Cascading Custom Fields in Plans & Boards

Lee Dussinger Updated by Lee Dussinger

Cascading Custom Fields in Plans & Boards

Cascading Custom Fields is a powerful feature designed to ensure key information is included, while eliminating the need for manual entry. When you set a value for a cascading custom field on a parent block within a Plan (like a Campaign), that value is automatically inherited by all of its child blocks like sub-campaigns and individual Moments. Cascading custom fields allow both the presence of the field as well as the information entered into that field to be passed down.

This ensures that critical information, such as target audiences, product SKUs, or regional markets, remains consistent throughout an entire initiative. It saves time, prevents data entry errors, and provides a reliable foundation for organizing and reporting on your work. In addition, having this information on plans and Moments will be crucial in leveraging the forthcoming feature: Smart Swimlanes.

How to Use Cascading Custom Fields

  1. Click the Opal Options (...) menu in the top-left corner and navigate to Configure Workspace.
  2. From the configuration menu, select Custom Fields.
  3. You can either Create a new custom field or click the three-dot menu next to an existing one and select Edit.
  4. In the details panel that appears on the right, find the Cascade Selected Values option and toggle it on. A description will confirm that "Values selected will cascade from parent to child blocks, unless overridden."
  5. In Configure Workspace, navigate to the Types section.
  6. Select the Type that will serve as the parent block in your plans (e.g., "Campaign").
  7. In the edit panel, scroll down to the Fields section.
  8. Search for and add the custom field you just configured. It will appear in the list with a "Cascading" tag, visually confirming its behavior.
  9. Navigate to Plans and open the relevant plan.
  10. Select a parent block that uses the Type you configured in Part 2.
  11. In the details panel on the right, find the cascading custom field and set its value. Now, open any child block nested under that parent. You will see that the custom field is already populated with the value you set on the parent.

You can always manually override the specific information in the cascading custom field - without changing the information in any other child or parent field.

Most Common Use Case

From what we've seen of how users leverage this feature, the most common use case enables setting specific tactics per geographic region. Customers start by setting a cascading custom field that lists all of the possible tactics the brand employs. Regional plans are added to that parent campaign, and as a result, they come with a custom field that lists all of the possible tactics. On a region-by-region basis, users can remove the marketing tactics that won't be used in the specific region. This makes it easy to ensure that the correct tactics are always reflected in the plan for each region.

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