StoryChief provides a number of standard fields when writing and publishing articles, and when managing social posts and campaigns, however, it's possible that you need additional fields for your articles, social posts or campaigns, which can be used either internally or externally in your blog/website.

Watch our Academy video 📹 for a step-by-step guide:

Start using custom fields

1. Creating custom fields

Step 1. In the workspace, open the menu & select Settings.

Step 2. Go to Settings ➜ Custom Fields.

Step 3. To create a custom field, choose 'Add Custom Field'.

Step 4. You will now be presented with different types of fields:

Text: Used to enter a couple of words or a short sentence
Large text: Used to add a large piece of text, such as a long description
Auto-complete: Dropdown menu from which one or several options can be selected
Single option: Listview with multiple options
Multiple options: Listview with multiple options
Date: Calendar view with a datepicker
Image: Upload an image from the computer, a URL or from the media library. Optionally specify image dimensions
Email: It can be used to enter an email address
File: Attach a file from your computer

Step 5. Fill in all the fields.

A. Label

Provide a name (or label) for the custom field to be recognisable while creating content. The label displayed above the be short and descriptive.

B. Available on

Select where the field should be available, this helps to declutter the view and only see relevant fields on the correct content type.

C. Description

Adding a clear description to the custom field helps other users fill in the custom fields to their best capabilities.

D. Important

When there are important custom fields which aren't filled in, an exclamation mark will appear next to the Custom fields section.

Important custom fields will always have an exclamation mark to indicate the important status.

E. Multiple, options & Dynamic options

💡Tip: Add colours to your custom fields to quickly recognize them in your articles, social posts, or campaigns (learn more).

F. Dimensions (images only)

For images, it's possible to set minimumdimension or crop images to these exact dimensions.

G. Text type & Allowed styles

For large texts, it's possible to choose between plain text & rich text. Rich text allows for an array of styles that can be applied to the text, which can be enabled/disabled.

H. Visibility

Visibility rules for the custom fields are interesting when managing lots of custom fields. This keeps the overview clean and ensures the correct fields are filled in.

I. Preview

J. Field API key

Each created field is assigned a field key. This key should be used to map the custom fields on your website.

Step 8. Fill in the details and click on Save.

💡Tip: Add colours to your custom fields to quickly recognize them in your articles, social posts, or campaigns (learn more).

2. Custom fields on articles - External use

Custom fields can be used to send extra information to your blog/website when you publish the articles to your CMS.

Some examples are:

A Call To Action where a specific banner is included at the bottom of the article
A different publication date (often used to backdate articles)
A second author or a co-author

These custom fields need to be mapped with your CMS, which often requires some advanced API knowledge. This information below is all your developer needs to do so:

For Developers 💻

Each created field is assigned a field key. This key should be used to map the custom fields on your website.

Once the custom fields have been connected to your blog/website, you can start using them by going to the Summary tab of the editor and scrolling down to Custom fields, where you will be able to fill them for the specific article:

Once you publish your article to your CMS, these fields will be pushed together with all other standard fields, and they will all be displayed on the blog article.

3. Custom fields on articles - Internal use

You don't necessarily need to connect all custom fields to your blog or website, but you can use them internally as well to track and keep important information.

Some examples of used cases are:

Create a multiple-option custom field to select what stage the article is at
Create a single option custom field to indicate if the article has been translated or not (YES or NO)
Create a date custom field to indicate when an article has reached a specific stage. This can especially be interesting for people that want to use a personalised approval flow

Next to this, if you want to have a clear overview of the values entered on these custom fields, you can add these custom fields to the Article overview. To do so, go to Articles, click on the grid icon on the right-hand side, and make the custom field visible. You'll identify the custom fields because they show a small tool icon:

The custom field will be added as a column to the Articles overview. Ta-da 🎉

You can also create and save segments based on these custom fields, to facilitate the search and overview of articles.

4. Custom fields in Campaigns

Once you have created custom fields specifically for campaigns, these will now show up every time you create or edit your campaign details.

Some examples:

Budget: The budget that has been assigned to the campaign
Result: After the campaign has finished, the outcome of the campaign
Landing Page URL: a link to the landing page for easy access

As with Articles, these fields will also show up on the Campaigns overview, to facilitate the overview, and the columns can be enabled or disabled by clicking on the grid icon on the right-hand side:

🔔 Note: Custom fields for campaigns are included in our Campaign Pro module.

5. Custom fields in Social Posts

Using custom fields in social posts can also help you track extra info that is not available by default in StoryChief.

Once you have created these custom fields, you can manage them per social post by going to the social post > click on the 3 dots in the upper right corner > Properties:

Some examples of used cases are:

Budget: if you boost your social posts after having published them, you can keep track of the spent budget per social post. Just create a text custom field to enter the amount spent per social post
Create a single option custom field with the YES and NO options to indicate if a social post has been retargeted
As with articles, create a multiple-option custom field to select what stage the social post is at. This can especially be interesting for people that want to use a personalised approval flow

Next to this, if you want to have a clear overview of the values entered on these custom fields, you can add these custom fields to the Social Posts overview. To do so, go to Social Posts, click on the grid icon on the right-hand side, and make the custom field visible. You'll identify the custom fields because they show a small tool icon: