CRM.COM provides out-of-the-box system flexibility allowing users to customise certain areas of the system according to their business needs. In a few simple steps it’s possible to activate and configure selected features, thus extending the functionality of CRM.COM.
Two such features are:
Custom Fields
Managing Custom Fields
Custom Fields allow storing and managing additional information for various entities, such as Contacts and Accounts. Each Custom Field is related to a single entity and can be edited or viewed from the UI or through Web APIs. Once a Custom Field is set up, then all instances of that entity can be assigned a value for the Custom Field.
To edit the contents of a Custom Field for an entity, you must first navigate to the entity with defined Custom Fields, e.g. Contacts > My Contacts > select a Contact.
From the entity screen select to Edit the Custom Preferences.
Enter the necessary data.
The Custom Field contents now appears on the card.
Custom Field Settings
To create or view existing Custom Fields, click on your logged-in user name in the top right-hand-corner of the screen > Settings > Platform > Custom Fields
Custom Fields are filtered by entity on this screen, so choose the entity you wish to view Custom Fields for, and the screen will be refreshed accordingly.
Select Create Custom Field to create a new Custom Field, you will be required to provide details of the new field.
Field Types
Firstly you must decide on the type of field you wish to create and the format of the field, e.g. if you want a Selector type field you can choose from three different formats - Selection (drop-down list), Checkbox, Radio Button.
Custom Field Type | Characteristics |
|---|---|
Single line text | Maximum character limit is 100 |
Multiline text | Maximum character limit is 512 |
Timestamp | Time selector |
Specific Date | Simple date picker |
Number | Accepts only numbers, ability to define a minimum and maximum range, option to set decimal places |
Amount | Sett a value with system currency (e.g. €10.55) |
Selection | Drop-down list of multiple options, ensure that the total number of characters used for all options does not exceed 1000 |
Checkbox | Basic check-box, default value is false |
Radio Button | Define multiple radio button options, only one can be selected |
Users | Search and select an existing system user |
Field Definition
The second and final stage is the actual field definition where you will be required to provide the particular characteristics of the field, the contents of this screen varies according to the type of field selected.
Common settings for all field types:
Entity - Choose the applicable entity for the field, this implies that the field will be available for editing on that particular entity screen
Description - Custom Field description for internal use
Key - Unique key across Custom Fields used in integrations and APIs, only lowercase case characters and underscores are allowed, no spaces permitted
Label - The field label for UI purposes
Tooltip - Informative text appearing when the user hovers over the info icon next to the label
Enabled Field - Enabling a Custom Field means that it’s available for editing via the UI and Web APIs, all new Custom Fields are enabled by default. If at some point, a Custom Field is no longer required, then it should be disabled. Disabled Custom Fields are not visible from the UI
Hide field from user interface - Hide a Custom Field so that it’s no longer visible on the UI, even if it has a value
Support external (webhook) integrations - Enabling such functionality results to the ability of configuring an external webhook that will be triggered on a dedicated UI event
URL Endpoint - Defines the endpoint that will be called when such a webhook will be called
Basic Authentication - Defines the authentication method that will be applied on the webhook request
Username & Password - Defines the credentials that will be used for authenticating such webhook request
API Key - Defines the key that will be used for authenticating such webhook request
Trigger Event - Defines the UI event that will trigger such webhook request
Other particular settings:
Minimum number (for Number type) - Optionally set the minimum number allowed for validation purposes, if applicable
Maximum number (for Number type) - Optionally set the maximum number allowed for validation purposes, if applicable
Number of decimals (for Number type) - Optionally set the number of decimal places for the number, if applicable
Options (for Selection and Radio Button types) - Define the options for selection
Key - Unique key identifier
Text - The option name as it should appear for UI purposes
Default - Optionally select one of the defined options to be the default value
Order - Set the order that the options will appear on the UI
Re-ordering Custom Fields
To change the order of Custom Fields so that they appear in a logical sequence for your users, simply drag-and-drop them into the correct order using the hamburger icon.
Tip: Custom Fields can be created for Contacts, Organisation etc. which can then be used for capturing additional Contact information during the registration process via the Consumer App (custom feature using Self-Service APIs).
Custom Forms
A Custom Form is a stand-alone external form integration that can cover a custom flow of a definitive purpose associated with CRM.COM.
Typically, a Custom Form is an external implementation designed using CRM.COM’s Back-Office APIs and hosted outside of CRM.COM, but which can be loaded and used via the back-end system.
Managing Custom Forms
To use a custom form, navigate to the entity for which a custom form has been defined e.g. Contacts > My Contacts and select the relevant action from the summary screen.
Custom Form Settings
To create or view existing Custom Forms, click on your logged-in user name in the top right-hand-corner of the screen > Settings > Platform > Custom Forms
From here you can also edit, delete or deactivate a Custom Form.
Designing a Custom Form
Select the Create Custom Form option to create a new Custom Form, where a user can define the URL endpoint where the custom form is hosted, the UI components that the form will be accessed from and loaded into, and the authentication signature that verifies the integrity of such a Custom Form.
Hosted Form URL Endpoint
Custom Forms are designed and developed on external systems. In order to be accessible from within CRM.COM, the URL Endpoint where the form is hosted should be explicitly defined.
Component Icon & Label
Accessing a Custom Form is achieved from a dedicated action button within the back-end system. Styling such an action button is possible by defining the following attributes:
Icon - Represents the graphic representation of such an action and will be associated with the configured label
Label - Represents the action button name, a good label should be short and intuitive
Component Type
Custom Form content can be loaded into two different UI components:
Modal - The content of the Custom Form will be loaded into a modal window (on top of the current back-end system data page)
Embedded - The content of the Custom Form will be loaded into a new data page (within the back-end system)
Component Location
A Custom Form can be accessed throughout the back-end system UI. Currently, a Custom Form can be accessed via:
Zone Pages (back-end system pages)
Contacts summary page
Custom Form Signature
Once the Custom Form has been successfully created you will be notified of the authentication signature, use this to authenticate your Custom Form when integrating with CRM.COM.
Activating a Custom Form
Remember to Activate your Custom Forms so that they can be used.
Use Cases
Custom Fields - External Webhook Integrations
On creating or updating entities that support custom fields (e.g. Contacts, Payments), you can extend such flows with additional data validations or manipulation using custom fields' external webhook integrations.
For example, creating a new contact in a business that operates in Cyprus might be required by that business to provide a valid CY Tax Identification Code (T.I.C.). Creating a custom field for such attribute with an external webhook integration to the Cyprus Tax Department for validating such codes on creating a contact, provides the ability to users when a contact is created to narrow down and allow real-time only the creation of contacts that provide a valid CY T.I.C. value. All other contacts will not be allowed to be created from the contact creation form.
Reference Material
You may also find it useful to refer to the following manuals for further reading in relation to custom fields & custom forms.
Back-Office APIs
https://speca.io/CRM/backoffice-admin
Self-Service APIs
https://speca.io/CRM/self-service
Activities
Activities
Automations
Business Network
Contacts
Finance
Payments, Refunds, Top-ups
Leads
Orders
Service Requests
Subscriptions
Devices
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