Fields

Ortto’s fields feature allows you view all people and organizations (including those added from data source integrations) in your Ortto account’s customer data platform (CDP), as well as define new custom data fields for across all people or organizations in the CDP, where each of these records are available from the People and Organizations pages, respectively.

The Fields page allows you to create new custom fields, as well as edit or delete existing custom fields.

A new field’s custom data could be one of many supported data types ranging from simple types, such as text or numerical fields, through to more complex data types such as JSON objects or data aggregates.

Should you need to include a field in an API call, you can find the field’s ID (such as str::first for First name) in the field list, on the far right of the field’s name (or by clicking on the field’s name).

Field activity tracking

Ortto allows field activity tracking for system, custom and data source fields (except organization fields and mutli select and aggregate type fields). Enabling activity tracking for fields will create a custom activity for changes to that field. For example, a custom field called Plan tier with tracking enabled will have an associated custom activity called Custom: Plan tier changed.

This means that when a person updates a field with activity tracking enabled (such as changing their phone number), you will see an activity for the change in the person’s view, under Activities. You can also filter people using that activity as a condition.

The custom activity created from field activity tracking can be used as journey entry criteria or in a report by capturing changes from the previous activity value to the new value, such as if you wanted to track a customer’s subscription plan upgrade.

Custom field change activities have a default 90-day data retention limit. Customers on selected Ortto plans who wish to keep the data beyond 90 days will need to configure the activity’s data retention limit.

If you disable field activity tracking after enabling it, the custom activity associated with the field will remain in your CDP but will not be tracking changes (until you re-enable it).

Access the fields page

To access the Fields page, navigate to Settings > Customer data > Fields.

On this page, you can:

• Create a new person custom field,
• Create a new organization custom field,
• Edit an existing custom field, and
• Delete an existing custom field.

Create a new person custom field

1. On the Fields page, click Add custom field > Create person field.
2. In the Create field dialog, specify the Field name and choose from one of the appropriate Field types (below).
3. If you choose any of the following Field types, you will need to specify additional values:
   • Single select
   • Multi select
   • Aggregate.
4. If your field type is Multi select or Aggregate, you will not be able to track changes to the field.
5. Click OK to create the custom field.

Your new custom field becomes available to people records, which are viewable through the People page.

Create a new organization custom field

1. On the Fields page, click Add custom field > Create organization field.
2. In the Create field dialog, specify the Field name and choose from one of the appropriate Field types (below).
3. If you choose any of the following Field types, you will need to specify additional values:
   • Single select
   • Multi select
   • Aggregate.
4. Click OK to create the custom field.

Your new custom field becomes available to organization records, which are viewable through the Organization page.

Supported data types

A custom field can be created based on one of the following data types, although some are specific to people or organizations.

The Availability column indicates whether the custom field’s data type is available for person or organization records only, or both.

Edit an existing custom field

You can edit custom fields only to select or deselect the Field activity feature. Once a custom activity is created, you cannot edit the values.

1. On the Fields page, locate the relevant field and click on its name or the …​ more icon > Edit option.
2. Select or deselect Field activity as required, then click Save.

Only single and multi select custom field types can be edited to add new selectable values. It is not possible to delete existing values configured on existing custom fields.

To add these new values to a single or multi select field:

1. On the Fields page, locate the relevant Single select or Multi select field type and click its name or the  more icon > Edit option.
2. In the Edit custom field dialog, specify any new selectable Values:
   • Click Add value (or + icon) to add a new value field.
   • Use the  re-order and move any existing value to its new location amongst the list of other values.
   • Use the  trash icon to delete a newly added value from the list.
3. Click Save, and your new values are added to your single or multi select field.

Edit a data source field

You can edit most data source fields only to select or deselect the Field activity feature. The field values cannot be edited.

1. On the Fields page, locate the relevant field and click on its name or the …​ more icon > Edit option.
2. Select or deselect Field activity as required, then click Save.

Delete an existing custom field

Deleting a custom field removes that field from the relevant people’s or organizations' records, accessible through the People and Organizations pages, respectively, along with all its data.

To delete an existing custom field:

1. On the Fields page, locate the relevant custom field and click its  more icon > Permanently delete option.
2. In the confirmation dialog box, type PERMANENTLY DELETE in capital letters, and click OK to delete your custom field.