Custom Advocate Fields

Store additional information about your advocates beyond the standard profile fields. Custom fields let you define your own data fields with configurable placement and access control.

Common use cases include t-shirt sizes, coupon codes, social media handles, internal notes, or any other data specific to your community.

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Creating a Custom Field

1. Go to Settings > Custom Advocate Fields
2. Click Add Custom Field
3. Enter a Label for the field (e.g., “T-Shirt Size”)
4. Optionally enter an Identifier - this is auto-generated from the label if left blank
5. Choose a Response Type:
   • Short Text - a single-line text field
   • Long Text - a multi-line text area
   • Select - a dropdown with predefined options (enter each option when creating the field)
6. Mark the field as Required if it must always have a value
7. Add optional Placeholder Text and Helper Text to guide users filling in the field
8. Choose a Field Placement (see below)
9. Choose an Advocate Access level (see below)
10. Click Create Custom Field

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Field Placement

The Field Placement setting controls where the field appears on the advocate’s side. This is independent of the advocate access level.

Placement	Where it appears
Account	The advocate’s Account page alongside their name, email, and phone
Profile	The advocate’s Profile page alongside their bio and public profile details, and on their public profile page

Use Account placement for private operational data (coupon codes, preferences, internal identifiers). Use Profile placement for information that contextualizes an advocate publicly (specializations, social handles, years of experience).

A field’s placement and access level are independent. A Hidden + Profile field is still shown on the public profile page when it has a value — the advocate just can’t see or edit it in their dashboard. A Read Only + Account field is visible to the advocate in their account details but cannot be edited.

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Advocate Access Levels

Each custom field has an access level that controls what advocates can see and do with it. Admins always have full access to every field regardless of this setting.

Access Level	Advocate Can See	Advocate Can Edit
Hidden	No	No
Read Only	Yes	No
Editable	Yes	Yes

• Hidden fields are only visible to admins. Use this for internal notes or data that advocates don’t need to see.
• Read Only fields are visible to advocates in their dashboard, but they cannot change the value. Use this for coupon codes or assigned identifiers.
• Editable fields let advocates view and update the value themselves. Use this for social media handles, preferences, or other self-reported data.

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Managing Custom Fields

Editing a Field

1. Go to Settings > Custom Advocate Fields
2. Click the field you want to edit
3. Update any of the field’s settings
4. Click Update Custom Field

Reordering Fields

Use the Move Up and Move Down controls in the field list to change the display order. The order is used everywhere fields are displayed: the admin edit page, the advocate’s Account or Profile page, and the public profile.

Deleting a Field

1. Go to Settings > Custom Advocate Fields
2. Click the field you want to delete
3. Click Remove Field and confirm

Deleting a field removes the field definition, but values already stored for advocates are preserved in the database.

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Setting Values on an Advocate

1. Navigate to the advocate’s profile page
2. Click the Custom Fields tab
3. Click Edit Custom Fields
4. Fill in values for any of the fields
5. Click Save Custom Fields

As an admin, you can set values for all custom fields regardless of their advocate access level.

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Using Custom Fields in Message Templates

Custom field values are available as merge variables in your message templates and contact CTA content. The variable name follows this format:

{{advocate_custom_field_<identifier>}}

For example, a field with the identifier coupon_code would use:

{{advocate_custom_field_coupon_code}}

When editing a message template, your community’s custom fields appear in the merge variable dropdown alongside the standard variables. If an advocate has no value set for a field, the merge variable resolves to an empty string.

Changing a field’s identifier will break any message templates that reference the old identifier. Update those templates after saving.

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Identifiers

Each custom field has a unique identifier used in merge variable names. The identifier is auto-generated from the label when you create a field, but you can customize it.

Identifiers are normalized to lowercase letters, numbers, and underscores. For example, a label of “T-Shirt Size” generates the identifier t_shirt_size, and the merge variable would be {{advocate_custom_field_t_shirt_size}}.

When editing an existing field, the identifier field displays a warning reminding you that changes will break existing merge variable references.