The Form post type enables data collection of any sort - the list is endless. Think demographic information, feedback, contact details, marketing surveys, etc. See an example.
It is similar to the Update Post type, with an embedded form and with an extensive set of features that are available for paid plans. It can be edited as desired after creation anytime.
It has a heading, and a body. Rich text is allowed in the body and a single image can be attached to the post.
Creating a Form post#
Starting a new post of type Form, throws up the FormBuilder, integrated naturally into the familiar post creation/editing work flow. The FormBuilder is a graphical drag and drop editor which can be used to build the form and see the live preview while it is being built and edited.
A number of form fields are available. Each can be added to the form editor multiple times, individually edited, and dragged and re-ordered.
Each field can be edited and consists of 1 or more of the following:
- Field name / display text
- Choices
- Description / help text
- Whether mandatory
The rest of the post creation flow is the same - add a title, add a description, add an image and then release your form to the world.
File and image upload#
Forms support 1 file or image upload, upto a max of 2MB.
Respondents will be required to sign in when file or image upload field is added to the form, ie the Pro option Sign-in required to fill form cannot be unchecked.
Pro options#
As always, Pro accounts have access to more:
- The Form post can be turned into a Ghost Post
- The post can be disabled at a preset time so that no further form entries can be submitted.
- The Form post creator can allow non-members (ie users who have not registered) to fill out and submit the form details. As example - if no contact details are asked for in the form, the user who fills the form is completely anonymous and this is a great way to collect data where the person may not feel comfortable being identified.
- This option is not available if a file or image upload field has been added.
- If this option is required and a file upload is required: Ask respondent to upload on another service and provide the link to the uploaded file in the form (in a Link field).
Editing a form#
As with most everything on the MC platform, forms can also be seamlessly edited - its a post after all!
Opening an existing form post allows the post to be edited via the usual Edit post button on the Creator Actions strip, and the form itself to be edited - fields can be added / modified etc.
However we caution against modifying existing fields once the form has started collecting submissions since the results would be confusing.
Save / submit system#
Normally forms can only be submitted upon being filled, and later can be edited as desired.
Optionally, for long forms, it may be desirable to allow the respondent to periodically save the progress, and finally submit when ready.
- In this case, editing is allowed as long as the form has not been submitted.
- During save no form field validation is done - so even fields which are required can be left blank while saving.
- If the user is logged in, then the form is automatically added to the member's bookmarks so that they can easily get back to the form and complete and submit.
- For non-members, a private link is displayed after filling out a form, and using that link one can get back to the same state of the form and continue from where one left off.
Form field validation is done upon submit as normal.
Form WorkFlows#
This feature is only available to Network heroes, and is in Early Access.
A workflow can be attached to the form which is triggered after the form is submitted by the user, and is based on a pivotal field. Try it live.
Any field from the form can be used as the pivotal field. This may be an input field, like a Small text field, a Single choice field, a Multiple choice field, etc.
The pivotal field should be an important field, and also set as required (ie This field must be filled by user), so that the workflow will get triggered for sure. If the workflow is attached to an optional field, and the user doesnt fill it, then the workflow will not get triggered.
A workflow allows conditional post-submission flows to be enabled for each choice of the pivotal field. Examples:
- If its a single choice field with 3 choices, then upto 3 post-submission flows can be created, 1 for each choice. The conditional post-submission flow enabled for a choice is executed if the user selects that choice.
- If its a multiple choice field with 4 choices, then upto 4 post-submission flows can be created, 1 for each choice. The conditional post-submission flow enabled for multiple choices are executed if the user selects multiple choices.
- If its a field with only 1 "choice", ie an input field where the user enters some data, then only 1 post-submission flow is possible. The conditional post-submission flow enabled is executed if the user fills the field.
In the below example, the pivotal field is a single choice question "Have you worked with a startup before?" with 2 choices: Yes and No, and hence 2 conditional post-submission flows can be enabled.
One can now enable the post-submission flow for any of the choices.
Conditional post-submission flow per choice
Enabling the post-submission flow, allows for multiple actions to enabled for each flow, for each choice. The post-submission flow is triggered after the form is submitted by the user, and the actions enabled are executed for the choice(s).
Possible actions per flow:
- Send mail to user - this is the text that is inserted into the notification/confirmation template mail that is sent to the user who filled the form. The email template to be used is to be entered in the Email template code field.
- Show information - Any important plaintext message (maximum 400 characters) to be shown after form submission, as an Info alert to draw attention.
- Do not use this field to repeat standard UI messages like "Thank you for filling the form". Such informative messages are already part of the form filling UX.
- Next step URL - Any internal or external URL to redirect to. Note that the form does NOT automatically redirect - a Call To Action button is shown to the user prompting to go to the next step.
- Call webhook (not yet enabled)
Access to form submission data#
Once forms have started collecting data, these can be viewed and exported to csv by the form creator.
For users - Viewing, interaction#
Normally, one needs to be a Network member in order to respond to a form. However, if allowed by the form creator, non-members (ie users who have not registered) may be able to respond without needing to sign in.
For non-members, a private link is displayed after filling out a form, and using that link one can get back to the same state of the form and continue from where one left off.
For users - Editing form submission#
Once a form has been submitted, the respondent can see their previous submission anytime by clicking on the Edit submission button. The respondent can edit their previous submission if so desired at this point.
This feature is available both to logged in members and unlogged in users (using the private link).
