Digiforma allows you to add custom fields to your client, company, learner, funding agency or training location records in your database.
This feature allows you to:
To add new fields to be filled in your files in your databases
To use these fields as HTML tags in your document templates
To integrate these fields into your public pre-registration forms or online catalogue
To use these fields as columns in your performance reports
Let's take a closer look at how it works. 🚀
Create a custom field
Let's take the example of a need of an organisation, which provides training and whose need is to inform one training master per learner. From the Data menu, click on the desired database (in this case, Learners ) and then on Custom Fields:
I can thus add a new field and fill in the different sections of the field:
We find:
Field label that matches the field name
Suggestion allows you to give an example of the expected format to the person who provides the information: Name and First name here,
Field type that corresponds to the format that will be expected for this field. Five options are offered: number, text, paragraph, date or true/false.
Mandatory allows you to make a field mandatory to complete in order to save the file in the database.
After saving, I find my new field in the "Custom fields" section of my learner file:
Order of appearance of fields
To choose the order in which your fields will appear in your files or on your pre-registrations, you must click on the arrow to the left of the field and drag and drop:
Using custom fields within document templates
Once the field is created, you can use it as an HTML tag in your document templates. If the field was created from the learner database, the tag will be available in documents concerning learners, such as in the invitation for example (and so for fields created from a company, trainer or funder file).
You can use the search bar on the right of the editor to find it more easily and then drag and drop it into the document as usual:
👉 For more details on customizing your document templates, we recommend this article!
Configure pre-registration pages
Public pre-registration for sessions
Once the fields are created, you will see the "Custom Fields" section appear in the form configuration of the public pre-registration page of your training sessions.
You can check the corresponding box so that the field is visible on the form. You also have a "Mandatory" box if you want this information to be necessary to record the pre-registration:
💡 Note: If you marked this field as required when creating it, it will be marked as required by default within this section.
Pre-registration via the online catalogue
As with public pre-registrations, the "Custom Fields" section will also appear for the configuration of your pre-registrations via the online catalogue. This will allow you to retrieve more information from the prospecting phase.
Use fields to filter your performance reports
Custom fields will also be available in your performance reports, in the form of columns, to help you perform a complete analysis of your business activity.
As with HTML tags in document templates, the fields created will be found in the view that corresponds to the record in which the field was created. So if the field was created in a learner record, it will be found in the "Learner" view by clicking on "Choose columns" from the Business Performance Tracking > Learners tab:
Once inside, select the Choose columns option. You can either search for your custom fields by name, or you can scroll down to the very bottom of the list, where they will be listed after the primary fields that appear in alphabetical order.
Include custom fields when importing your database into Excel
If you want to import information linked to a custom field in bulk for all the records in one of your databases (learners, company or trainer), it's entirely possible!
In order for Digiforma to import the information, you will need to download the Excel matrix available in the Data tab by clicking on Import:
You will then need to copy the custom field title and paste it as a column at the end of the default columns in the Excel file. This will create a new column corresponding to the new field.
Then, import your Excel file with the information entered and your database will have this custom field directly:
See you in Digiforma!