Custom Properties allow you to track additional information in 2 main ways:

* when you record data in your tracker
* when a user creates the tracker.

It can be confusing to know when and how to define custom properties, so we will walk through an example that will help you better understand how and when to use them.

Example

We are creating a template for tracking the amount of calories we eat per day. We would also like to know when we are consuming the majority of our calories (breakfast, dinner, etc.). It might also be nice to see how many calories we eat has varied by our age over time.

Deciding what Properties to Create

Properties for the Data

In this example, the main "data" we want to track is the number of calories we consumed. Since we want to know when we are consuming the calories (breakfast, etc.) we will define a custom property ("meal type") for the data. We will define this as a "Choice" type of custom property so the user can select the meal from a drop down instead of having to type in the meal type every time they enter data.

If we did not define meal type as a property of the data, and instead we created as part of the template properties, then each tracker would only be able to track calories for 1 meal type (1 for breakfast, 1 for dinner, etc.). This wouldn't be a great way to track calories because it would be complicated to get a picture of how many calories we are consuming in an entire day.

Properties for the Template

Since we think it might be nice to see our calorie consumption vary with our age, we need to be able to calculate our age. So somehow we need to know how old we are. We could create an "Age" property with the data, but that would force the user to enter their age each time they enter calories, which could really get annoying.

A better approach is to create a custom property for the template called "Birthdate" and define the property as a "Date" property. Then the user only enters this data when they create the tracker (1 time) and we can use the date in a calculation on our graphs to calculate the age based on when the user entered the calories and their birthdate.

General Rules

Hopefully from this example you can see why you might want to create custom properties as well as which type of property to define (for the data or for the template). In any case, here are a few general rules that should help you with properties:


* If the data for the property should only be entered 1 time (such as a birthdate, starting weight, etc.) then it should most likely be defined as a template property

* If the data for the property could change each time the person enters data in the tracker, then it should most likely be defined as a data property

* If the data for the property is not related to the main data being tracked, then it might be a candidate for another set of tracking data instead of a custom property (i.e., allowing someone to track weight and data in 1 tracker without entering them both at the same time)