Profile Fields

Customize profile fields to collect specific information for individuals, allowing for efficient data tracking and reporting within your organization.

Decide which fields display on the main page (profile) for your churches, businesses, personnel, and congregants.

The information entered on an individual's profile becomes your data. So any information you want to track regarding members — from what subdivision they live in to their favorite flavor of Ben and Jerry's— should have a corresponding field set up on this page.

Plan Your Fields Carefully

If you're setting up Realm for the first time, take some time to plan and ask for input from others in leadership. What do you want to track? What congregant reports are you often asked to provide?

Only those people with permissions to manage profile fields can add, remove, or customize profile fields. See Responsibilities for more information.

Users with permission fill out profiles in Realm. That data is stored in Realm and used to track attendance, track contributions, communicate with people, manage groups and events, and create reports.

Create Custom Profile Fields

Add your own fields to collect data unique to your needs.

You must have the Manage Profile Fields permission. See Responsibilities for more information.

Note:

Field Number Limit

The number of custom fields cannot exceed 150. This limit includes both enabled and disabled fields.

By default, profiles collect basic information about your congregants. But you can customize them to collect information unique to your requirements. When individuals complete their profiles, you'll be able to see and report on not only the basics, but any additional information you collected.

To let congregants see or edit profile fields, select Allow Users to View or Allow Users to Edit.

In the top-left corner, click your ministry hub then Realm. Then click Profiles > Settings.
On the Profile Fields tab, click Add a Profile Field and customize using the field descriptions and examples for reference.
In the Display For drop-down menu, select which type of profile this field will display on.
Click Save.

Examples of Custom Profile Fields

Scenarios to help you create your own.


Scenario	Label	Type	Values
You want to determine if any of your users have special physical requirements that need to be accommodated.	Disability	Text	N/A
You want to collect anniversary dates for married couples so you can send cards when appropriate.	Wedding anniversary date	Date	N/A
You want to record how many members make up each immediate family.	Members in household	Number	N/A
You want to know if users need help getting to events.	Do you need a ride?	Yes/No	N/A
You want to know which subdivision of the city your users live in.	Subdivision	List	Oak Forest, Druid Forge, Harborview, Hacienda Estates, etc.
You want members to be able to designate backups in case they cannot meet their event obligations.	Backup	Individual	All registered users for your site, including inactive users. This will not display deceased individuals. You do not need to add these. The list will open automatically for users of a field labeled "individual".

Profile Field Setup Descriptions

Helpful details for creating your own profile fields.

This is some of the information you'll be asked for when creating profile fields.

Profile Setup

Label

This is the field name as it will appear on the profile page. While you can change the name of a system field, the information collected in that field will not change as far as your database is concerned. For instance, you could change "Social Security Number" to "Driver's License Number." But other Realm processes, such as those that create reports, will still use the numbers entered in the field as Social Security Numbers. So it is best, if changing these field labels, to retain their original meaning.

Type

This describes the appearance of the field and the format of the data accepted by it. You'll be able to change the field type after you create the field, but only if no data has been entered using it.

Text— Alphanumeric input allowed.
Date— Creates a date field in the format of mm/dd/yyyy.
Number— Only numeric input allowed, and leading zeros will be deleted when entered.
Yes/No— Use when you need a simple response to a closed question.
List— Your users will select a response from options you define.
Individual— When users begin to enter letters, they can select an individual's name from your dataset. Once selected, the item displays in the field and the field turns gray. This means the entry is linked with an individual in your database.
MultiList— Creates a field like a list, but allows you to select more than one value from the drop-down.
System Field— This is the one type of field that cannot be added or deleted. They are "hard-coded" into the website, but most can be edited.

Data Entry and Display Controls

The options in this section help you manage who can view specific fields. They also prevent users from leaving a field blank when completing their profile.

Display For

Some fields are not applicable for all records. Contact Person, for instance, is a field you would want to display for businesses, but not families. Other fields are appropriate for children but not adults.

All – Displays the field on all profiles regardless of type.
Families – Displays the field for all members of a family. If you select a value for a field, the same value will be selected for all members of that person's family. For example, let's say you have a field called "Joined Date" that displays for families. When you enter the date on the head's profile for this field, the same date is applied to the spouse and children records. Likewise, if you change the field value for one person in the family, it changes for all family members. Note that businesses and churches are not part of a family unit, so this field type does not display for those profiles.
People – Displays the field for all people profiles, including congregants and personnel. This field is not shared between family members like it is with the Families type. This does not display for businesses.
Adults – Displays the field for people with a primary family position, such as "Head" and "Spouse". This does not display for businesses. For example, you may want a field like Driver's License Number to display only on adult profiles.
Children – Displays the field for people with a child family position. For example, you may want a field like Grade to display only on child profiles. Note that adults will be able to see a field marked for Only Children on their family record. This does not display for churches or businesses.
Churches – Displays the field for church profiles only. For example, you may want a field like Date Founded to display only on church profiles.
Businesses – Displays the field for business profiles only. For example, you may want a field like Contact Person to display only on business profiles.

Enabled

If selected, the field will be visible on everyone's profile pages.

Required

If selected, your users will have to complete this field before they can save profiles. These required fields will be displayed with a red asterisk when users edit their individual profiles.

Display When Adding Profiles

If selected, this field will display when users add new records.

Allow Users to View

If selected, this field will be visible (read-only) to individuals on their profile pages.

Allow Users to Edit

If selected, this field will be visible to individuals on their profile pages, and they will be able to change its value.

List Values

These are the possible choices for entry into a field. Some fields, such as text fields, don't need list values. List field values can be updated "on the fly" by users with permission to manage profile fields. There is one exception to this, which is that anyone can add information to the Allergies field. For these users, there's an extra option at the top of the list to "Add to list" any new options they choose to enter. List values can be up to 50 characters.

Default

Available for certain types of fields only. Select the value that will first appear in the field when adding a new record.

Profile Alert

This is a "system field" (included by default in Realm). If enabled, someone with administrator permissions can assign alert colors to profile pages. Each color denotes a unique characteristic for the person. The meaning of the colors is not known or stored by the website or displayed anywhere.

Customize Existing Profile Fields

Change field names or settings.

You'll need the Manage Profile Fields permission.

In the top-left corner, click your ministry hub then Realm. Then click Profiles > Settings.
On the Profile Fields tab, click next to a field name and select Edit.
Customize using the field descriptions and examples for reference. Note that you can click a column heading, such as Label to re-sort the list of fields. You can also click and search for the field by name.

Note:
For system fields (those created by us), you will have limited editing options.
Click Save.

Delete Custom Fields

You may decide you no longer need a custom field.

You'll need the Manage Profile Fields permission.

In the top-left corner, click your ministry hub then Realm. Then click Profiles > Settings.
On the Profiles Fields tab, click next to a field name and select Delete. Note that you cannot delete system fields (those created by default when you first set up Realm).
Confirm or cancel after reading the warning.

Organize Profile Fields

Change the order in which profile fields display.

You must have the Manage Profile Fields permission.

You can drag and drop existing profile fields to change how they display within a profile. You can also move profile fields into different sections, such as moving a profile field from Basics to Details.

In the top-left corner, click your ministry hub then Realm. Then click Profiles > Settings.
On the Profile Fields tab, click Organize Profile Fields.
Click the tab for the type of profile field you want to organize.
To change the order of profile fields, click and hold next to the name of the profile field, then drag the profile field to the position where you want it to display.

Move Field Data

You may need to move data from a custom field into a different field.

You must be an administrator to do this.

In the top-left corner, click your ministry hub then Realm. Then click Profiles > Settings.
Click the Profile Fields tab.
Locate the old custom field you want to move data from (the source field), click , and select Move field data.
Select the destination field from the drop-down list. The values display below the field.
Before you can move field data, the source field values must match the destination field values. Review the source field values listed below the field. Click Combine source field values to combine and rename the values to match the destination field values exactly. For details, see Combine Values.
Note:
Notes
- Field values are case sensitive.
- It's okay to have fewer values in the source field as long as the ones you have match one of the destination values.
- You may need to go through the combine values process several times to get all values matching.
When you're ready, click Move field data.
Confirm that you're ready to proceed.

Combine Values

Rename and merge similar or duplicate field values, for example, "Mr." and "Mister" could be merged into one.

You must be an administrator to do this.

Locate the custom field you want to combine values for, click , and select Combine values.
Select each of the similar or duplicate field values from the drop-down lists.
Once you select all the fields to combine, select Keep name for the value you want to merge the others into.
When you're ready, click Combine values.

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