Applicable to: Association and Club Administrators

Application(s): Admin Portal > Settings > Custom Fields

This article will cover the following:

1. Overview of custom field links
2. Adding a link to a custom field question
3. Editing or removing a link from a custom field question
4. What participants see on the registration form
5. Important considerations

Related articles:

• Configuring participant custom fields
• Configuring team custom fields
• Clubs: Be Registration Ready

Overview

Custom field links allow you to embed clickable hyperlinks directly in your custom field question text. Instead of pasting a raw URL that participants have to copy manually, you can link key words or phrases — such as "Code of Conduct" or "Privacy Policy" — to the relevant document. When participants register, they can click the link to open it in a new tab without losing their place in the registration form.

Links can be added to custom field questions across three areas of the Admin Portal: global custom fields, competition-level custom fields, and program-level custom fields.

This is particularly useful when you need participants to acknowledge policy documents, waivers, or safety guidelines as part of registration.

What you'll need before starting

Required information

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• Administrator access to the relevant competition, or program in the Admin Portal
• The full URL of the page you want to link to (e.g. https://yourclub.com/code-of-conduct)
• The custom field already created, or be ready to create a new one

Adding a link to a custom field question

Follow these steps to add a hyperlink to a custom field question label. The steps are the same whether you're working in a season, organisation, or program.

1. Navigate to Custom Fields
   Navigate to the Registration tab inside the season of the competition or program > Custom Fields.
   
   
   
    
2. Open the custom field form
   Click Create custom field to create a new field, or click an existing text custom field to edit it. The New Custom Field or Edit Custom Field panel will open.
    
3. Type your field label
   Enter your question or label text in the Field Label* field. For example: "I agree to be bound by the rules and regulations of my club."
    
4. Highlight the text you want to turn into a link
   Click and drag to select the specific word or phrase you want to make clickable. For example, highlight "rules and regulations".
    
5. Click the link icon
   Click the chain link icon ( 🔗 ) in the top-right corner of the Field Label field. A URL dialog will appear.
   
   
   
    
6. Enter the URL and click OK
   Type or paste the full URL into the URL field (e.g. https://yourclub.com/rules). Click OK.
   💡 Tip: Supported link types. PlayHQ accepts https://, http://, and mailto: links. If you enter a URL without a scheme (e.g. example.com/rules), PlayHQ will automatically prepend http://. Links using javascript:, data:, file:, or other schemes will be rejected.
   
   
   
    
7. Confirm the link is applied
   The selected text will now appear blue and underlined in the Field Label field, indicating the link has been applied.
    
8. Complete the remaining fields and save
   Select the Type* for your custom field (e.g. Text, Checkbox) and set whether the field is Mandatory. Click Create (or Save) to save the custom field.
   
   Once saved, the linked question will appear on your registration forms and in the Admin Portal wherever that custom field is used.

Editing or removing a link from a custom field question

To edit an existing link:

1. Open the custom field for editing.
2. Highlight the linked text in the Field Label field.
3. Click the chain link icon. The URL dialog will open with the current URL pre-filled.
4. Update the URL and click OK.
5. Click Save.

To remove a link:

1. Open the custom field for editing.
2. Highlight the linked text in the Field Label field.
3. Click the chain link icon. The URL dialog will open.
4. Delete the URL from the field and click OK. The text will revert to plain text.
5. Click Save.

What participants see on the registration form

When a participant reaches the custom fields step of a registration form, any linked question text will display as a clickable hyperlink — blue and underlined, the same as a standard web link.

When a participant clicks the link:

• The linked URL opens in a new browser tab.
• The participant's registration form remains open in the original tab — they do not lose their progress.
• The participant can return to the form and continue their registration after reading the linked document.

This same linked display also appears when an administrator reviews or edits a participant's custom field answers in the Admin Portal. Clicking a link from the answers view also opens in a new tab.

Important considerations

Impact on reports

Links added to custom field question text do not appear in reports or CSV exports. Report column headers always display the plain-text version of the question label — no link formatting or markdown syntax will be visible in your reports.

This means your existing reporting workflows are unaffected when you add links to custom fields.

Links are part of the question label, not the answer

Links are embedded in the question text (the label), not in any participant answer. Participants cannot add links to their responses.

Responsibility for linked content

External links in custom field questions are added by your organisation's administrators and have not been verified by PlayHQ. PlayHQ is not responsible for the content of any external URLs embedded in custom field labels.

Frequently asked questions

Which custom fields can I add links to? You can add links to text-type custom fields on seasons, organisations, and programs. Links are not available on dropdown or checkbox field types.

Will the link show up in my registration reports? No. Reports and CSV exports always display plain text column headers. Any links added to custom field question text are stripped from report outputs automatically — no markdown syntax or raw URLs will appear.

What types of URLs can I use? PlayHQ supports https://, http://, and mailto: links. Unsafe URL types (such as javascript: or data: links) are blocked and will not save.

Can I add more than one link to the same question? Yes. You can add multiple hyperlinks to different parts of the same field label. Highlight each word or phrase separately and apply a link to each in turn.

What happens if I edit a custom field that already has a link? The link is preserved when you edit the field. If you want to update the URL, highlight the linked text, click the link icon, and the current URL will pre-fill in the dialog so you can update it easily.

Will participants be taken away from the registration form when they click a link? No. Links open in a new browser tab, so participants stay on the registration form. They can read the linked document and return to complete their registration.

Can participants who use screen readers access custom fields with links? Yes. PlayHQ renders the plain-text question label for screen readers separately from the visible linked version, so the question is accessible to participants using assistive technology.