User Defined Fields

Modified on Sun, 24 Sep, 2023 at 4:51 PM

Collect custom information from customers

Use User Defined Fields to add custom labeled text boxes to various forms in the shopping cart. You can make each field required or optional and set rules that require the user to enter specific types of data. You can also set the minimum and maximum number of characters allowed in the field.

For example, if you wanted to require your customers to enter their birth date in the "Billing Information" section of the shopping cart, you would perform the following steps in the "Optional User Defined Fields" section:

1. Enter "Birth date" in the "Field Name" box.
2. Select "Billing Information" in the "Placement" box.
3. Select "Date mm-dd-yyyy" in the "Validation" box.
4. Check the box under "Required."
5. Click on the "Save" button.

Pass a value to the shopping cart and retrieve it after an order is processed

User Defined Fields also allows you to pass user defined data to the shopping cart inside "add to cart" or "view cart" forms and later retrieve that data in autoresponders, order tracking code or silent post requests.

For example, if you require customers to "log in" to your web site before they can purchase products and want to pass their account ID to the shopping cart, you would perform the following steps in the User Defined Fields section:

1. Enter "Account_ID" in the "Field Name" box.
2. Select "Passed to cart" in the "Placement" box.
3. Click on the "Save" button.

Then, in your "add to cart" or "view cart" forms, you would add the following hidden form field:

<input type="hidden" name="user1" value="actual account ID">

To pass a second value, you would insert another hidden form field but use "user2" for the name.

This is an advanced feature, which is normally only used if your web site uses server or client-side scripting that can insert a value into the hidden form field.