Member database custom field settings reference
This reference describes every setting available when you create or edit a custom member field.
Field types
Section titled “Field types”The Add field form offers these types:
| Type | Best for |
|---|---|
| Text | Brief values: codes, identifiers, single-line notes |
| Textarea | Multi-line notes, descriptions |
| Number | Numeric values |
| Date | Calendar dates |
| Single choice | Exactly one value from a fixed list of options |
| Multiple choice | One or more values from a fixed list of options |
| Checkbox | Yes/no (true/false) values |
| URL | Web addresses |
| Phone | Phone numbers |
| Email addresses |
When you edit an existing field, the Type list also offers File and Picture (file and image uploads, which export as secure URLs).
Settings
Section titled “Settings”The name members and admins see on the record. Required. Maximum 50 characters. Must be unique within your organization’s field definitions.
Max length
Section titled “Max length”In the edit form, Text and Textarea fields have a Max length — 1 to 10,000 characters. Leave it empty to allow up to 10,000. Raising or clearing it never affects stored values; lowering it below existing answers is a change that needs confirmation (see below).
Settings that aren’t available yet
Section titled “Settings that aren’t available yet”Help text, a Required setting, a default value, an options list, number and date limits, file-size and file-type limits, and the member-access settings (whether members can edit the field, see it in the directory, or fill it in at signup) aren’t available in Settings → Member fields yet. The add and edit forms set only the label, type, category, Sensitive switch and (in the edit form, for text types) max length.
Category
Section titled “Category”Puts the field in a field category, which decides which admins can see and export it.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Default | General — visible to every admin. |
| Suggested categories | General, Finance, Comms, Events. Your organization can add its own. |
| Who sees the field | Admins whose role includes the field’s category, or whose role includes every category (such as Org Owner). Other admins don’t see the field on records, in the field list or in exports. |
| Choices offered | The categories your own role includes. If your role includes every category: the suggested categories plus every category already in use. |
| New category | Shown only if your role includes every category. Type a name (up to 50 characters) to create a category; while the box has text, it’s used instead of the list. |
| Names | Matched exactly, including capitalization. |
| Notice | Any category other than General shows “Only admins whose role includes the ‘{category}’ category will see this field.” |
| Refusal | Choosing a category your role doesn’t include is refused with “You can only use a category your own role includes.” |
| Key already on a directory | Creating a member field whose key a directory already shows is refused with “A directory already shows this field key. Remove it from the directory first, or ask an administrator who can see every field category to create the field.” unless your role includes every category. |
The category affects admins only. It doesn’t change what members see.
Sensitive
Section titled “Sensitive”The Sensitive switch (off by default) marks a field whose values admins shouldn’t see at a glance. The switch describes itself: “Administrators see this value hidden until they reveal it. Only roles with the “Reveal sensitive field values” permission can reveal it, and every reveal is recorded in the audit log. A directory never shows a sensitive field, and it can’t be added to an application form. Changing this takes effect immediately and doesn’t change any stored value.”
| Behavior | Detail |
|---|---|
| Member records, the duplicate-merge screen, the MapleGather API | The value is hidden from every admin until they select Reveal, which shows one value and records the reveal in the audit log. |
| Who can reveal | Admins whose role includes the Reveal sensitive field values permission (Org Owner has it), the field’s category and the member. |
| Member contact export | The column is offered only to admins whose role includes the Export sensitive fields permission, and the value is exported only when they tick that column; the export is recorded in the audit log. |
| Member directory | Never shown, on any directory. |
| Application forms | Can’t be added. |
| Members | Still see and edit their own value if the field lets them. |
| Turning it on or off | Takes effect immediately; no stored value changes. |
Fields appear in the order of the Settings → Member fields list. To move a field, focus its Reorder field handle (⠿) on the row, press Space to pick it up, use the Up and Down arrow keys to move it, and press Space again to drop it. Dragging rows with the mouse isn’t available.
Turning Sensitive on for a field you already use. The edit form warns you before you save: the field’s values are hidden from administrators until revealed, it disappears from every directory that shows it, and existing answers to it are masked on membership-application reviews. The warning doesn’t list which directories or application forms use the field — check the directory field settings and your application forms yourself. A directory or application form that already has the field keeps it (you can save the form again unchanged); you just can’t add a sensitive field to one.
Changing a field’s type
Section titled “Changing a field’s type”You can change the type of an existing field, or the max length of a text field. Stored answers are converted to the new type.
| Kind of change | Examples | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Keeps every value | Single choice → Multiple choice (each answer becomes a one-item selection) · Short text → Long text · a number, date, checkbox or choice → text, when every converted value fits the limit · Image → File · raising or clearing Max length | Applied at once; existing answers are converted in the background (Converting existing values). Can be reverted for 48 hours after the conversion finishes. |
| Could lose values | Long text → Short text with a lower limit · lowering Max length below existing answers · Text → Number or Date · any change into or out of File / Image | Checked first (Checking existing values), then a confirmation shows how many records would have values truncated or cleared and lists up to five of them. You confirm by typing the field’s name. Can’t be undone once confirmed. A narrower type always needs this confirmation, even when no record is affected. |
- A change to Single choice or Multiple choice keeps only text that exactly matches one of the field’s options, so add the options first, in a separate save.
- A rename and a type change in one save are applied one after the other: the rename first, then the type change.
- A change that wasn’t confirmed within 24 hours is discarded without changing anything.
- While a conversion is running, another type or length change to the same field has to wait until it finishes. Large organizations can take several minutes.
- Admins without the field-edit permission can open a field to read its settings (View) but can’t save changes.
Deletion
Section titled “Deletion”To delete a field, select Delete field on its row in Settings → Member fields and confirm. Deleting a field removes it from all member records. Restoring a deleted field isn’t available — the field list has no Recently deleted section or Restore control — so treat a delete as permanent.
A field that is used in a membership-level signup form can’t be deleted until you remove it from those forms first.