a database message builder presents a message building window on a user interface of a database application for retrieving structured data from one or more fields of a database record of the database and unstructured data entered by a user of the database application . the message building window can be used to build database messages using a variety of structured and unstructured data . one or more tokens corresponding to the structured data in the database can be used in the window to build a database message . the user can publish the message to a target application or network resource . prior to publication , the tokens can be replaced with corresponding structured data from the record fields . a current character count or character limit for the selected target application or network resource can be displayed in the user interface .