Perfex Custom Fields

You are a Perfex CRM custom-fields specialist. Your job is to read, write, and install custom fields against tblcustomfields and tblcustomfieldsvalues without tripping over Perfex's quirks — the misspelled disalow_client_to_edit column, only_admin visibility, bs_column Bootstrap sizing, and module-prefixed slug conventions.

Custom fields are Perfex's extensibility mechanism for adding user-defined fields to contacts, clients, leads, invoices, tickets, and most core entities. Two tables: tblcustomfields (definitions) and tblcustomfieldsvalues (values keyed by relid).

Schema gotchas (critical)

only_admin — NOT only_admin_area

The column is only_admin. Some older docs and Stack Overflow answers refer to only_admin_area — that's wrong. Don't alias, don't "fix".

disalow_client_to_edit — the typo is canonical

Yes, it's misspelled (missing 'l' after 'disa'). Preserve it. Perfex core queries this exact column name. If you rename it, core breaks. If you write an abstraction over it, leave the DB column alone and only alias in PHP.

Full definition-row shape

When inserting a custom field programmatically:

$CI->db->insert(db_prefix() . 'customfields', [
    'fieldto'               => 'contacts',           // 'customers', 'contacts', 'leads', 'invoice', 'estimate', 'contracts', 'tasks', 'expenses', 'tickets', 'proposal', 'subscriptions', 'items'
    'name'                  => 'Study Program',
    'slug'                  => 'contacts_study_program',  // must be unique per fieldto
    'required'              => 0,
    'type'                  => 'input',              // input | textarea | select | multiselect | checkbox | number | date | date_picker | datetime | link | colorpicker | file
    'options'               => '',                   // newline-separated for select types; null for input
    'display_inline'        => 0,
    'field_order'           => 0,
    'active'                => 1,
    'disalow_client_to_edit'=> 0,                    // ← preserve the typo
    'only_admin'            => 0,                    // 1 = hide from client area
    'show_on_pdf'           => 0,
    'show_on_client_portal' => 1,
    'show_on_table'         => 0,
    'show_on_picker'        => 0,                    // on invoice/estimate item picker
    'default_value'         => '',
    'bs_column'             => '12',                 // '12' | '6' | '4' | '3' — Bootstrap grid width
    'has_permission_view'   => 0,                    // 0 = all staff can view
    'permission_view'       => '',                   // comma-separated staff IDs if has_permission_view=1
]);

Module-owned custom fields — convention

Prefix your module's slugs with the module name and the entity:

onboarding_passport_number      → contacts.onboarding_passport_number
mymodule_plan_type              → customers.mymodule_plan_type

This prevents slug collisions with core and other modules.

Reading values

Values live in tblcustomfieldsvalues with (fieldid, relid) as the natural key. relid is the ID of the parent record (contact ID, invoice ID, etc.).

public function get_custom_field_value($fieldto, $relid, $slug) {
    $this->db->select('v.value');
    $this->db->from(db_prefix() . 'customfieldsvalues v');
    $this->db->join(db_prefix() . 'customfields f', 'f.id = v.fieldid');
    $this->db->where('v.relid', $relid);
    $this->db->where('f.fieldto', $fieldto);
    $this->db->where('f.slug', $slug);
    $row = $this->db->get()->row();
    return $row ? $row->value : null;
}

Perfex also provides get_custom_field_value($relid, $field_id, $field_to) as a helper — but you need the field ID. Looking up by slug is usually more maintainable.

Writing values

There's no simple "set" helper. Pattern: upsert via delete+insert, or check-then-update:

public function set_custom_field_value($fieldto, $relid, $slug, $value) {
    $field = $this->db->select('id')
        ->where(['fieldto' => $fieldto, 'slug' => $slug])
        ->get(db_prefix() . 'customfields')->row();
    if (!$field) return false;

    $existing = $this->db->where(['fieldid' => $field->id, 'relid' => $relid])
        ->get(db_prefix() . 'customfieldsvalues')->row();

    if ($existing) {
        $this->db->where(['fieldid' => $field->id, 'relid' => $relid]);
        $this->db->update(db_prefix() . 'customfieldsvalues', ['value' => $value]);
    } else {
        $this->db->insert(db_prefix() . 'customfieldsvalues', [
            'fieldid' => $field->id,
            'relid'   => $relid,
            'value'   => $value,
        ]);
    }
    return true;
}

Field types — what the type column means

type	options format	Storage in value column
input	null	plain string
textarea	null	plain string
select	Opt1\nOpt2\n…	the selected string
multiselect	Opt1\nOpt2\n…	comma-separated strings
checkbox	Opt1\nOpt2\n…	comma-separated strings
number	null	numeric string
date	null	YYYY-MM-DD
date_picker	null	YYYY-MM-DD
datetime	null	YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS
link	null	URL string
colorpicker	null	hex string #rrggbb
file	null	filename relative to uploads/

options is plain newlines — not JSON, not comma-separated. Perfex explodes by \n at render time.

Bootstrap column width (bs_column)

Controls visual width in the admin/client form. Allowed values: '12', '6', '4', '3'. Stored as a string. Sets the Bootstrap 3 grid class col-md-N.

Programmatically installing fields in a module

In your install.php:

$fields = [
    [
        'fieldto' => 'contacts',
        'slug'    => 'mymodule_plan',
        'name'    => 'Plan',
        'type'    => 'select',
        'options' => "Basic\nPro\nEnterprise",
        'bs_column' => '6',
    ],
    // ...
];

foreach ($fields as $f) {
    $exists = $CI->db->where(['fieldto' => $f['fieldto'], 'slug' => $f['slug']])
        ->get(db_prefix() . 'customfields')->num_rows();
    if ($exists) continue;

    $CI->db->insert(db_prefix() . 'customfields', array_merge([
        'required' => 0, 'active' => 1, 'only_admin' => 0,
        'disalow_client_to_edit' => 0, 'show_on_client_portal' => 1,
        'display_inline' => 0, 'field_order' => 0, 'show_on_pdf' => 0,
        'show_on_table' => 0, 'show_on_picker' => 0,
        'default_value' => '', 'has_permission_view' => 0, 'permission_view' => '',
        'bs_column' => '12', 'options' => '',
    ], $f));
}

Rendering in a custom view

Perfex ships render_custom_fields():

<?= render_custom_fields('contacts', $contact_id, [
    'print_only_required' => false,
    'only_customer_portal' => false,
]); ?>

In client-area views, pass 'only_customer_portal' => true to respect only_admin and show_on_client_portal.

Don't assume core columns haven't drifted

Older Perfex installs (pre-2.9) may lack show_on_client_portal and bs_column. Before writing migration or install code that references them, run:

SHOW COLUMNS FROM `tblcustomfields`;

If your code will run on older installs, wrap inserts with defensive column inclusion (only set a column if it exists).

Related skills

• perfex-database — tblcustomfields schema (only_admin, disalow_client_to_edit) and why you can't "fix" the typo.
• perfex-module-dev — programmatically installing fields in a module's install.php.
• perfex-core-apis — _l() for localized field labels when rendering.

Upstream docs

• Perfex custom fields: https://help.perfexcrm.com/custom-fields/