Below is a list of the field types in the Emarsys application along with their characteristics and some example use cases.
| Field Type | Characteristics | Use Cases |
|---|---|---|
| Numeric field | Max. 24 digits - numbers only (decimal numbers are accepted e.g. 0.5) | For purely numeric values which need to be ranked or grouped, e.g. income, age, total purchases, etc. Numeric fields can be filtered using criteria such a Greater than or Less than. Important note: Values in this field must not start with a leading 0. This will be ignored and can cause some segments to fail. See: Segments - Troubleshooting. |
| Short Text field | Max. 60 characters - alphanumeric | The standard field used to capture most information such as name, phone number, email address etc. Letters, numbers and special characters are permitted. These fields are typically used to identify contacts rather than create segments. |
| Long Text | Max. 255 characters - alphanumeric | As above, but for longer data strings, such as address. |
| Unlimited Text | No limit - alphanumeric | These can store any size of data. When creating them you must also define how many rows will be used if the field is displayed in a form. You should select a number greater or equal to 2 to be able to use unlimited characters. You should only use this size of field after consulting Emarsys Support, as there may be performance penalties if it is used in the wrong way. |
| Date | Day, month, year | These are entered via a drop-down provided by Emarsys. This is then formatted according to the defined settings when importing and exporting. Special filter conditions allow you to filter for dates in the past, today and in the future. The supported date format is: YYYY-MM-DD. |
| Single Choice | Only one selection is permitted; you must define the values. | By offering a preconfigured list of options (e.g. for country/region or marital status), you can reduce user error as well as group contacts into value ranges. Once you have selected Single choice, you can define the field further by deciding to use a drop-down box or radio buttons. |
| Multi Choice | Multiple selections are permitted; you must define the values. | By offering multiple selection you can create a wide variety of segments using the same field. The maximum number of possible choices of a multi choice field is 256. However, for easier handling we recommend not to have more than 20-25 selections within one field. This type of field has no default settings. Once you have selected Multiple choice, you can define the field further by deciding to use check boxes or a multi-selection box. |
| URL | 255 characters | The value of these fields is not altered in any way by Emarsys. Unlike other field types, it is not checked when used in link personalization and encoded where necessary, so that the links are not broken by any characters that might be interpreted as URL syntax. This field type verifies the link syntax (i.e. the spelling, e.g. http://www.yourwebsite.at) which is entered; if the syntax is wrong, an error message is displayed. If you want to include an entire link in a personalization variable, you must use this field type. |