Field templates are how ShulCloud provides automatic formatting of members’ names for things such as addresses and salutations, as may be used on labels or in letters and statements.
A field template is a “formula” by which a synagogue can customize how names (or other information) appears in certain outputs. Each field template is defined using “tokens”. Tokens will pull information from the database when the field template is used. For instance, when a field template uses the token [primary_first_name], the token will be substituted with the person’s first name, wherever the field template is used (e.g., a letter, a statement, a yahrzeit reminder email). There are many tokens available (shown on the field template screen), that reference a variety of database fields (e.g., title, names, email, phone). You will want to ensure that in whatever output you are designing (i.e., statement, email, letter), you are using the field template that best fits. This will likely require some trial-and-error testing.
Field templates can be defined for three circumstances: a single adult account, a two adult account, and an organization. Tokens are available for both the primary and secondary adults on the account, and for “husband” and “wife”. ShulCloud will recognize a male adult as the husband and a female adult as the wife, where an account has two adults of opposite sex (the husband and wife tokens should not be used in synagogues that have same-sex couples). In the example below, the field template for [mail_name], in the condition of two adults, is selected. Note that this template by default uses husband and wife tokens to construct the text that will be inserted (e.g., Mr & Mrs John Doe). The equivalent formula for a one adult account could be [primary_title] [primary_first_name] [primary_last_name], yielding the output of Mr John Doe.
Note also that some tokens provide some “if-then” functionality; for instance, if you want to use a person’s nickname if it’s available, you can use a token of [primary_nickname_else_first]. There are also some tokens that do comparisons to provide output; for instance [secondary_last_if_different_otherwise_primary_last] will compare the last names of the primary and the secondary, and will insert the primary’s last name, unless the secondary’s last name is different. As well, some tokens can control punctuation (commas), depending on field comparisons. It is possible to create fairly sophisticated formulas using the available tokens.
A preview button is provided to view how the formula will appear for each account. This allows you to determine if your formula is defined correctly, for the given circumstance. At the bottom of the preview window for certain field templates, you may see a link which says Reset all applicable accounts. This will cycle through all accounts in the database (this can take a while), and reset the field template for all accounts in the database.
ShulCloud provides five field templates by default:
- [combined_name]
- [mail_name]
- [mail_name_informal]
- [statement_name]
- [account_name]
Two of the field templates, [mail_name] and [account_name], can be overridden at the account level. That is, an account can be specified to ignore the field template formula. This is done by checking the Override button on the Edit Account screen, in either of the following places:
Note that the default [account_name] format is last name followed by first names (e.g., Doe, John and Jane). The first example shows an override to the account name. The default [mail_name] template format results in “Mr & Mrs John Doe” (for couples). The override in the second example switches it for this account to something different. A [mail_name] override is usually required where spouses use different last names. In general, it is better to rely on field templates rather than overrides, because as family situations change, administrator often forget to adjust the override.
Finally, it is possible to create as many field templates as needed. It is fairly common to create a field template for a salutation using first names (e.g., “Jane and John”, which would use the formula [wife_first_name] & [husband_first_name]).
While you can edit the existing field templates, you may also consider adding additional field templates. Some useful templates (name them as you wish) you might consider are:
| Name | One adult (single) | Two adults (two people) | Org |
| [first_names] | [primary_nickname_else_first] | [primary_nickname_else_first] & [secondary_nickname_else_first] | [org_name] |
| [children] | [children_names] | [children_names] | |
| [two_lines] | [primary_first_name] [primary_last_name] | [primary_first_name] [primary_last_name] [secondary_first_name] [secondary_last_name] |
[org_name] |