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Yaron_Meiner
Yaron_Meiner
New Participant
May 6, 2020
Question

Null as field value

  • May 6, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 3558 views

I had a user that filled a form with "null" as the company name. Since i am not using embedded marketo forms but backend submission, the value of the company name was null. even if i sanitize the field, the value is still null because it's a valid string. The result of it was that the company name stayed empty and the lead did not sync into SF because of the mandatory field requirement.

 

I have a way to validate and return an error to the user on form field globally in code but i wanted to use the smarts of the nation and see if there is a better way to resolve this. Please feel free to bash me for bad behavior if exists.

 

Yaron

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    2 replies

    SanfordWhiteman
    SanfordWhiteman
    New Participant
    May 6, 2020

    Not sure I see the problem?

     

    All form field values are strings in transit: unlike JSON properties, they're not typed unless the back end decides that some have special meaning, like Marketo also does with  NULL.

     

    If you want to avoid the system-special values you'd need to create your own special value, like [N/A].

    Yaron_Meiner
    Yaron_MeinerAuthor
    New Participant
    May 7, 2020

    I understand that but what happens when the user decides to put 'null' in one of the fields?

    The two solutions here, in my opinion, can be:

    1. As suggested - to replace the value of the field to something else. [n/a] might be a good solution because it keeps the field with some value. this can be done either with a smart campaign or with a piece of code 
    2. My preferred action - to return to form on validation level or mark to the user that they have to put a real company name (and risk that NULL inc is not using a shortened brand name)

    I would actually want to see it as a functionality of the embedded forms. 

      Yaron_Meiner
      Yaron_MeinerAuthor
      New Participant
      May 6, 2020

      I just tested it, it happens also with embedded Marketo forms...

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