CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

I find that users often are not sure what to do with the source field. On one hand, it can be useful when tracking various details about where the contact, contribution, registrant, etc. originated from. On the other hand, when left blank it is generally populated by Civi with some pretty useful stuff. So as a rule, I recommend against using it -- and just let Civi drive the data.

Because it's autopopulated most of the time, I would prefer it not be editable. However, I could see a situation where the content populated by Civi would want to be modified (though one could make an argument for better auditing integrity if it's locked). The biggest problem I see is that the field isn't populated until after it's saved -- so the user is inclined to use it and then miss the benefit of the autopopulation content (which most importantly includes a record of who created the record).

So a couple propositions:
1) freeze the field altogether and let Civi own the field content
2) hide the field on record creation so that Civi has a chance to populate, but then expose it in post-creation edit mode so that users can make changes if necessary
3) wishlist: provide a config option to choose between the two above. so orgs that want it to serve as a type of auditing function can lock it, but those that don't can make it editable

Hi,

Why do you say the source is properly filled automatically ?

I don't recall any place where the contact source is filled, where it would be great it is indeed, eg:
- online registration to mailing list XX
- import YY
= donation ZZ
- event registration XX
- membership registration...

I would love to see more places in civicrm setting the source when creating a contact automatically!