Custom Fields, Custom Objects, and Layouts

A custom field is a field your organization adds to one type of Rhythm record, such as contacts or memberships.

A custom object is a record type your organization defines, such as Film or Education History, whose rows are kept in a table on another record.

A page layout decides which fields appear when staff open, create, or edit a record, in what groups and order.

Rhythm describes logic in two ways, rule sets you build from rows of conditions and expressions you type as short formulas.

A calculated field is a rule that works out a field's value from the record's other values every time the record is saved.

Where to find the Custom Fields list for a record type in the Console, what every setting on a custom field does, and what happens to stored values when you change or delete a field.

The settings on the custom object screens in the Console, including names, table columns, sorting, web components, and the default page layout, plus how to put a custom object on a record and why a custom object can't be deleted.

Settings reference for the page layout designer, covering field groups, per-field overrides, tables, conditions, and the default layout, plus where to find layouts, which one Rhythm uses, and what each error means.

The twenty-two custom field types, what each one stores, how its value is shown on a record page, the extra options it takes, and when to choose it.

Reference for writing expressions in Rhythm (field paths, comparisons, text values, and the editor's messages) and for relative dates such as "30 days before the query execution date", with worked examples.

Checks to work through when a custom field you created is missing from a form, a record page, the portal, or the Custom Fields list, in order of how often each cause is the answer.