When standard field groups aren't enough
MDP ships with dozens of standard field groups covering common patterns — demographics, contact details, loyalty, commerce. But every implementation has data that's specific to the business. That's what custom field groups are for.
brandAffiliationString enum: Home / Trade / OutletCUSTOM
tradeAccountIdString — links to parent trade accountCUSTOM
customerTierString enum: Designer / Architect / HospitalityCUSTOM
portfolioSizeInteger — number of active projectsCUSTOM
For Cordova
The example fields above are real custom additions you'll create for this engagement. None of these are in the standard library — they're specific to Cordova's three-brand portfolio and trade-account model.
Build it in the field-group editor
Custom field groups live under Data Management → Schemas → Field Groups → Create field group. The editor is a tree — add fields, set types, group them logically, save the whole thing as a reusable unit.
- Use namespace prefixes like
_cordova or _helix on custom fields to distinguish them from standard fields and prevent collisions.
- Group logically, not by use case — "Trade Account Details" all in one custom group is reusable across multiple schemas. Splitting them up later is painful.
- Field types matter — String, Integer, Boolean, Date are common. Enums constrain values. Object types let you nest structured data.
- Document the why — every custom field group should have a description explaining what it's for. Future engineers will thank you.
Attach and reuse
A field group only does work when it's attached to a schema. Once attached, every record that uses that schema gains the fields. Multiple schemas can share the same custom field group.
Custom: Brand Affiliation
→
Consumer Profile schema
Web Events schema
Offline Purchases schema
The reuse pattern
One Brand Affiliation custom field group attached to three schemas means every profile, every web event, and every purchase carries the brand context. That's what makes multi-brand segmentation tractable downstream.