CAA Product Help

(HELP ?) Circles provide narratives on Training, Explanations, and Hints. These can be related to the overall screen, or to specific items on the screen.

The Custom Data Field function within MemberLink® enables you to create any database field needed by your church. You can access the Custom Data Field screen by clicking the [Customize] gold button on the Home screen.

Any number of Custom Data Fields may be defined. These are also sometimes referred to as "User-Defined Data Fields" or "Church-Defined Data Fields" because the MemberLink® Administrators at your church can create them without involving the software vendor.

Each Custom Data Field may be given almost any name you desire for it. For example, you could name a field like this:
- "Committee Term"
- "Committee Term?"
- "Committee Term Length"
- "How long does this person serve on this committee?"

All four of these examples would be valid names for a Custom Data Field.

** Note 1 on Names: Custom Data Field names must each have unique names, and can be up to 40 characters long. If the field name is longer than 40 characters, only the first 40 are the "true name" and must be unique. Anything after 40 characters is displayed but is not considered part of the name.

- In the example above, the fourth name is 50 characters long -- the actual database field name will be the first 40 characters and must be unique in the database, but all 50 characters will display on the screen. This provides you with a lot of flexibility in naming User-Defined Data Fields and being creative in what useful label for them will display on your screens.

** Note 2 on Names: Custom Data Field names must begin with an alphabetic character (A to Z, either upper case or lower case works). Numbers and special characters are not permitted in the first position of the name.

Custom Data Fields have parameters that can make them 1) searchable; 2) admin-only or viewable by the member; 3) required or optional; and more. All the parameters are described in more detail in the "Help Text" narrative on the Add New Field screen.

The remainder of this "Help Text" narrative provides an overview of this Custom Data Field screen.

"Custom Data Field" Icon Area:

In the color-shaded icon area, you can click on the icons for the following access:

"Add New Field"
Click this icon to go to the screen where you may create a new Custom Data Field.

"Manage Menus"
Click this icon to go to the screen where you may create or change the "Custom Tabs" (or Menu Tabs) that help you organize the Custom Data Fields for presentation on the person's Profile screen.

"Global Change Admin Fields"
Click this icon to go to the screen where you can do a mass-insert of database values into Custom Data Fields -- if the fields are defined as Admin-Only fields.

"Custom Data Fields" Control Panel:

Here is an overview of each column on the CONTROL PANEL of the Custom Data Fields screen:

Column 1 -- Show:
This column is used to customize the CONTROL PANEL on the Home screen display. Using the Checkbox provided next to each Custom Data Field, you may select one, two, or three of these fields to display on that CONTROL PANEL. They will display there in lieu of the Email column and the Phone column.

After clicking on one or more of these Checkboxes, go to the bottom of this SHOW column and click on the [Show Field(s)] button to apply the change.

You may change the "Show" selections at any time, with the Checkboxes, and then click the [Show Field(s)] button again.

Unchecking all the Checkboxes and clicking the [Show Field(s)] button will have the effect of removing the Custom Data Fields from the CONTROL PANEL of the Home screen and resetting it to the default which includes the Email Addresses and Phone Numbers.

Column 2 -- Contents:
This column shows the name of each Custom Data Field that has been created. For your convenience, you can click the column title (notice it is underlined) to sort the Custom Data Fields into ascending alphabetical sequence. The default sequence for this column is controlled by the values in the SORT column.

Column 3 -- Values:
This column shows you some of the parameters you selected when you created the Custom Data Field. It is intended to give you this information "at a glance" so that you do not have to click on the Modify hyperlink and go to another screen to see this information.

Column 4 -- Admin:
This column indicates to you if the Custom Data Field is a Member Read-Only or an Admin-Only field.

- Member Read-Only fields are displayed on the Profile screen in the Administrative module where they are also updatable. They are displayed on the Profile screen in the Member Portal module, however, these fields are not updatable via the Member Portal. This means Read-Only fields are visible to Regular Users but cannot be updated by them. If they see something that should be changed, they would have to notify your church office and request the change.

- Admin-Only fields are displayed on the Profile screen in the Administrative module and are also updatable there, but are not displayed on the Profile screen in the Member Portal module. This means Admin-Only fields are not visible to Regular Users and cannot be updated by them. Users will not know your church is maintaining these fields and you choose this setting when you do not want your Members updating the field themselves.

If an "RO" is displayed in this column, the Custom Data Field is a Member Read-Only field. If a "Y" is displayed in this column, the Custom Data Field is an Admin-Only field. If this column on the data field row is blank, this data field is visible to Regular Users on their screen and is updatable there by the User.

Column 5 -- Sort:
This column is used to arrange the presentation order of the Custom Data Fields. Under a Menu Tab (see "Manage Menus" icon), the database fields that you logically associate with that Tab are displayed on the Profile screen. Using the "sort values" in this column, you can control in what order those database fields are displayed under the Tab. After you enter the sequencing values in the SORT column, go to the bottom of the column to apply the change. You must click on the [Apply Sort] button to actually make the sequence changes.

If the Custom Data Fields were resorted into alphabetic sequence, you can click this column title (notice it is underlined) to sort the Custom Data Fields back into ascending sort sequence.

Column 6 -- Modify:
This column features a Modify hyperlink associated with each Custom Data Field. If you want to view the setup of a data field in detail, or make changes to its parameters, click the Modify hyperlink to go to the Modify Custom Fields screen.

Column 7 -- Remove?:
This column allows you to delete existing Custom Data Fields. Use the Checkboxes to identify those data fields you want to remove, which means to delete completely from the system. Then scroll to the bottom of the screen and click the [Delete Checked Field(s)] button.

** Warning:
Deleted Custom Data Fields disappear from the database and cannot be recovered. They are gone!

Also, the data that was in each person's contact record for this database field is removed, and is gone. Do not remove a data field unless you are certain you no longer need it and do not wish to preserve the data that was in it for each person in the database.

If you want to create a backup before removing the data, use the [Export] gold button to put this data into a .CSV File (spreadsheet format) that you can save and refer to again in the future if necessary.

"CAA Product Help" from CAA Ministries at Support@CAAsoftware.com or 404-551-4230