Custom fields capture data for you that is important to your business but not a part of Aha! Ideas by default. You can add any number of fields to suit your needs and every field you add can be reported on through the various Aha! Ideas reporting tools.
To avoid cluttering the UI with unused fields, we suggest that you add only what is essential. Aha! Ideas users create custom fields for expected revenue, priority, hardware supported, campaign engagement, committed customer dates, or any other information that will influence their work.
Adding a custom field is a three-step process. It requires workspace owner user permissions for the workspace where you want to use the custom field and customization administrator permissions to your Aha! Ideas account.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
See these articles for additional custom field functionality:
Add a custom field
Navigate to Settings ⚙️ → Account → Custom fields.
Click on the tab where you want to add the field. Choose either Ideas or Ideas proxy votes (for Ideas Advanced users) and then click Add custom field.
-
Select the type of field you want to add, and then click Next.
When you select an Editable choice list or Tags field for your ideas portal, users can choose existing values but not create new ones.
Enter the field details and, if needed, enter an API key in the Key field. Depending on the custom field type you select, this step is also where you can bulk edit or assign colors to predefined field choices.
-
Specify the custom layout where your custom field should appear by choosing Use in layouts and selecting the custom field layout in use by your workspace.
If your workspace does not yet have any custom layouts for this record type, then choose Use in workspaces. This will automatically create a new custom layout for your new field and assign that layout to the workspace that you have selected.
Click Create to create your field.
Aha! Ideas record relationships are custom field types that allow you to associate records with other record types like workspaces and ideas. These are a tag type field that allows multiple selections. When configuring this custom field, you can use Filter field values to specify whether the selectable values should span the entire account or be isolated to a specific workspace. Further, users will only see values that they have permission to see.
Customize your custom field
If you created a custom field with choices — such as choice lists or tags fields — then you can customize the color and order of the choices.
To do this, click your custom field in the list of custom fields.
In the Choices section, click and drag to reorder the choices.
Click Manage choices or Manage tag choices to open the Configure options page, then click Edit beside any choice to rename it or give it a specific Color. Click Save to save your edits.
You can add your predefined choice or tag field to your ideas portal as a custom filter. Then portal users can use the filter to narrow in on ideas that are relevant to them.
Place the custom field in a custom layout
What is a layout? It’s where you determine where you want fields (custom and standard) to display on the page for a record type.
There are two types of custom layouts. One is for when the record is first created and one is for when it's viewed thereafter on its details page or in a drawer. You can set a different layout for each type of view — the Record create layout, the Record view layout (drawer view), and the Record view layout (detail view). You may only want to require a few fields for a user to create an idea, for example. But once it has been created and your team reviews it internally, your workflow might require many more fields.
Navigate to Settings ⚙️ → Account → Custom layouts to add your custom field to a layout. If you added your custom field to a layout while creating it, use this page to adjust where on a layout you want your field to appear.
On the Configure custom layouts page, first select the record type whose layout you would like to edit or create.
Click Add custom layout to open the custom layout builder and create a new custom layout.
Click on an existing layout to open the custom layout builder and edit the layout.
Ideas have several different layouts available. When you add custom fields to your ideas layouts, be sure to choose the correct ideas layout.
In either case, use the Layouts dropdown to select whether you would like to modify the Record create layout or the Record view layout, then:
Drag fields to add, rearrange, or remove them for each layout type — you can even create custom fields in the Record view layout.
Click and drag tabs to the order that best fits your needs.
In the Record create layout, you can mark individual fields as Required. Users will not be able to create the record using your layout until they enter information into all the Required fields.
-
In the Record view layout, you can mark individual fields as Read-only. You can also toggle between Detail and Drawer views. Read-only fields prevent a user from editing them from the detail or drawer views of a record.
Read-only views can still be edited through integrations, reports, roadmaps, or the Aha! API.
Apply your custom layout to your workspace
Now that you have your layout defined, it is time to determine which workspaces it will apply to. Go to Settings ⚙️ → Workspace → Configure. Scroll to the Custom layouts section and then select Customize layouts.
Search for custom field values
You can use Aha! Ideas search to search for custom field values for most types. The following custom field types are searchable:
Text
Note
Number
URL/Email
Predefined choice list
Editable choice list
Predefined tags
Tags
Import data to custom fields
After you create a custom field, you can populate it using the Import from CSV tool. Each custom field requires its own column. If you are using a custom field with a predefined list, make sure the data you are importing matches the options in the list.