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Field Internal Codes

If you're asking, it probably doesn't apply to you, and you can safely ignore these codes.

Each field has a unique code (unique within the context of the form or item class) which we can use to specifically identify the role of a particular field.

Initially these codes are set to clever unique values like "field-541", "field-542", etc. But, you may change them to any single word. (These codes must consist of only letters, numbers, hyphen, and underscore).

Why change them? You don't have to unless you're looking to use this form to add a user directly to the platform. The idea is, we have to "know" which field represents the user's first name (last name, telephone number, etc). These codes provide us with that information. You can set the label to "Where can we reach you?" but if the code is "telephone", we'll know to put the result into the user's telephone field.

As you type a unique code, we'll suggest matching "known" fields -- that is, fields we know what to do with. Select one of those if you like. If you keep typing and don't select a know field, we'll use that also, but we'll just not map it to the user's profile or contact information.

Autofill: As an additional feature, if you use a particular code in a form, and the user is logged in (and the field type is "Text (Plain)") we'll automatically fill in the form value, based on data we already have. This works only for the following codes:

name, first_name, last_name,
email, telephone, user_code, linkedin_url
company, position, function,
city, state, country

The user will still be able to modify the auto-filled value.

If you leave the code blank, we'll change it back to "field-xxx". If you use a code which includes unsupported symbols (or spaces) we'll fix it. If you set more than one field to the same code, we'll change one of them to add a number (e.g., "first_name" and "first_name-1"). Codes with a numbered suffix cannot be used for mapping. That is, you can only have one field used as the "First Name" on a form. There is one exception to this rule, described below under Biography Exception

If you download the content class containing entries for the form, each column in the first row will be: The label, if it was defined and the field's code does not start with the generic 'field-xxx'. Otherwise, the column title will be the code.

Biography Exception

When uploading a spreadsheet to add users, we use the first row the the spreadsheet to indicate the roles of each column (e.g., First Name, Last Name). On upload, we include a "Column Trick" described in Add Multiple Users via CSV Upload: If the column name ends with a plus sign ('+'), we'll append contents from that column (or set of columns) to the "Biography" field, which is displayed in the "About..." section of the user's profile.

To enable this feature, we'll do the same for application forms with an extra twist: If you Label the field with an ending plus sign, we'll add the contents to Biography. If you don't want to use the plus sign, you can simply "prof_summary" (the internal code for the Biography section), for all of the fields you want added to that sections. Recall that if you attempt to use the same code for more than one field, we'll add a numbered suffix ('prof_summary-1', 'prof_summary-2', etc.). For this code only, we'll recognize the suffix and combine the resulting data to add to the User's "About..." section. The fields will be added in the order presented on the application (which may differ from the numbered suffix).

Ideas to Aid Uploading of Content Spreadsheets

If you anticipate the need to create users directly from application forms:

  • Make sure you have at least the three fields for First Name, Last Name, and Email. Without these fields, you cannot upload.
  • Properly assign other field codes also, if you're requesting the user's LinkedIn URL, or user photos, etc. If you don't properly assign field codes, we'll not recognize the need to convert the provided data.
  • Consider adding a Hidden Field with the code 'ignore': Make the type "List (Single-selection)" with values "Yes" and "No". This extra field will permit you to set ignore, which will be carried into the resulting downloaded CSV file. Subsequent upload of that CSV will skip rows with Ignore set to "Yes", and this mean you can upload the full file, knowing that users you do not want added will be skipped.

Note that you can always add a user one-at-a-time from the Application form itself, even if there is an "Ignore" field. Also, if you manually add the user and they already exist on the platform, we'll simply add them to the selected Group, if they're not already a member.

When uploading via CSV, we do not utilize the Content's Group selection: You must use the Group's "Add User..." menu item (from the Admin->Groups page) to upload directly into a group.

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