Collect phone numbers you can actually use. When you turn on Enforce Phone Format, Blackthorn checks that each attendee's phone number is valid for the country they selected during checkout — so you don't end up with too-short numbers, letters, or mistyped digits in your attendee data. It's off by default, so nothing changes on your existing events until you choose to switch it on.
How it works
When the setting is on, the phone field at checkout is validated against the calling code (country dial code) the attendee picks. If the number isn't a valid phone number for that country, an inline error appears under the field and the attendee can't continue until they fix it. When it's off, checkout accepts any numeric input, exactly as before.
Turning it on
- Open the Event Settings record for your event.
- In the General section, check Enforce Phone Format.
- Save.
That's it — the field is already on the Event Settings layout, so there's nothing to add. From then on, that event's checkout requires a correctly formatted phone number.
What the attendee sees
- Number invalid for the selected country — "Please enter a valid phone number for the selected country."
- No country code selected — "Select a country code for your phone number." (The attendee must choose a calling code so the number can be validated.)
The attendee stays on the phone step until the number passes.
Good to know
- Only applies when the phone field is shown. If your registration form hides the phone field, enforcement has nothing to check. And if phone is optional, a blank phone still passes — validation kicks in only once the attendee types something.
- Attendees must be able to pick a country code. Because the check is country-aware, the calling-code selector needs to be reachable on your form; otherwise an attendee could get stuck. Keep it available when you enforce the format.
- It validates the public checkout form. The setting governs what attendees type during registration. It doesn't retroactively re-check numbers that were entered another way (Salesforce edits, imports, API).
- Per event. It's an Event Settings checkbox, so you decide event by event where clean phone data matters (SMS reminders, day-of texts) and where it doesn't.
For Salesforce admins — technical reference
Field
| Object | Label | API Name | Type | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event Settings | Enforce Phone Format | Enforce_Phone_Format__c |
Checkbox | false | When checked, attendees must enter a correctly formatted phone number for their selected country; an invalid number blocks checkout. Unchecked allows any numeric input (existing behavior). |
Layout & permissions
- On the packaged Event Settings Layout, in the General section, editable — no manual layout change needed.
- Field-level security across 5 Blackthorn Events permission sets. Editable in: Blackthorn Events Admin, Blackthorn Event Organizer, Blackthorn Events Community/Platform User. Read-only in: Blackthorn Events Lite User, Blackthorn Events Read Only. (A lower-privilege admin may see the checkbox but not toggle it.)
How validation is performed
- Enforced in the event webapp checkout using country-aware phone validation ( true digit-pattern validity, not just length). The attendee's typed digits are combined with their selected calling code and validated as a full international number.
- Client-side only — there is no Salesforce validation rule behind this field. It governs the public attendee checkout form and does not validate phone numbers created through other channels.
- A separate, always-on character check ("numbers only, plus sign allowed") is independent of this setting.