Beyond the built-in Home, Work, and School addresses and phones, your Rhythm account can use custom address and phone number types. For example, you might add a Legislative Office address, a Shipping address, or a Mobile phone type with your own name. This article explains how to create, change, reorder, deactivate, and delete those custom types.
Prerequisites
- You need access to your Rhythm account's setup area for Address Types or Phone Number Types.
Where to Find It
Go to Setup › Customers › Address Types or Setup › Customers › Phone Number Types. Each page shows the custom types for that area in the order you last arranged them. Select Create Address Type or Create Phone Number Type to add one, or use a row's edit or clone icon to open the type form.
The Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Any text | Empty | The label people see on forms and in reports for this type |
| ID | Letters, digits, underscores, and hyphens | Suggested from the name | The permanent identifier, which you cannot edit after the first save |
| Applies To | Contacts, Organizations, or Both contacts & organizations | Contacts | The kind of record that can use this type |
| Status | Active/Inactive | Active | Whether this type is offered on forms |
Warning
If you give a custom type the same name as a built-in kind, such as Home, Work, or School, the form warns you but still lets you save. Choose a name that staff and members will not confuse with the standard kinds. The warning text refers to phone number types even when you are creating an address type, so do not use that message to confirm which kind of type you are editing.
Tip
Rhythm tries to infer whether a stored phone number is domestic or international from the number you enter. For example, an 11-digit number starting with 1 is treated as domestic and reformatted for display. A 10-digit number, or one that's otherwise ambiguous, may be left unchanged instead, which is why two similar-looking phone numbers can display differently.
Using multiple address categories, such as Work and Home, can make it unclear which one is the preferred mailing address. If your organization only needs one postal address per record, a single type such as Mailing Address may work better. Consider that before you decide how many address types to configure.
Reorder Custom Types
On the list page, drag rows into the order you want staff and Portal members to see on forms. Rhythm saves the new order when the row moves on the list, so there is no separate save step. Forms and pickers use the saved order the next time they load.
Dependencies and Precedence
- Narrowing Applies To after a type is already in use hides the field for the excluded record kind, but does not clear stored values. For example, if you restrict that type to organizations only, a contact address keeps its stored value even though the field no longer appears on contact forms.
- A type's name can be changed at any time, on any record it applies to, with no restriction. Only the identifier is locked after the first save.
- Names are not checked for uniqueness. You can save two custom types with the same name.
- A custom type's identifier is unique only within its own kind. An address type and a phone type can use the same identifier text.
Change Impact and How to Revert
Deactivate a type when you want to stop offering it as a preferred choice on forms but keep any values already stored under it. Query columns generated from the type also remain available while the type is inactive. Rhythm does not record a date or reason when you deactivate a type, and you can reactivate it later.
After nothing uses a type, deleting it from this setup page is permanent. You cannot restore it from this page, though your Rhythm account's audit history keeps the type's last known state.
Why You Cannot Delete a Type in Use
You cannot delete a custom address or phone type while any contact, organization, or region setting still refers to it. The delete option still appears, and Rhythm refuses the delete only after you try it. The refusal appears as an error, not as a warning beforehand. If you need to retire a type that is still in use, deactivate it instead of deleting it.
Permissions
Creating, editing, cloning, deleting, and reordering custom address and phone types requires access to your Rhythm account's setup area for Address Types or Phone Number Types.
Validation and Errors
You can edit a custom address type on its form and save your changes normally.
| Message contains | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| A record already exists with this name | The identifier you are creating is already in use for that kind of type | Choose a different name or identifier |
| The save is refused with a validation error | The name is missing, or the identifier uses characters other than letters, digits, underscores, and hyphens | Enter the name and correct the identifier |
| The delete is refused, naming a count of dependent records | A contact, organization, or region setting still refers to this type | Deactivate the type instead of deleting it |