Custom fields

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View of the 'custom fields' page

Custom fields add to the contact profile tailor-made information that Unisoft's standard fields don't cover: internal member number, civil birthday, dietary restriction, education level, godfather or godmother, profession, etc.

Where categories set flags (yes/no, the contact is in such a group), custom fields store values that are typed and structured.

They are accessible from the Secondary Information tab of the contact profile (/app/contact/fiche?id=...).

The five field types

Type	Stores	Example
Text	A free string	Profession: "Lawyer", Neighborhood: "Belleville"
Number	An integer or decimal	Member number: 1024, T-shirt size: 42
Date	A specific day (no time)	Civil birthday: 14/03/1972
Date & Time	A precise instant	Association registration: 12/01/2023 at 14:30
Yes / No	A boolean	Active volunteer: Yes, Drives a car: No

The type is chosen at field creation. Once set, it is fixed for this field: if you create a "Member Number" field of type Number, you cannot put text in it later.

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Choose your type carefully

A secondary phone number is Text (not Number), because it can contain +, spaces, start with 0. A payment date is Date; a registration timestamp is Date & Time. For a binary question ("is this an active volunteer?"), it's Yes / No.

Add a custom field to a contact

1. 1

   Open the Secondary Information tab

   On the contact profile, click on the Secondary Information panel.

2. 2

   Click on Add secondary information

   The button is at the top right of the fields block.

3. 3

   Choose the field name

   In the Name field, type the label. If a field with the same name already exists on other contacts, it is offered as a suggestion: select it to reuse the same key (recommended). Otherwise, create a new name.

4. 4

   Choose the type

   Select Text, Number, Date, Date & Time or Yes / No. If you selected an existing field, its type is already filled in.

5. 5

   Enter the value

   The input field adapts to the type: free text field, numeric field, date picker, date-time picker or Yes/No list.

6. 6

   Validate

   The field appears instantly in the contact's secondary information list.

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Reuse already entered values

For Text fields, Unisoft remembers values already used on other contacts for the same key and offers them via autocomplete. This is handy for fields with limited values (for example Profession: Doctor, Lawyer, Teacher): you avoid typos and variants.

Display of fields on the profile

The fields appear in the Secondary Information tab as a vertical list: field name in gray above, value in blue below. For Text and Number fields, a Copy icon to the right lets you copy the value to clipboard in one click.

The Trash icon removes the field from the contact, with confirmation.

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Deletion only deletes for this contact

Removing a field from a contact deletes neither the field name nor the values on other contacts. If you want to remove the field everywhere (for example to start fresh after a wrong entry), you must go profile by profile.

Name your fields well

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Prefer singular, snake_case or simple label

Prefer Profession over Professions. Prefer Member_number or simply Member number over variations like #member, memberNum, Member_ID. The more standardized your names, the more reliable your filters and exports.

Before creating a new field, check whether it already exists under a variant: the modal's autocomplete helps you avoid duplicates (Birth date vs Birth_date vs dateOfBirth would create three distinct fields for the same information).

Filter and search on a custom field

Once custom fields are set on your contacts, you can use them in advanced search (/app/contact/search).

The Mongo syntax uses the prefix cf_ (custom field) followed by the key name. For example:

• cf_Member_number (Number field): all contacts whose member number is greater than 500,
• cf_Active_volunteer (Yes/No field): all contacts marked as active volunteers,
• cf_Registration_date (Date field): all contacts registered this year.

The team can combine these criteria with any other filter (last payment date, category, city…) to produce highly targeted cohorts.

Export custom fields

When you export your catalog to CSV from /app/contact/catalogue, custom fields are included as additional columns. Each custom field becomes a column named after the key. Contacts that don't have the field have an empty cell for this column.

This is useful for fine analyses in a spreadsheet (Excel, Numbers, Google Sheets) starting from your whole base.

Typical use cases

Need	Recommended type	Example key
Internal member number	Number	Member_number
Profession or trade	Text	Profession
Civil birthday (separate from Hebrew Hazkara)	Date	Birthday
Course registration	Yes/No	Talmud_Thursday_course
Arrival date in the community	Date	Arrival_date
Dietary restriction (kashrut, allergies)	Text	Kashrut_specifics
Sponsor or referrer	Text	Sponsor
Annual fee paid (simple amount, outside tracked payments)	Number	Membership_fee_2026
Various notes	Text	Notes

Best practices

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No uniqueness control

Unisoft does not prevent two contacts from having the same value for the same field. If you use Member_number, it is up to you (or your internal process) to ensure it is unique. Otherwise, two contacts could carry the same number 1024, and you wouldn't know until an export.

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Custom field or category?

Choosing between a custom field and a category is often a modeling decision. Rule of thumb:

• If the answer is Yes / No: category (Volunteers, Newsletter).
• If the answer is a specific value (number, date, text): custom field.
• If you want to filter in one click in the catalog: category.
• If you want to store data to consult: custom field.

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No frozen schema, to be used with discipline

Unlike other CRM tools, Unisoft does not require prior declaration of a list of custom fields at the organization level. Each entry can create a new key. This is very flexible, but requires team discipline: otherwise you end up with ten variants of the same field and unusable filters.

Articulation with other tools

• For binary labels (is the contact in such a group?), prefer the categories.
• To store files (scanned SEPA mandate, contract), use the Attachments tab.
• During a bulk import of a CSV file, you can map certain columns to existing custom fields or to be created.