Quick start

You’re installed, your license is verified. Let’s create your first field.

Goal

Add a “Gift message” textarea to the cart page. Customers will type a personal note, the value will appear on the admin order view, in the order confirmation email, and in the PDF invoice.

1 · Open the field grid

Admin → CDA Custom Fields → Fields. Click Add New Field in the top-right.

Or take the shortcut: CDA Custom Fields → Templates → Quick Add → Gift Message. The form will open pre-populated with code, label, type, placeholder, and a sensible applies_to. Skip to step 4 if you do this.

2 · Fill the General section

Field	Value
Code	gift_message
Label	Gift Message
Field Type	Text Area
Applies To	Cart — Shopping cart page
Active	Yes
Required	No (let customers skip)
Sort Order	10

3 · Fill the Display & Defaults section

Field	Value
Placeholder	Your personal message — e.g. "Happy Birthday Mom!"
Default Value	(leave blank)

Leave everything else at defaults. Click Save.

4 · Test it on the storefront

1. Open your storefront in a private/incognito window.
2. Add any product to cart.
3. Go to /checkout/cart — you should see an “Order Information” section with your new Gift Message textarea.
4. Type a message, click Update Shopping Cart.

5 · Verify the value persisted

In the same window, place an order. Then in admin → Sales → Orders → [your order] — scroll past Payment & Shipping Method — you’ll see a Custom Fields section listing your gift message.

The order confirmation email and the invoice PDF will also include the message automatically.

What just happened

• A single row in cda_custom_field defined the field.
• The cart page rendered a <textarea name="cda_custom_fields[gift_message]"> automatically — no template overrides needed.
• On Update Shopping Cart, an observer copied the value into cda_custom_field_quote_value keyed by the quote ID.
• On Place Order, another observer copied it into cda_custom_field_order_value keyed by the order ID.
• Admin order view, transactional emails, and PDF invoice all read from the order-value table.

Next steps

• Read Configure fields for the full set of options (visibility, validation, conditional logic).
• Browse Storefront surfaces to see what else you can attach fields to (PDP, contact form, address book, wishlist, etc.).
• Try the Templates — pre-built field sets for common scenarios (B2B, engraving, gift wrap, dietary).