Preface
We suggest that you first read about our different custom database field types before learning how to manage the fields in your custom database.
Please make sure that you're logged into your custom database. You can log in by going to your database homepage, hovering over the My Account menu in the top-right corner of the page, and clicking the Sign In link.
Once you're logged in, head to your account area by hovering over your email address in the top-right corner of the page and clicking the Account Dashboard link. From your account area, find your database under My Database in the left-hand navigation and click the Fields link. That will take you to your custom database's field management.
Custom Database Field Management
The Fields page is one tab in a row of settings at the top of the page: General, Fields, Popups, Reports, and Privacy. The Fields tab lists every field that's currently associated with your database, grouped into seven categories: General Information, Health Information, Genetic Information, Additional Information, Contacts, Media, and Record Settings. These categories mirror how fields are grouped on your animal add/edit form.
To add a new field, scroll down to the category you'd like to add it under (e.g. Additional Information) and click the Add New [Category] Field button in the card's header.
A popup will open with a dropdown of every field type you can add. The list includes both our predefined fields (Breed, Color, DNA, Photo, etc.) and our generic custom field types (Text Field, Dropdown Field, Numeric Field, URL Field, Contact Field, etc.). Pick a field type and click OK. The popup will close and the new field will appear at the bottom of the category with its preferences already expanded so you can configure it.
Please note: changes to a field aren't saved until you click the green Save Field button at the bottom of that field's preferences. Each field is saved independently, so you can tweak one field at a time without touching the others.
Each field on the page is collapsed by default. Click the chevron on the left of a field's row to expand it and view its preferences. You can also drag any field by the grip handle on the right side of its row to reorder fields within a category. Fields that can't be removed (Name, Sex, Sire, Dam, Date of Birth, Locks) are marked with a small "This field cannot be removed" label.
Depending on the type of field you selected, the preferences panel will show some combination of the following options. Every field has the first three; the rest appear only when they apply.
Common to all fields
Title / Label: The label your users see on the add/edit form and in reports.
Category: Which of the seven categories the field is grouped under. Changing the category moves the field on both the add/edit form and in the informational popups on the reports.
Description / Help Text: A short hint that will display as help text underneath the field on the add/edit form.
Only Administrators can edit this field: When checked, only users with the administrator role can change the value of this field.
Only Administrators can view this field (internal use only): Hides the field from non-admins entirely. Useful for private notes or internal tracking fields. If you check this, the "can edit" admin-only option is enabled automatically.
Require this field when adding or editing an animal: The add/edit form will not save unless a valid value is provided. Note: if "Only Administrators can edit this field" is also checked, only administrators will be able to add or edit records.
Hide this field on the Create New Animal form: When checked, this field is hidden on new records and only shown when editing. Useful for trimming the add form down to essentials.
Display this field in an "Info Card" below the pedigree report: Adds the field's value to a compact info card shown beneath the pedigree report on the animal's page.
Hide this field from the Directory sort dropdown: Removes the field from the options your users can sort your directory by.
Dropdown, Breed, Color, Markings, and other tag-style fields
Maximum entries allowed: How many values your users can associate with a single record (up to 10).
Dropdown options: The values that populate the dropdown. Type a new value and press Enter, Return, or Tab to add it. Duplicate options are removed automatically. If you leave this empty, the field is completely free-form and users can type any value they like.
Allow users to add custom values: When checked, users can type a value of their own even if the dropdown has options defined. When unchecked, users must pick from the options you've entered.
Date fields (including Date of Birth and Date of Death)
Allow only year when an exact date isn't known: Lets users enter just a year (e.g. 1990) instead of a full date.
Allow decades when the exact date is unknown: Lets users enter a decade (e.g. 1850s). Only available when "Allow only year" is also checked.
Allow approximate or questionable dates: Lets users prefix a year with a tilde (~1990) or suffix a date with a question mark (1990-05-23?) to indicate uncertainty.
Estimate the YOB of sire/dam when they are added to the database: For the Date of Birth field only. When enabled, if you add a sire or dam from an offspring's edit page, we'll estimate the parent's year of birth based on the offspring's year of birth and the Sire/Dam Age Estimate (In Years) value you set.
Length / Height, Weight, and Numeric fields
Allowed Units: For Length/Height, pick from mm, cm, in, hh (hands), ft, m, km. For Weight, pick from g, oz, lb, kg. Only the units you select will appear in the dropdown next to the value.
Minimum value allowed and Maximum value allowed: Constrain how small or large a number users can enter. Please note that these are not unit-based. A max of 90 means 90 regardless of the unit selected.
Registry Number
Registries (optional): If you want to force users to pick a registry whenever they enter a registry number, add the registry names here. Once at least one registry exists, a dropdown will appear next to the number on the add/edit form.
Automatically generate a unique registry number if one is omitted when creating a new record: When enabled, any new record saved without a registry number will have one generated automatically, starting from the Next generated registry number value you specify.
Automatically generate a registry number for the sire and dam when creating at the same time as their offspring: When enabled, auto-generation also applies to parent records created via the offspring's add/edit page.
URL Field
URL Display Format: Choose whether links display as the full URL or just the domain (e.g. youtube.com).
Allowed Domains (optional): Restrict URLs to a specific set of domains. Use *.domain.com to allow any subdomain. Leave empty to allow any URL.
Allow users to enter custom display text for each URL: When enabled, users can provide their own link text (e.g. "Watch Video" instead of the full URL).
Contact Field
Contact fields (used for breeders, owners, trainers, etc.) have a set of checkboxes that control which pieces of contact information appear on the entry form: address, city, state, zip, country, phone, and email. Turn on only the ones you care about.
Basic Text Field
Directory / Search Behavior: Controls how your users' searches match this field in the directory. Options are Allow a partial match anywhere in the value (wildcard), A partial search must match the beginning of the value (anchored), or Force an exact match on the value.
Comments
Use Markdown editor and formatting: Swaps the plain textarea for a Markdown-aware editor so your users can add headings, bold, italics, lists, and links to their comments.
Breeding Status
Associate different breeding statuses for males and females: When enabled, the field splits into two dropdowns, one for males and one for females, so you can offer sex-appropriate statuses (e.g. Gelding for males, Spayed for females).
Display breeding status in place of sex in reports: When enabled, the animal's breeding status (e.g. Gelding) appears in place of its sex (Male) in reports.
Sire and Dam
Show breed dropdown next to the Sire/Dam field: Adds a breed dropdown alongside the parent-name input on the add/edit form, useful if your registry tracks cross-breed parents.
Once you've configured a field the way you want, click Save Field. If a field isn't required, you'll also see a Delete Field link next to the save button to remove it from your database entirely.