Custom Objects

Overview

Custom Objects are a special type of table in the EDP database, designed to extend the customer profile with object types specific to the user’s business. These objects contain their own set of Attributes, and can be used for segmentation, personalization, and analytics.

Custom Object tables join to the Person table using a one-to-many relationship, meaning that a single consumer can have one or more Custom Objects associated with them. For example, a single consumer could make multiple hotel reservations, or purchase multiple flights, or hold multiple subscriptions. A Custom Object record can't exist by itself; it must be joined to a record on the Person table.

The intented use of Custom Objects is to store information that doesn't otherwise fit into other EDP concepts like Orders, Activities, or Lookups.

A Custom Object record can have Activity associated with it. For example, let's say you're using Custom Objects to store hotel reservations. The action take by the consumer (making the reservation) is captured as an Activity, but the information about the reservation itself (date, price, status, special requests, and so forth) is stored on the Custom Object table. Activities don't provide the necessary functionality to adequately capture this information, because Activities are intended to provide a historical log of consumer actions, not to track ongoing, changeable details, like "status."

Custom Objects differ from Lookup tables in that a Custom Object is joined to a consumer, and is part of the consumer's overall profile. Lookup tables are best suited for non-person related data, like store locations, products, etc.

The platform allows you to create a hierarchy of Custom Objects. Every Custom Object table in the hierarchy must have its own primary key that uniquely identifies a record on that table. Continuing the above example for hotel reservations, you could use a nested Custom Object table to store special requests. A single reservation (joined up to the Person table) could have one or more special requests associated with it.

Access

To access the Custom Objects screen, select Definitions from the Main Navigation Menu, then select Custom Objects from the Sub-Category menu.

Features

The Custom Objects screen provides the following features:

Searching and Sorting

Click hereClick here

Search

The search feature allows you to search for a specified text string within the following Custom Object fields: Display Name, Internal Name, Type, Source, Tag, Category label, or Category name

Optionally, in the search field near the top of Custom Objects screen, enter the desired text string.
Press Enter, or click the search button (magnifying glass icon).
The Custom Objects screen is refreshed to show only the Custom Objects that meet your search criteria.
To remove all search criteria, click the remove button ("X" icon).

Sort

The "Sort" drop-down menu allows you to sort the Custom Objects on a variety of different fields. To sort the list of Custom Objects, select the desired sort option from this menu.

Name (default)
Date Created
Date Updated

Navigation

Once you've found the desired Custom Object, you can navigate to the following other screens:

Click the Custom Object to navigate to the Custom Object Details screen.

Create a New Custom Object

Click hereClick here

To create a new Custom Object:

In the "Enter Display Name" field, enter the Display Name value for the new Custom Object.
Click create. The "Edit Custom Object" pop-up window is displayed.
The "Name" field is populated with the value you entered above; optionally edit this value.
The Internal Name is automatically populated based on the Name value. This field is uneditable by default. To edit the Internal Name, check edit internal name. A confirmation dialog box is displayed; click ok. Edit the Internal Name value.
In the "Description" field, optionally enter a description of the Custom Object.
From the "Custom Object Family" drop-down menu, select Batch.

Note: The other options listed in this menu -- Streaming and Synthesized -- are not yet supported.

Optionally, if you want this Custom Object to be Business Unit-specific, check bu specific. If enabled, this option allows you to store Business Unit-specific values in the Custom Object's Attributes.
Click save.

View or Edit a Custom Object

Click hereClick here

To view or edit the details of a Custom Object:

Search, sort, or filter the Custom Objects screen as described above.
Click the name of the desired Custom Object.
The Custom Object Details screen is displayed. See Custom Object Details for more information.

Deploy Custom Object Metadata

Click hereClick here

After you've created a Custom Object, you must deploy the Custom Object metadata.

If you have modified Custom Objects in your account that haven't yet been deployed, a warning message is displayed at the top of the Custom Objects screen. When you deploy the metadata to the server, the process automatically deploys the metadata for ALL modified Custom Objects.

From the "Actions" menu in the top-right corner, select "Validate Custom Objects Metadata."

Note: You can deploy metadata immediately, but the best practice is to validate the Custom Object logic before deploying metadata to ensure no incorrect code gets deployed to the server that could cause issues.

If the validation step passes, you'll see a message that says, "Custom Objects metadata is valid." Click deploy custom objects metadata.
A confirmation dialog box is displayed; click confirm.
If the deployment was successful, you'll see a message that says, "Custom Objects metadata has been deployed."

View Deployed Custom Objects Metadata

Click hereClick here

To see the details of what Custom Objects metadata has been deployed:

From the "Actions" menu in the top-right corner of the screen, select "View Deployed Custom Objects." The "View Snapshot" pop-up window is displayed.
Click the plus-sign to expand the message to view additional details, such as the total number of deployed Custom Objects. You can also drill in deeper, to see details of each deployed Custom Object.
When finished, click the "X" icon to close the pop-up window.

Back to Definitions Overview

Last Updated: April 2022