How best to store data

[Anonymous]

Hello All,

One confusing part of this system is how the database side stores a contacts details.  Im segmenting my audience based on there interactions with content via the web or emails.  As a download is made a boolean field is set to true for a specific technology that the download assumes the contact is interested in.

Therefore I now have around 15 fields with true or false settings for each of the possible technology interests.

Is there a way to consolidate these values into a single field.  The reason for this is that to build a preference center where each of these technologies can be switched on or off  but prefils from the existing data I have, requires the data to be stored in an individual field per technology.  This requires each of these fields to be on the form.  Adding each field individually makes for an ugly form.  See below for just three of these fields in place. 

Can the spacing be changed? we cant add additional text between fields? Is this the best way to store these settings?

Am I doing this incorrectly?  I have googled and checked the Marketo docs but struggle to find the best way to do this.  I think my thinking is correct but not sure if Im implementing this in the best way.

thanks

Mark

[Dory_Viscoglio]

Hey Mark, the spacing can be changed via the form CSS, although it isn't super-easy if you aren't familiar with manipulating CSS. You can include additional text between fields by adding a "rich text" section instead of a new field.

As far as "best ways to store data" what is your ideal outcome? Having a single field that would list all of the products that a person is interested in? If that's the case, I have created a series of campaigns that I use to create a field value of all of our newsletters, so I could write that up to share if you'd be interested.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, I didnt even spot the rich text button previously so one issue is fixed.

I think at the moment Im recording these technology interests individually, ill see if I can play with the css to make it look nicer.  The check box selection is a nicer looking way to do it but then these are linked to a different database field, but that doesnt inlcude all of the individually set values.  I have an "interest" field which on a list import, values can but put in this field and a set of campaigns checks that field and populates the true and false fields as required.  But I cant map from that field to the form as the values in there can be over written and I cannot record multiple values in that interest field.

I hope that makes sense, not sure I have a database ready brain.

thanks for your help.

Mark

[Nolan_Olsen]

Hey Dory,

I know this is an ancient post, but I am curious to hear how you are doing that.  Trying to find a good example of how a preference center can be controlled by a single field.

Care to share how your setup works?

Regards,

Jai

[SanfordWhiteman]

Sounds like what you want is a virtual checkbox group.

This is an array of checkboxes that can be presented together (and even have intra-group dependencies) but when the form is submitted, each checkbox is actually mapped to an individual field on the back end.  You can create those checkboxes free-form in a Rich Text Area, styling them any way you want.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, a virtual checkbox group sounds interesting.

Is there any further info on these somewhere?  ill have a google and experiment in the rich text box.  Is this something that is achievable just in the normal marketo form interface?

Thanks for your help

Mark