New field request: Contact.FirstOrNickname

[SadiqA2304]

I'd like to request a new field for the Contact object:

Contact.FirstOrNickname

• Returns Nickname if Nickname field has one character or more
• Returns First Name if Nickname field is empty

Example 1:
Contact First Name: Jonathan
Contact Last Name: Smith
Contact Nickname: [blank]
Contact.FirstOrNickname = Jonathan

Example 2:
Contact First Name: Jonathan
Contact Last Name: Smith
Contact Nickname: Johnny
Contact.FirstOrNickname = Johnny

Without something like this, I'm not sure what the utility of the "Nickname" field is.

[GeorgeJ4336]

Thanks. This is a great addition.

[SadiqA2304]

@support_appcoll Looks like it works, thank you.

[support_appcoll]

Hi Sadiq,

This has been added. Please let us know how this works for you.

• AppColl Support

[SadiqA2304]

@support_appcoll Yes you are correct about nickname being preferred. Thanks for doing this.

[support_appcoll]

Hi Sadiq,

We will add this as a form field called {Contact.NicknameOrFirst}. We chose Nickname first since that would be the field you would want pulled first.

Richard - the functionality you suggested is excellent and something we may pursue in the future.

We will let you know when this is done.

Thanks.

[SadiqA2304]

Bump for this request. Although this thread got derailed with an irrelevant discussion about augmenting AppColl's syntax, I believe that a "FirstOrNickname" field would save a lot of time and improve the user experience, as many inventors prefer to be called differently than their formal names.

[SadiqA2304]

This post is deleted!

[RichardS3059]

@SadiqA2304 I'm used to programming, so the idea of adding syntax for more control of the templates feels better to me than adding fields that have logic embedded into them. I agree that putting the first name into the nickname field if no nickname exists isn't a great solution, but it does work until they provide something better. You only have to embed the nickname field into your template to get the desired result. It's a little extra setup work to remember to fill in the nickname field when it's not really a nickname, but that's a one-time effort when you create the contact.

I'll always prefer a programmatic way to accomplish the result over fields that have field-specific logic embedded into them, because they allow a more generalized result. For example, none of the several priority fields produces exactly how I often
want priority information specified. As it is, the list of fields doesn't remind me how each version is formatted, so I have to do tests to figure out which one has the closest to what I need, then manually edit the result of the template every time it's used.

If we had a generalized formatting syntax, we wouldn't have to wait for AppColl to create yet another special-purpose field, but would immediately have the ability to get what we want.

[SadiqA2304]

@RichardS3059 I think it's a better solution to add fields and have Appcoll do the logic on the backend, rather than requesting Appcoll to create a new programming language for its end users. I don't think your solution of using the nickname instead of the first name solves anything at all, either - it is the exact same thing, as you're still just using one field and not two.

[RichardS3059]

@SadiqA2304 I'd rather not add yet another field. First Name and Nickname aren't the only fields that could use something like this. For example Filing Date and Official Filing Date. What I'd really prefer is some kind of syntax that allows generally indicating "use field X if it's not null, but use field Y if field X is null." Perhaps something like:

            {{Matter.ClientContact.Nickname},{Matter.ClientContact.FirstName}}

I'm not pushing that syntax. It was just the first thing that came to mind. Even more powerful would be a more generalized IF syntax.

What I end up doing now is filling in Nickname with the first name all the time, and just using Nickname all the time.