Managing Custom Data with User-Defined Fields

Manufacturers and distributors often have complex data challenges, including unique product rules, sales territories with geographic limitations, and legacy contract rules. These data challenges necessitate extreme flexibility in an ecommerce platform for managing and storing this data to provide easy buying experiences based on unique business rules, data, etc.

Znode’s dynamic data schema empowers businesses to manage unique rules and data seamlessly in the ecommerce platform. This flexible data model provides businesses with five distinct methods for data management in the ecommerce platform:

• Attribute Families
• User-Defined Fields
• Dynamic Custom Tables
• Native or “Built-In” Custom Fields
• Custom Databases paired with Custom APIs

Of these methods, user-defined fields offer businesses a simple, straightforward way to incorporate complex rules data into an ecommerce environment without a developer. User-defined fields are among the easiest and fastest ways to add or create data types in Znode and are managed directly in Znode’s admin console.

What Are User-Defined Fields and How Can They Be Used in Znode?

Data is the lifeblood of any ecommerce platform, and user-defined fields enable a business to ensure that all business data can be stored and managed in one system. Similar to attribute families, user-defined fields are created in the admin console, allowing the unique data to be imported into the Znode platform and ecommerce experience.

Attribute families are only used with product information, product categories, and media. User-defined fields can be utilized for nearly any other entity a business needs to include in the ecommerce experience. This data can then be organized into groups and attributes which are added to existing entities like stores, accounts, users, content containers, and forms. Typically, these fields are used to enhance a user’s shopping experience by displaying additional data or content in the storefront.

User-defined fields can be created for a broad range of entities, including:

• Brand
• Carts
• Catalog
• Inventory
• Orders
• Payment Type
• Price List
• Promotions
• Store Location
• Voucher
• Warehouse

User-defined fields can also be used in other content items, such as email templates and banners. Adding user-defined fields to banners, for example, addresses a requirement for detailed display data without requiring extensive database changes and complex custom development.

How Can User-Defined Fields Be Leveraged?

By extending Znode’s dynamic data schema using user-defined fields, businesses can manage unique data models in the platform. This data can support UI data requirements and hold specific data from integrations.

Many businesses have utilized Znode’s user-defined fields to ensure a tight integration with customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Often, these use non-industry standard terminology and are not readily mapped into an ecommerce platform. Other businesses have leveraged user-defined fields to toggle certain functions based on customer needs, such as:

• Shopper identity authentication
• Unique storefront configurations
• Pricing rules
• “Request a Quote” functionality
• Pending order visibility
• Wishlist visibility
• Saved cart visibility
• Voucher functionality

Why User-Defined Fields Matter

User-defined fields can also help improve business outcomes by incorporating more relevant data and enhancing the buyer experience. Companies can easily extend Znode’s dynamic data schema and incorporate critical data from third-party systems. Znode administrators can extend this data, reducing IT dependency and the need for developers to add custom tables and fields to a database.

Znode’s dynamic data model and flexibility save businesses time and reduce the total cost of ownership of managing B2B ecommerce programs.