Adding custom fields to user attributes

About custom data for attributes

Custom data are fields that you can add as user attributes to your user profiles. They can be filled with data.

In this article we cover

• the benefits
• when to use it
• the implementation within the Snippet
• reviewing what data is passed on

Why use it

• Personalization: Custom data allows you to tailor user experiences by capturing specific user attributes relevant to your application or platform.

• Targeting: With custom attributes, you can create user segments based on specific criteria, enabling targeted messaging, content, or features for different user groups.

• Analytics: Custom attributes help gather valuable data for analysis, allowing you to gain insights into user behavior, preferences, and trends.

• Automation: By leveraging custom attributes, you can automate processes or workflows based on user attributes, such as triggering personalized Guides, tooltips or announcements.

• Flexibility: Custom attributes provide flexibility to adapt and extend user profiles as per your application's evolving needs, ensuring scalability and customization options.

When to use it

If you want to pass on data to target specific user groups. You can use the attributes to base your User Segments on them.

Before you proceed, make sure you’ve already planned and created all custom data fields that you will need.

The Implementation within the Snippet

1. Your general Snippet

Every account has a unique account ID which is also included for the Java Script snippet to load Userlane within an application. This can be found in the Userlane Portal.

2. Know where to amend the Snippet

To amend the snippet to save data in the user profile of the current user, you need to add an identify command in the snippet:

Userlane('identify', currentUser.id, {
  attribute_key: 'attribute_value'
});

Example snippet:

// load Userlane

(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['UserlaneCommandObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)};a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','https://cdn.userlane.com/userlane.js','Userlane');



// TODO: the command below is just for illustration purposes
// it's definition must be changed to work for your application

var currentUser = please_replace_this_with_your_api_call.getCurrentUser(); // returns an object with id and other data of the current user who’s using the application in this moment



// identify the user for Userlane

Userlane('identify', currentUser.id, {

 // TO DO: these fields below are defined by you.
 // Below are just examples. You must individually customize your own attributes and variables here.

 name: currentUser.name,
 email: currentUser.email,
 permissions: currentUser.permissions
});



// initialize Userlane with your account ID, in this example it is “12345”
Userlane('init', 12345);

3. Decide which custom field data type to use

Every custom field has a data type. It can only accept data that fits this type. These types are defined when the custom data field is first created and can not be changed afterward.

Supported data types:

• True/false:

  Custom true/false fields accept JavaScript booleans. We also parse values like 1, 0, “yes” and “no” to their respective true/false value.  
  Example:

Userlane('identify', currentUser.id, {
  is_admin: true
});

• Text:

  Custom text fields accept JavaScript strings. There is no length limit on individual strings but all custom data may not exceed the size of 500kb.
  Example:

Userlane('identify', currentUser.id, {
  description: 'Some text description'
});

• Number: 

  Custom number fields accept JavaScript numbers, both integers and decimals/floats.
  Example:

Userlane('identify', currentUser.id, {
  store_number: 224
});

• Date and time:

  Custom date and time fields accept strings that represent a timestamp in any of these formats:

Example:

Userlane('identify', currentUser.id, {
  date_created: '2020/02/20 23:42:51' 
});

• List:

  Custom list fields accept JavaScript arrays. We only accept string and integer elements in the array. The order of the elements in the array is not considered. When a new array is provided, we’ll override the previous array entirely.
  Example:

Userlane('identify', currentUser.id, {
  roles: ['admin','editor','user']
});

After creating the Attributes, you can create a User Segment you can then apply to specific Userlane content.

Check what Attributes are passed on

When you already implemented the Snippet, you can check in the Developer Tools what information is being passed on.

1. Open the Developer Tools and navigate to the Network tab

2. Once in the Network tab, enter ‘bootstrap’ in the filter:

3. After entering ‘bootstrap’, refresh the page to re-trigger the Userlane commands

4. Then you will find two bootstrap options under the ‘Name’ column, click to open the bootstrap

5. Upon opening the bootstrap, you will be able to see the implemented attribute keys as well as their values for your users in the ‘Payload’ tab under customerUser/customData