Custom objects

You can create, read, and update custom objects using one of the following methods of authentication:

• OAuth
• Private app access tokens

To create a custom object, you'll first need to define the object schema. The schema includes the object name, properties, and associations to other CRM objects. You can find the full schema request details in the Object schema tab at the top of this article. You can also view a sample request in the example walkthrough below.

To create the custom object schema, make a POST request to crm/v3/schemas. In the request body, include definitions for your object schema, including its name, properties, and associations.

When naming your custom object, keep the following in mind:

• Once you create an object, the object's name and label cannot be changed.
• The name can only contain letters, numbers, and underscores.
• The first character of the name must be a letter.
• Long labels may be cut off in certain parts of the product.

Below, read about the required definitions for the object's properties and associations. 

The properties you define in the request body will be used to store information on individual custom object records.

You'll use your defined properties to populate the following property-based fields:

• requiredProperties: the properties that are required when creating a new custom object record.
• searchableProperties: the properties that are indexed for searching in HubSpot.
• primaryDisplayProperty: the property used for naming individual custom object records.
• secondaryDisplayProperties: the properties that appear on individual records under the primaryDisplayProperty.
  
  • The first property listed in secondaryDisplayProperties will be also added as a fourth filter on the object index page if it’s one of the following property types:
    • string
    • number
    • enumeration
    • boolean
    • datetime
      
  • To remove a display property from the UI, you'll need to first delete the property, then recreate it.

By default, when creating properties through the schema request, property type is set to string, and the fieldType is set to text. Below are the values you can use to create different types of properties.

Associations

HubSpot will automatically associate a custom object with the emails, meetings, notes, tasks, calls, and conversations objects. You can further associate your custom object with other standard HubSpot objects or other custom objects.

When creating associations through the create schema request, identify standard objects using their name and custom objects using their objectTypeId value. For example: 

To retrieve all custom objects, make a GET request to /crm/v3/schemas.

To retrieve a specific custom object, make a GET request to one of the following endpoints:

• /crm/v3/schemas/{objectTypeId}
• /crm/v3/schemas/p_{object_name}
• /crm/v3/schemas/{fullyQualifiedName}. You can find an object's

  fullyQualifiedName in its schema, which is derived from p{portal_id}_{object_name}. You can find your account's portal ID using the account information API.

For example, for an account with an ID of 1234 and an object named lender, your request URL could look like any of the following:

• https://api.hubapi.com/crm/v3/schemas/2-3465404
• https://api.hubapi.com/crm/v3/schemas/p_lender
• https://api.hubapi.com/crm/v3/schemas/p1234_lende

You can also retrieve a custom object's records.

• To retrieve a specific record by its record ID value, make a GET request to crm/v3/objects/{objectType}/{recordId}.
• To retrieve multiple records, make a POST request to crm/v3/objects/{objectType}/batch/read. In your request, you can retrieve records by their record ID (hs_object_id), or by a custom unique identifier property. By default, the id values in the request refer to the record ID, so the idProperty parameter is not required when retrieving by record ID. To use a custom unique value property, you must include the idProperty parameter.

For example, to retrieve a batch of custom object records, your request could look like either of the following:

To update an object's schema, make a PATCH request to https://api.hubapi.com/crm/v3/schemas/{objectTypeId}.

Once your custom object is defined:

• The object's name and labels (singular and plural) cannot be changed.
• The requiredProperties, searchableProperties, primaryDisplayProperty, and secondaryDisplayProperties can be changed by updating the object's schema. To set a new property as a required, searchable, or display property, you need to create the property prior to updating the schema.
• You can create and edit custom object properties either in HubSpot or via the properties API. 

Update associations

To add other object associations to your custom object, make a POST request to /crm/v3/schemas/{objectTypeId}/associations.

You can only associate your custom object with standard HubSpot objects (e.g. contact, company, deal, or ticket) or other custom objects. In the toObjectTypeId field, identify custom objects by their objectTypeId value and standard objects by their name. For example:

You can only delete a custom object after all object instances of that type are deleted. To delete a custom object, make a DELETE request to /crm/v3/schemas/{objectType}.

If you need to create a new custom object with the same name as the deleted object, you must hard delete the schema by making a DELETE request to /crm/v3/schemas/{objectType}?archived=true. You can only delete a custom object type after all object instances of that type, associations, and custom object properties are deleted.

The following is a walkthrough of creating an example custom object. For full details of the requests shown, view the Object Definition tab at the top of the article.

This walkthrough covers:

1. creating a custom object schema.
2. creating a custom object record.
3. associating a custom object record with a HubSpot contact.
4. creating a new association definition between the custom object and HubSpot ticket.
5. creating a new property definition.
6. updating the object schema (i.e. secondaryDisplayProperties) with the new property.
   

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Goal: a car dealership called CarSpot wants to store their inventory in HubSpot using a custom object. To track vehicle ownership and purchases, they'll associate cars with contact records. Along the way, they'll also track vehicle maintenance using HubSpot tickets and custom properties.

Creating the object schema

CarSpot needs to create an object schema that can represent the following attributes as properties: 

1. Condition (new or used): enumeration
2. Date received at dealership: date
3. Year: number
4. Make: string
5. Model: string
6. VIN: string (unique value)
7. Color: string
8. Mileage: number
9. Price: number
10. Notes: string

They'll also add a description to provide context about how to use the object, and define an association between their custom object and the standard contacts object so that they can connect cars to potential buyers. 

With their data model finalized, they'll create the object schema by making a POST request to /crm/v3/schemas with the following request body:all

Creating a custom object record

With the custom object created, CarSpot can now create records on the object for each car in their inventory.

They'll create their first car by making a POST request to /crm/v3/objects/2-3465404 with the following request body:

With the record created, they can use the id value to later associate the car with an existing contact.

Associating the custom object record to another record

You can use the ID of the new car record (181308) and the ID of another record to associate a custom object record with a record of another object.

To create an association, make a PUT request to /crm/v3/objects/{objectType}/{objectId}/associations/{toObjectType}/{toObjectId}/{associationType}. If the object relationship is already defined, to determine the associationType value, make a GET request to crm/v3/schemas/{objectType}.

For example, with the contact ID 51 and the association type 75, CarSpot can associate the car record with a contact. Using the above IDs, the request URL will be constructed as follows:

https://api.hubspot.com/crm/v3/objects/2-3465404/181308/associations/contacts/51/75

Defining a new association

CarSpot now wants to start tracking post-sale services for their cars. To do so, they'll use HubSpot tickets to log any maintenance performed.

To allow associations between cars and tickets, they'll create a new association by making a POST request to /crm/v3/schemas/2-3465404/associations with the following request body:

Defining a new property

As they continue to track maintenance, CarSpot sees an opportunity to bundle maintenance services into packages. To track these maintenance packages on individual car records, they'll create a new enumeration property containing the available packages.

To define a new property, they'll make a POST request to /crm/v3/properties/2-3465404 with the following request body:

Now, when a technician opens a contact record that has an associated car, the property will be displayed in the custom object card in the sidebar:

As CarSpot continues to use HubSpot, they'll likely find ways to refine and expand this custom object and more using HubSpot's API. They might even decide to build dynamic pages using their custom object data.