is added. It enables you to apply those dependencies to the field or to remove them if already applied. 

A dependency lets you define which set of value options are available for a certain dataset B (dependent) depending on the value options in another dataset A (dictating/independent). These dependencies can also be applied to fields when datasets are added to them.

When including dependencies, you may encounter different scenarios based on whether the datasets involved are already present in the project configuration or not.

Note: If you use multiple dependency variants, you'll first need to define a specific variant to apply.

Independent field exists

If the independent dataset already exists in a field in the configuration, you only have to decide whether to include or exclude the dataset dependencies.

Independent field exists more than once

Since you can reuse a dataset in the same Create form, you may have an independent dataset in more than one field. 

In this case, you will have to select which field the dependency must be based on. 

Independent field does not exist

If the independent dataset does not exist, you can either exclude the dependency or add the independent dataset to a field first. 

> List of available rules

You can also set transformations and add simple rules resembling validation rules - most of them ensure the proper formatting of the input data.

Available rules are: 

• Limit character range
• Letter case
• Replace characters
• Set allowed characters
• Limit number of selections (Multiselect field only)

Limit character range

It lets you define a range from a min. value to a max. value.

In other words, this rule defines the minimum and the maximum number of characters accepted.  When this rule is active, the user will see a warning if the number of characters is not respected. 

Tip: This works well in combination with free text settings. E.g., with values with standard lengths like country codes, specific click ids, etc.

Example

A country code should not be less than 1 letter and more than 2.

Letter case

It lets you set allowed letter cases. This enforces the use of the same formatting for consistency or when case sensitivity is important.

Available cases: 

This works in real-time, hence, the letter cases are automatically corrected while the user is typing. 

Use case
UTM parameters are case-sensitive. Hence, it is important that you make sure to use the same cases. Even if two tracking codes are identical but use different cases, Google Analytics would recognize two different ones.

Replace characters

It lets you find and replace characters. 

This works in real-time, meaning that it would also replace characters while the user is typing. 

Use case
In URL input fields, you may want to avoid the use of space. You could do that by not allowing the use of space (see ´Set allowed characters´) or you can replace space ( ) with an underscore (_).

Set allowed characters

It lets you set the type of characters that are allowed. 

Predefined character types:

• Letters (a-z, A-Z)
• Numbers (0-9)
• Underscore (_)
• Hyphen (-)
• Period (.)

When this rule is set, a warning is displayed if the user uses characters that are not allowed.

Use case
In URL there are characters that may cause issues if used or characters that are reserved and/ or have special meaning. To avoid this, you may want to set characters that are allowed.

In other cases, it is about consistency. I.e., your company uses a specific naming convention and/or notation system.

Limit number of selections

In multiselect field types, it lets you limit the number of selections allowed, from a min. value to a max. value.