XF 2.1 Custom Thread Fields

[hurricane_sh]

I need to add two custom threads fields, but I don't want to display them for the users to input, can I still use the custom thread fields?

If not, I will add two fields to the thread table, is that a good practice? Will xenForo load and save those two fields along with existing fields?

Thanks!

 

[Snog]

Someone has to be able to input the values into the fields. You can limit who can do that by user groups when you create the custom thread field.

Other user groups will see the values that are entered into the custom fields, but will be unable to edit/input them.

If you add fields to the thread table, you'll need to extend the thread entity with an add-on to load the added fields.

 

[hurricane_sh]

Thanks a lot for your very clear and helpful answers.

I need to use choices as input for these two fields, the choices can't changed in the future otherwise old threads will lose the input, this is a very bad design, IMHO. To work around this, I plan to add these two fields to custom user fields, when a user creates a new thread, I will store the user's two custom fields to thread data. When the choices are changed in the future, old threads won't be affected.

 

[Stuart Wright]

I have had a quick addon developed this week which allows fields to be entered once only.
Plus some fields which are display only in the form.
I or the developer may be releasing it once our migration to Xenforo 2.1 is finished.