Custom Activity vs. Custom Object | Community
Skip to main content
A
Anonymous
January 18, 2017
Solved

Custom Activity vs. Custom Object

  • January 18, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 3406 views

Hi there

I am working with a business that book hotels online. I would like to bring this data into Marketo via either Custom Objects or Custom Activities as Marketo will integrate with a custom built CRM.

I have done quite a lot of research and cannot be sure if CA or CO are better to use. Initially it would suggest Custom Activities should be used as one customer could book 7 hotels in one week and we're interested in the event rather than storing the data on the record for long term. But if you then want to reference the booking information e.g. booking room, checkin time, checkout time in email comms, it doesn't seem you can do this with Custom Activities. So would you therefore recommend Custom Objects for this case?

Also out of interest, if Marketo were to release functionality that allowed velocity scripting to work with CA, would you recommend CA for this case?

Thanks very much

This post is no longer active and is closed to new replies. Need help? Start a new post to ask your question.
Best answer by Grégoire_Miche2

Hi Daniel,

CA have a few limitations that CO do not have, amongst which:

  • Limited length of text fields
  • Cannot be updated nor deleted, only inserted (which can be an advantage if you want to keep a strict log of event that cannot be tempered with)
  • Cannot be used in Velocity
  • Cannot be linked to a secondary object

CO have also their own drawbacks

  • Do not show in the activity logs, except for a limited "add to XXX" line

Best regards

Greg

2 replies

Grégoire_Miche2
Grégoire_Miche2Accepted solution
New Participant
January 18, 2017

Hi Daniel,

CA have a few limitations that CO do not have, amongst which:

  • Limited length of text fields
  • Cannot be updated nor deleted, only inserted (which can be an advantage if you want to keep a strict log of event that cannot be tempered with)
  • Cannot be used in Velocity
  • Cannot be linked to a secondary object

CO have also their own drawbacks

  • Do not show in the activity logs, except for a limited "add to XXX" line

Best regards

Greg

A
Anonymous
January 18, 2017

Thanks very much Greg. So could an option be to use both for the one action if you need to reference the data in an email but also want to show it as a custom action?

Grégoire_Miche2
Grégoire_Miche2
New Participant
January 18, 2017

Hi again Daniel,

just edited slightly my answer.

All in all, except if you want them to be used for compliance issues and the details / untempered activity log is mandatory, I would go for CO.

If you have the developper bandwidth and the API bandwidth, using both would also be a good choice. Just keep in mind that you will consume more API calls doing so.

-Greg

SanfordWhiteman
SanfordWhiteman
New Participant
January 18, 2017

Please move the thread to Products​. This Place is for questions about the Champions incentive program.

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement

Loading footer...