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What you’ll learn: how fields work: types, required and unique, default values, and text transforms.What you’ll build: three user-input fields on the Marketing model: campaign_name (Text), launch_date (Date), destination_url (URL).Prerequisites: Part 2: Create your governance model.

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Why this matters

Fields are the atoms of Terminus Hub. Everything else (picklists, taxonomies, computed URLs) either produces a field, references a field, or wraps a field. Getting the first three right sets the shape of every campaign record you create: campaigns need a name, a launch date, and a destination URL. The settings you choose now (required, unique, lowercased, underscored) are what make later steps like utm_campaign assembly reliable.

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Concepts first

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Fields are defined once, on the model

A field is a definition on the governance model. Any taxonomy in the same model can reference it. You will see this pay off in Part 8, when the same campaign_name field appears on all three taxonomies without being redefined. This part only creates the definitions. Nothing is connected to a taxonomy yet.

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User-input versus computed fields

Field types split into two families. User-input fields (Text, URL, Date, Dropdown) accept a value a person types or picks. Computed fields (Concatenation, Tagged URL, Short URL, QR Code, Auto Number, Random, Constant, Terminus ID) are generated by the system from other fields, so a submitter never types their value directly. This part adds three user-input fields. Part 7 adds the computed chain on top of them.
There is no generic “number” or “true/false” field type. A sequential counter is the Auto Number computed type, and a fixed value is the Constant computed type. See the field reference for the full catalog.

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Common field settings

A few settings show up on most user-input fields:
  • Required: a submission with this field blank cannot be approved.
  • Unique: two approved records in the same taxonomy cannot share the same value.
  • Default: the starting value when someone opens a new row.
  • Description: help text shown to the submitter under the field.

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Text transforms

Text fields can reshape whatever the user types before it is stored. Two transforms matter for this tutorial:
  • Case set to lowercase (transform_case: lowercase): “Black Friday 2026” becomes black friday 2026.
  • Spaces set to replace with underscore (transform_spaces: replace_underscore): black friday 2026 becomes black_friday_2026.
Applied together, campaign_name = "Black Friday 2026" is stored as black_friday_2026. That is what makes it safe to drop into a URL in Part 7 without manual cleanup.

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Step by step

1

Open the new-field form

Open the Marketing model, go to Fields, then create a new field.
2

Create campaign_name (Text)

Name: campaign_name. Type: Text. Turn on Required and Unique. Under the text transforms, set Case to lowercase and Spaces to replace with underscore. Save. The field appears in the model’s field list.Worked example: a user types Black Friday 2026. The transforms fire in order, case first (black friday 2026), then spaces (black_friday_2026). The stored value is black_friday_2026.
3

Create launch_date (Date)

Create another field. Name: launch_date. Type: Date. Build the display format from the date components in the order year, month, day, with no separator, so a date renders as 20261115. Set Default to today and Earliest allowed date to today. Save. The new field appears below campaign_name.
4

Create destination_url (URL)

Create one more field. Name: destination_url. Type: URL. Under allowed protocols, keep https and turn off http so only secure addresses are accepted. Leave the default value blank. Save. The third field appears in the list.
Screenshot coming soon: Part 3 field list.

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Check your work

  • Three fields exist on the Marketing model: campaign_name, launch_date, destination_url.
  • campaign_name is Text with required, unique, lowercase, and replace-spaces-with-underscore set.
  • launch_date is Date, formatted year-month-day with no separator (so 20261115), with today as both the default and the earliest allowed date.
  • destination_url is URL and accepts only https addresses.
  • None of the fields are connected to a taxonomy yet. That happens in Part 8.

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What you just built

The model has its first three fields. None are computed and none are on a form yet. They are sitting in the shared field library, waiting to be referenced.

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Gotchas

  • Field type cannot change after the field is created. If you picked the wrong type, delete the field and create it again. There is no “change type” control.
  • Required with no default means the submission cannot be approved until a value is entered. launch_date sidesteps this because its default is today. campaign_name has no default, so the submitter must type something.
  • Lowercase applies to the stored value, not just the display. Once saved, the value really is lowercase, and computed fields downstream see the transformed version, not the original.
  • A URL field that allows only https rejects http:// input at validation time. This is deliberate: tagged URLs should not fall back to insecure destinations.

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Next up

Part 4: Static picklists. Create the Goals picklist and its goal dropdown field. For everything a field type can do, see the field reference.