The easiest way to store allergies in the system is to create a custom field, or a series of custom fields. This article covers how to create custom fields. Depending on how you want to store and work with the data, there’s a number of different ways to do this.
With a pre-defined list of allergies.
To allow your members to select their allergies from a pre-defined list, use either a Checkbox (can select many) or Dropdown (can select many) field. This will allow your members to choose from a list, and allow you to search for people with specific allergies.
User-defined allergies
To allow your members to enter their own allergy information, use a multiple-line text field. This will allow your members to give more detail about their allergies, but can make searching for people with specific allergies harder.
With a pre-defined list and an ‘other’ option
You can allow your members to select their allergies from a pre-defined list, and then work with an ‘Other’ box. To do this, use a Checkbox (can select many) or Dropdown (can select many) field, and then a multiple-line text field. This combines the benefits of both of the previous options, and should get rid of the disadvantages of both as well (the only downside is that it requires two fields).
