Custom fields are unique to your business needs and can not only be added and amended, but also deleted. Creating custom fields allows you to store the necessary information for your organization. Both standard and custom fields can be customized to include the custom help text that helps users understand how to use the field. Custom fields are usually identified by a __c suffix.
A business scenario: David Guzman is working as a System Administrator at Universal Containers. His manager, Brigette Hyacinth, would like him to create a custom field to save all participants' social security numbers, but at the same time, he doesn't want to share the field value with every sales rep as the social security number is confidential information.
To create a custom field on a registration object, follow these steps:
- Click on Setup (gear icon) | Setup | PLATFORM TOOLS | Objects and Fields | Object Manager.
- To find the
registrationobject, enter the first few characters of its label or name in the find in page box:
Click on the object label, which, in this scenario, is Registration.
- The next step is to navigate to the Fields & Relationships section and click on the New button. It will redirect you to a new page where you have to select the data type. For the current business scenario, select Text (Encrypted) and then click on the Next.
- It will open a window for you, where you have to enter the following details:
- Field Label: Enter the label for the custom field. In this case, enter the social security number as Field Label.
- Length: Enter the field length; in this case, enter
9. - Field Name: This will be autopopulated, based on the Field Label.
- Description: Write some meaningful text, so other developers/administrators can easily understand why this custom field has been created.
- Help Text: Write some meaningful help text, so whenever users hover on this field, they will easily understand what they have to enter in this field.
- Required: You can make this field required by using this option. Best practice is to use a validation rule to make a field required. Don't select this checkbox.
- Mask Type: For the mask type, select the social security number.
- Mask Character: For the mask character, select X.
It will look like the following screenshot:
Click on Next, once you are done.
- The next step is to Establish field level visibility and add fields to the page layout.
- Once you are done, click on Save.
Use a permission set to grant users access to encrypted files. In a similar manner, create a few custom fields that are marked in numbers on the registration object:
For picklist Meal Choice, use Chicken, Fish, and Vegetarian as the values.