What to put for the API name when creating a custom field? | Community
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July 2, 2013
Question

What to put for the API name when creating a custom field?

  • July 2, 2013
  • 3 replies
  • 1141 views
I need to create a new field, but in order to do so I'm required to enter the type, name, and the API Name. I'm not sure what to put for the API name or exactly what an API name is and I can't find any help articles to help explain. Can someone please explain or point me in the right direction?

Thanks a lot,
Alex
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3 replies

July 2, 2013
API name is what you'll use to call the field from the API.  It has to be unique and IIRC it cannot have spaces.  

Nothing critical here: if you're field is called "eye color" your API name would normally be EyeColor.  Capitalize each word and remove the spaces.


July 2, 2013
The API name would be the name an external program would use to communicate with Marketo. For example, we have a licensing server that talks to Marketo through the API.

I don't know of a standard convention but for API name we use the field name with underscores in place of spaces. So if your field name is:

Customer Shoe Size

our API name is:

Customer_Shoe_Size

some people remove the space altogether: CustomerShoeSize

hope that helps
July 2, 2013
If Marketo is synched to a CRM, and you want this field to be synched to your CRM and not just a Marketo-only field, you should create the custom field in your CRM and make it visible to the Marketo Synch profile.  It will then be created automatically in Marketo.