Special Fieldnames

CMS Builder has a number of reserved “special” fieldnames that provide enhanced functionality. These fieldnames may override standard field configurations and operate as described below.

Field Reference

Fieldname	User Editable	Field Type	Description
num	No	None	The auto-increment primary key that uniquely identifies each record. Every section is created with this field, so you never need to add it yourself.
id	No	None	Alternate name for the auto-increment primary key, for tables that use id instead of num.
createdDate	No	None	Automatically stores the date the record was first created.
createdByUserNum	No	None	Automatically stores the num of the user who created the record. This value is also used to identify the “owner” of the record.
updatedDate	No	None	Automatically stores the date the record was last updated.
updatedByUserNum	No	None	Automatically stores the num of the user who last updated the record.
publishDate	Yes	Date	Record won’t be displayed on the website before this date. This allows users to prepare content in advance and have it appear on a certain date and time.
removeDate	Yes	Date	Record won’t be displayed on the website after this date. This allows users to have content automatically “expire” from the website after a certain date and time.
neverRemove	Yes	Checkbox	This checkbox field indicates that removeDate should be ignored. This lets users have some records that expire (are hidden) after a certain date and other records that never expire.
hidden	Yes	Checkbox	This checkbox field indicates that the record should not be displayed on the website. This lets users temporarily make records visible or not.
dragSortOrder	Yes	None	This field allows the user to drag records in the record list to change their order. Just create this field and add it to the beginning of “List Columns” and “Order By” to enable this functionality.

Category sections also maintain a siblingOrder field automatically to track the sort order of records under the same parent. It’s created for you and doesn’t need to be added.

Adding a Special Field

To use one of these reserved fields, go to CMS Setup > Database Editor, locate the section you want and click its modify link. Create a new field using one of the names and corresponding types from the table above. The field will automatically function as described.