APIs & Integrations

Michael_Bruce
Member

The best way to approach this project. Custom designed calc and update to "contact properties"

I have a project assigned to me to create a custom calculator on a landing page. My experience is with lots of Node.js and React and custom SASS. I have the coding skills, I am doing my best to understand this COS. That being said here are the calc details.

About 5 drop down menus with anywhere from 3 to 100 choices. I need to use the data from these user inputs and update my clients 'contact properties' as well as get a calculated result to show the user of the calc.

I have watched developers academy videos (about 2 hours of video). It does not go deep enough for someone trying to do custom things. I also can use the API docs and connect using Node have no problem understanding and doing this. The problem I am having is understanding how to work within this CRM so I can give my client a easily editable module and they can add some of their own values if things change in the future.

So my questions and assumptions:
I am assuming I need to make a new custom module. Do I need to make custom fields as well (is this even possible)?

I am curious where the drop down lists data should go? Is this a hubDB thing?

What am I missing with this custom module(I need key words to look up for tutorial and doc reasonS)? Where are the tutorials for advanced dev and custom modules?

If you can recommend anything. That would be wonderful.

P.S. I do not mind doing my own work. I actually have fun learning, so I am not expecting anyone to do any research for me, just some links or recommendations on where to go to get the knowledge.

1 Reply 1
cbarley
HubSpot Alumni
HubSpot Alumni

The best way to approach this project. Custom designed calc and update to "contact properties"

Hi @Michael_Bruce! Happy to help clarify some of your questions regarding the specifics around HubSpot.

For dynamically rendering dropdowns I haven't heard of a great way to do this, but I do believe HubDB would be your best bet there.

I'd also like to point out our CMS Developer Discovery kit.This will grant you access to the public CMS developer Slack org where you can ask these types of questions and hear back very quickly from Developers who've been using the CMS for years.

Just wanted to clarify that NodeJS normally is meant to run server-side, and I've yet to see somebody use Node within custom modules. Custom modules are really meant to house HTML, CSS, and JS like Jquery. Custom modules are front-end tools.

Custom fields are certainly possible with custom modules, in fact, that's the main benefit of custom modules. You can create dynamic fields that are possible to be manipulated in the editor, as well as utilize the data in the Developer Info on CMS pages with HubL.

Historically, we haven't had much in the way of advanced docs. I'd say the CMS Developer Discovery kit I linked you is a good first step in that direction. I would also take a deep dive into the docs (which it sounds like you've already done): https://designers.hubspot.com/docs/snippets/design/how-to-display-smart-content-to-anonymous-site-vi...

Finally, I definitely highly recommend joining the Slack org I mentioned that comes with the CMS Developer Discover kit.