With a single click on the Delete button on the Edit Custom Field form, all of the data stored in that Custom Field is instantly and permanently erased.
This is dangerous! At a minimum, there should be a stern confirmation and warning message saying that the field and all of its data are about to be erased. Better yet, it should be impossible to delete a Custom Field that has data entered against it, and, even better, there should be an option to mark a Custom Field inactive so it no longer appears on forms but any data already stored against the field are preserved and can be accessed when the field is made active again.
Yeah, I think it’s only a matter of time before someone deletes their custom field… so deleting must be prevented if custom field has been already used.
Thanks. Please consider implementing the “Inactive” option I described above.
Use case: Sometimes it makes sense to get rid of a Custom Field, but you never want to erase historic data irretrievably. An example would be a Fax Number custom field. I have fax numbers for my older customers, but it’s not something we use any more. I’d like to hide the field since it’s irrelevant now, but I don’t necessarily want to erase all the numbers just in case someday it becomes relevant again. Being able to inactivate the field would be the solution.
The latest version (16.8.36) won’t let you delete custom fields which are already in use. This is quick fix to make sure people don’t accidentally delete a lot of data by accidentally clicking on delete button.
Excellent. I’m sure you’ve just saved someone a future major headache.
You’ve already got a way to mark a Customer that is already in use as Inactive, so I imagine when you get round to it, doing something similar with Custom Fields won’t be too difficult.