Form Builder

 

The Form Builder is a lightweight tool that allows you to create simple forms to gather information from your users. The Form Builder can be accessed via the Content drop-down menu on your site's Admin Home Page.

When you first open the Form Builder, you will be given access to a drop-down list containing all forms currently available on your website. To edit a form, select it from the drop-down. To create a new form, click the "New Form" button.

Creating a New Form

Form Properties

  1. Send Form Data To: This email address will be notified when its associated form is submitted. Please note that only one email address is permitted in this field. Consider creating an email group if you would like a form to have multiple recipients.
  2.  Send Form Data From: This email address will act as the "sender" for its associated form's notification emails. Please note that only one email address is permitted in this field. 
  3.  Form Data Email Subject: The text in this field will be the "Subject" line for all of its associated form's notification emails.
  4.  Form Submit Button Text: The text in this field will take the place of "Submit" on the button the user will click to submit the form.
  5.  Minimum Time Before Allowing Form Submission: This number is the amount of time (in minutes) a user will need to wait before resubmitting a form. This is meant to act as an initial measure to prevent spam form submissions.
  6.  Response: This field allows you to choose what type of response will be given upon submission. Here you will choose whether to prompt a "Message", "Form Submission Custom Redirect", or "Conditional Redirect".  

Response Types

Message: You will be prompted to enter a "Completed Response Message". This message will be shown to users upon form submission. If you have not created a content page, but would still like to customize the message users receive when they submit a form, you can do so here. This field can be used to enter plain text or simple HTML styling.

Redirect URL: You will be prompted to enter a "Form Submission Custom Redirect". If you have created a custom landing page for form submissions or would like to direct your users to a specific content page, enter the relative URL of that page here. A relative URL includes all parts of a website's address after ".com" (for example: /directory/page).

Conditional Redirect: Conditional Redirects work by looking for a specific value in the indicated field, and redirecting to a certain page if that value is selected. In the example below, if the user enters Contact Us, About Us, or Products, in the "Where would you like to go?" field they will be redirected to the appropriate page. This is a very basic example of what could be done with this tool. 

The "Default Response" portion of the tool determines what happens if a user doesn't trigger any condition. In the example above, a simple thank you message is sent, but the "Redirect To" option can also be used to redirect to a default page you choose.

Form Fields

  1. New Field: Click here to add a new field to your form.
  2. Enabled: This checkbox allows you to enable and disable fields without deleting them entirely.
  3. Required: When this box is checked, a user will not be able to submit a form until the associated field is completed.
  4.  Label: This is the label associated with each field. Think of it as the question being asked of the user.
  5.  Field Type: This determines the type of content the associated field contains. The different field types include Text Box, Multiline Text Box, Dropdown, Radio List, Checkbox, Label, Divider, Email, Phone, Headline, Hidden, HTML, and File Attachment. Some field types are intended for styling purposes only. The Dropdown and Radio List field types offer the ability to add additional form recipients. For example: Say a question will prompt a user to specify their taker, when the response field is either a dropdown or a radio list type, you can set up the form to be sent to the user's specified taker as well as the default form receiver.
  6. Tooltip Text: Text added here will be displayed as help text that appears when hovering over the input field.
  7. Placeholder: Text added here will be displayed as placeholder text within the input field.
  8. Help Text: Text added here will display as help text underneath the input field.
  9. Layout Column: This selector determines which column of the form the field will be placed in. Selecting multiple columns will result in the field being span across all selected columns. Some field types will span all 3 columns by default. These fields include Dividers, Form Attachments, and Hidden.
  10. Field Styles: This allows you to apply basic HTML styling to the associated field.
  11. Duplicate: This button will create an exact copy of the currently selected field.
  12. Remove: This button removes the selected form field from the form.

Form Attachments

The Form Builder comes with the option to add a Field Type of File Attachment which will always take up the full form width and provides your users with a location to upload files when submitting a form. To enable this feature for your site, go to your Admin Panel and navigate to Content>Form Attachments. Before you can access the Form Attachments page you will need to check a box to confirm that you understand that Form Attachments count against your site's file quota. Once the box is checked you will be able to activate and start using this feature. Below you'll find an example of the Form Attachments page. 

NOTE:

  • Attachments may be no larger than 5MB, and no more than five files can be attached per form submission.
  • There is a 7-day max life for saved file attachments. File attachments will be removed permanently after 7 days. 
  • Storing attachments can result in billable data storage as attachments go against your site's file quota.

Adding a Form to a Page

To add a form to an existing content page, use the Form Builder Snippet. You can learn more about how that snippet works in this article.

Viewing Form Submissions

To view the submissions for all forms on your site, select the "Form Submissions" link from the Stats drop-down on your Admin Home Page.

You can select a date range for submissions, as well as filter results by Form Name. Leave the Form Name field blank to view submissions for all forms.


  1.  Date Sent: This column contains the date and time the form submission was completed. Note: Thie time is local to your site--not the user who submitted the form.
  2.  From: The email address of the user who submitted the form; this is captured even if the user is not logged in.
  3. Form: The name of the form that was submitted.
  4. Cust Code: The customer code associated with the user that submitted the form. Note that a submission by an anonymous user is associated with your site's default customer code.
  5. Form Data: This column contains the entirety of the data submitted in the form. You can select "View Details" to view a submission in its entirety.

If you're having trouble receiving Form Submission notification emails, consider setting up an SPF record. For more details on configuring an SPF record, see this article.

Form Submission Bans

Even if you take all the precautions you can (like adding ReCaptcha to your site), there may still be instances where more action is necessary.  For these occasions, WebAlliance offers you the ability to create a list of IP addresses that will be banned from submitting forms.


To make use of this tool, you must know the IP address you'd like to ban.  WebAlliance includes this in every email sent to the address in the "Send Form Data To" field; see the example below:

Once you have taken note of the IP(s) you would like to ban, you can access the Form Submissions Banned IP List by navigating to the Form Builder tool and clicking the link at the bottom the page.

You will be redirected to your Site Settings where you will need to select the "Configure" option; you will be presented with the following screen.

Enter the IP address in the text box like the one above and press "Finish"; if you would like to ban more than one IP, select "Add Value" for each one. Do not enter more than one IP address per text box.