ActBlue Field Tools has several special contact attributes that can be helpful for advanced segmentation of contacts, whether for filtering/targeting or for data analysis. These special contact attributes can also make certain integrations and features even more powerful. In this article, we'll cover what these special contact attributes are and how to use them.
Special Attributes for Contact Filtering
Contact attributes contribute to Field Tools' powerful contact filtering capabilities on the Contacts > All Contacts page.
Geographic contact attributes can be either imported via NGP VAN/EveryAction, or uploaded via CSV.
For NGP VAN/EveryAction import (via sync instructions - see here), geographic attributes are imported automatically; no further action is needed.
To import geographic contact attributes via CSV upload, you must include the following column headers in your CSV; use this exact column header to import data properly:
You can also upload additional special contact attributes via CSV; this data is not currently available for use in contact filters, but it is present in any export databases for analysis purposes.
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Precinct (required column header: precinct_name)
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Address (address)
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Ethnicity (ethnicity)
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Gender (gender)
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Date of Birth (date_of_birth): format YYYY-MM-DD
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VAN ID (van_id)
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PDI ID (pdi_id)
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DWID (dwid)
Custom Contact Data
If you are looking to upload additional custom contact attributes outside of the lists above, you can always use Field Tools' custom fields to power dynamic variables.
You'll first create a custom field (Data > Custom Fields), then use the "slug" of that custom field as the column header in a contact CSV upload. This will import your custom contact attributes, which can then be used in contact filtering, dynamic variables in scripts, etc.
