Ability to add a custom field to forms

We have the option to add a Participant Attribute to forms, which gives us the ability to collect certain information not covered by standard fields. This appears to have been intended for including extra details pertinent to each separate registrant (for example, we've used it to collect T-shirt size information for a 5k race). As such, the field will appear once on the form for each registrant, so if someone buys 5 tickets to something, it will appear 5 times. This is really the only custom field we have available in Online Express at the moment.

Once in a while, we would like to collect a single piece of data regardless of the number of registrations (for example, we'd like to ask registrants how they heard about an event, and we only need that one answer no matter how many tickets the person is purchasing), but if we add that as a Participant Attribute and someone buys 5 tickets, they'll be confused and/or annoyed that the field appears 5 times. Worse, if we make it required (as we likely would), people are likely to abandon the form instead of filling it out.

We should have the ability to collect data with custom fields that appear once per form regardless of the number of registrants. Attributes in RE: are flexible enough to allow us to collect all sorts of interesting data, but the current restriction to a one-to-one implementation is a highly limiting factor. It would be theoretically possible to add a field that operates in a one-to-many orientation, recording an Attribute as applicable to the registration itself, rather than individual registrants. In practice, it could be as simple as using the exact same Attribute table, but having the field apply that Attribute only to the primary Participant and not to any of the Guests. That way, we could have more flexibility in the data we collect on forms.

We have people in-house with the skills to develop custom forms that go through PayPal instead of Online Express if we really, really need to collect data that we can't get through OLX, but not all organizations do. Beyond that, it adds extra steps, as anything that comes through a custom form has to be manually entered into Raiser's Edge after-the-fact. Adding a custom field would open doors for a lot of organizations that turn to OLX for the simplicity it offers.

  • Guest
  • Jan 13 2017
  • Reviewed: Voting Open
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  • Guest commented
    August 20, 2022 06:16

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  • Gabrielle Scott commented
    December 06, 2019 16:09

    Does anyone know if you can customize the gift attributes once added to the form? We would like to ask people if they would like information on planned giving to benefit our organization and when we add it to the form the question is completely condensed and runs over 5 rows. The question is "I would like information on planning my will to benefit TCFD" and it shows up like this:

     

    I would like

    information on

    planning my will to

    benefit TCFD

  • Guest commented
    July 31, 2019 21:26

    Has there been any progress made on this tat anyone knows? 

  • Guest commented
    May 03, 2018 13:17

    I agree -  I need to use online express to allow people to register for a golf scramble and I need to know who else is playing on their team without the one person registering paying for all four players.  I just need a blank field so that they can't type in the names of their teammates so that I can know where to place them.  This seems like it should be a very simple add on to the online express form setup page.  Without this field I can not use online express for registering for my event which is exactly why we wanted to have online express in the first place.   

  • Guest commented
    April 25, 2018 14:26

    I agree! I have a similar problem where I would like my guests to be able to add on a t shirt to their purchase. If an attendee is purchasing a ticket to the event (where there is a participant attribute of dietary preference), and would also like to purchase a shirt it asks for their dietary preference for the shirt order as well. There needs to be a way to customize and distinguish between a registrant (where contact information needs to be collected) and an "add on" or an item. 

  • Guest commented
    September 08, 2017 15:44

    We would like to be able to add custom fields under the Fine Tuning section where we list the Primary Membership Information which will allow members to list there Member ID number and possibly a checkbox which will identify if it is new or a renewal membership.

  • Guest commented
    August 01, 2017 16:03

    We definitely want an added field that we could customize for maiden name.  We are an all girls high school.

    Super important to have customizable fields that only have to be filled in once by the registrant.  Please get this done. 

  • Guest commented
    May 04, 2017 20:53

    we want people who want to register and pay individually to have a field wher ethey can state who they want to sit with or play with (as in a golf-foursome)

  • Guest commented
    May 04, 2017 20:52

    Tis would allow a lot of flexibility. My problem is that we have a golf tournament that is set for registering eitehr a foresome or individually. Problem is, some foresomes want to pay individually, but when they do, there is no field that allows them to state who they want to be matched with.

  • Lesley Richardson commented
    February 17, 2017 16:32

    We have recently purchased OLX and encountered the same problem. For the moment we have got around this by asking all our one off questions as 'Gift Attributes' rather than 'Participant Attributes'. We have only just launched our first OLX event so I can't guarantee yet whether this is a sensible temporary workaround or not and how easy it will be to report on this information but it should reduce registrant irritation when registering groups.

  • Guest commented
    February 02, 2017 11:14

    add it as a 'gift attribute' on the 'extras' tab? that's where we collect the data protection permission to contact: https://www.weld-hospice.org.uk/events/weldmars-bubble-rush/

    and this is then just asked once??

  • Guest commented
    January 25, 2017 21:24

    We have the same problem. We have health symposiums that require people to use credentials that we cannot currently request through the form.

  • Guest commented
    January 24, 2017 16:31

    Our organization is very new NXT and we were very excited to create forms with Online Express, but was disappointed to discover that we could only add Participant Attributes and could not add a field to collect additional information from the individual filling out the form. For example, it is very important for us to collect 'How Did You Hear?' information but the forms as they are structures now make it very difficult to do this.

    Is there any progress being made on this idea?

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