Adding Fields

Many times you will be asked as an admin to add a field to the database. Your first question to you National Director or staff member should be why? Make sure that they have a good reason for adding that piece of data. Ideally it should help them build a closer relationship with that Church, Organisation, Contact etc. Remind them that if you create it they will need to train the team to fill in the field.

However, there are also times where you can see that it is a valid request. For example, many churches are starting to use Instagram and other social media platforms to talk to their communities within the church and externally. So adding an Instagram field could be a great way that a Church Engagement Staff Member could quickly have a look at the churches Instagram feed and get a feel for the church.

How to add a Youtube channel field to a Church / Organisation

1. Go toSetup

2. Click on the Object Managertab

3. Use the quick find box on the right hand side of the screen to search forChurch.

4. Click on the Church / Organisationname.

5. On the left hand side of the screen, click on Fields and Relationships (this shows you all the fields that are already created on thisobject)

6. Use the quick find (top left hand side) to check that the field doesn’t alreadyexist.

7. ClickNew

a. Select the type of field you want to have. For this situation I am going to choose aURL.

b. ClickNext

c. Give the field a name (please do this in English and translate it asrequired)

d. Please give a description of what the field is meant to do and if you feel it is not self explanatory provide help information for your team is a good optiontoo.

e. ClickNext

f. On this page you decide who can see this field. At this stage we want everyone to see it sowe

are just going to leave it and click Next.

g. And finally on this page you decide where the information will be shown. For this field we want it everywhere. So just clickSave.

Now that we have created a new field we may find that it shows on the page in a slightly strange place. To change this:

1. Go toSetup

2. Click on ObjectManager

3. Search for the object you want (for this example you wantChurch)

4. Click on the Church / Organisationobject

5. On the left hand side, click PageLayouts

6. Select the page layout you want to use, usually this is called something like Alpha Ministry Page Layout.

7. This screen looks a little old fashioned but it enables you to drag fields around and change the layout of thepage.

8. Move your new field to somewhere else, by clicking on it, dragging it and releasingit.

9. When you are happy with the new look, clickSave.

Updating Picklists

There are times when you might need to add a new choice to a picklist. For example you stumble across a new denomination in your country who are interested in running Alpha.

To do this:

1. Go toSetup

2. Click on ObjectManager

3. Search for the object you want (for this example you wantChurch)

4. Click on the Church / Organisationobject

5. Click on Fields and Relationships on the left hand side of thescreen

6. Find the picklist that you want to edit by using the quick find tool (searchDenomination)

7. Click on the denominationsfield

8. Scroll down the page to the “values”area

9. Click on the new button in the valuesarea

10. Add as many new denominations, one on each line, as youneed.

11. Make sure you have also selected the checkbox “Organisation” at the bottom of the page. This makes sure that this option is shown on these accounttype.

Required Fields

Be very careful when you are creating fields and making them required fields. This can have a serious effect on the connection to the Alpha Digital Platform (myAlpha). If you create a required field on either Contacts, Churches / Organisations or Courses it can stop myAlpha sending information to Salesforce as it will not have something to put in that field and so will not create a record.

If you think you need a required field please check with your regional specialist and they can advise you on the best approach. Quite often the best approach is to train the team to understand the importance of the field.