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Custom Fields

A Custom Field represents a single field of data (for example a Product Rating). A Custom API is composed of one or more Custom Fields.

Here is a comparison of different types and validation available in Custom APIs vs Non-Core Flows.

FeatureNon-Core FlowsCommerce Extensions
Data Type: String✅✅
Data Type: Integer✅✅
Data Type: Float✅✅
Data Type: Boolean✅✅
Data Type: Date✅✅ Regex possible now, full support planned
Data Type: One To Many✅Planned
Validation: Regular Expression⛔️✅
Validation: Slug/Email✅✅ Replaced by Regex validation
Validation: Min/Max Value✅✅
Validation: Enum(String)✅✅ Replaced by Regex validation
Validation: Enum(Float/Integer)✅⛔️
Validation: Allow null values⛔✅
Validation: Unique(String)⛔✅

Validation​

When creating or updating a Custom Field, validation can be used to limit the values that may be stored in the corresponding Custom API Entry.

note

All validation changes, such as those to allow_null_values and any type specific rules, apply to new entries only. Existing Custom API Entry records are unaffected until updated.

Integer Validation​

  • min_value: Specifies the minimum whole number that can be stored. If set, it must be less than max_value.
  • max_value: Specifies the maximum whole number that can be stored. If set, it must be greater than min_value.

sample integer validation object:

{
  "validation": {
    "integer": {
      "min_value": 0,
      "max_value": 32
    }
  }
}

Even if no validation is set, field_type integer only supports values between -2^53+1 and 2^53+1. This is because the JSON format doesn't guarantee that values outside this range are portable (Source).

Float Validation​

  • min_value: Specifies the minimum number that can be stored. If set, it must be less than max_value.
  • max_value: Specifies the maximum number that can be stored. If set, it must be greater than min_value.

sample float validation object:

{
  "validation": {
    "float": {
      "min_value": 0.01,
      "max_value": 32.01
    }
  }
}

The float field_type cannot accurately represent some numbers and so using very small or large numbers might lose precision. We recommend that API clients use either the integer field_type if applicable , or the string data type if perfect precision or recall is required.

String Validation​

  • min_length: Specifies the minimum number of characters that can be stored. If set, it must be less than 0 and less than max_length.
  • max_length: Specifies the maximum number of characters that can be stored. If set, it must be greater than 0 and min_length.
  • regex: RE2 regular expression that used to restrict the specific characters that can be stored. This must be less than 1024 characters.
  • unique: Specifies whether the field can have unique constraint or not. It must be yes or no.

sample string validation object:

{
  "validation": {
    "string": {
      "min_length": 0,
      "max_length": 64,
      "regex": "^.+\\.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|pdf)$",
      "unique": "yes"
    }
  }
}

Even if no validation is set, field_type string only supports values that are up to 65535 characters long.

Null Values​

All Custom Fields can be configured to restrict the storage of null values for that field on a Custom API Entry. By default, this is true.

sample validation object :

{
  "validation": {
    "boolean": {
      "allow_null_values": false
    }
  }
}

Reserved Slugs​

The following values cannot be used as a slug in a Custom Field.

  • slug
  • type
  • id
  • meta
  • created_at
  • updated_at
  • links
  • relationships
  • attributes
  • attribute
  • dimension
  • dimensions
  • weight
  • weights