Introducing custom field types

When we first added custom fields in Close, we wanted them to be easy and quick to add, and just allow the smallest bit of structure to let people add custom data to their leads/accounts. Based on your feedback, we're introducing a few changes to custom fields to add a bit more structure and make things easier.

The most important changes to know are:

• Custom fields can be set up in Settings -> Customizations.
• Only Admins of your organization can add, edit, rename, or delete custom fields.
• Custom fields can now easily be renamed, merged, and deleted from the Customizations page.
• All custom fields will now have a "type". We're launching with these types:
• Text: plain text field with no validation or structure. Fields of this type will not include a dropdown of previously-used values in the interface, because we found this UI made it harder to add and edit new values each time.
• Choices: a dropdown of predefined choices. Admins can set up all the possible choices this field can contain ahead of time. Previously this wasn't possible because we would drop unused values from the dropdown if no leads had the value.
• Number: a text field that only accepts numeric values (including numbers with decimal places). Custom fields of this type will now be sortable and filterable in search, through the UI. (Previously sorting didn't work for decimal places, and filtering a range of numbers wasn't easily done from the search UI).
• Date: a text field that only accepts a date. In edit-mode you'll get a nice date picker widget and in read-mode the date will be nicely formatted. You can now easily filter by date custom fields in the search UI.
• Date/Time: a field that requires both a date and a time. In edit-mode you'll get a nice date and time picker widgets and in read-mode the date and time will be nicely formatted. You can now easily filter by datetime custom fields in the search UI.
• Hidden: a field that's never displayed in the UI, but can be useful for API integrations. Accepts any data type from JSON, including lists and objects.

You'll see improved UI on lead pages for custom fields that should make the values you care about stand out more, as well as making them easier to edit.

Previously all values were shown as links (to search results of other leads having the same value). Now, only URL values are linked which makes it easier to copy/paste custom field values, and also makes your URL links stand out more. To get the same "search results" functionality, just click the little search icon that appears when your mouse hovers.

To edit a custom field's value on a lead, simply hover your mouse over the field and pencil icon. Once you're done you can either press Enter or click anywhere outside of the field area to save your changes.

Searching/filtering your leads by custom fields will now be easier also. For example, if your custom field is of type "Date" or "Date/Time" you'll get extra options in the search UI as shown below. Similarly you'll get extra options for Number type fields.

This release is also foundational for Close—it will allow us to introduce more field types in the future.

What you should do now:

• Have an Admin from your organization visit the Customizations page and ensure that all fields have the best Type associated with them. If you want a dropdown of options to appear, convert your field to be a Choices field.
• Check your API implementation. Everything in the API backwards compatible, with the following caveats:
• Only API keys from an Admin can be used to create new custom fields on-the-fly from the Lead API
• Once a field has a "Type" (e.g. Number or Choices), adding/updating values via the Lead API must validate with that value. E.g. you can't submit non-numeric values if the field type is Number.

Email us with any questions, feedback, or feature requests!