[legacy] Forms

Please note: This refers to our legacy tools. For information on our current Page Builder technology, click here.

The 'Forms' element allows you to set up which fields your supporters can enter data into your Advocacy Campaigns or Donations Pages.

The reason you may want different forms is to enable tailoring of the page's input requirements or labels. These could either be another language requirements (such as English and Welsh) or certain fields needing to be mandatory or hidden.

If there is a field on the form that you would like to add, the columns must first be added to the account 'Default supporter record'. Details on how to do this can be found in the 'Default supporter record' section.

It is recommended that you have one generic form in your account that includes all possible data fields. It eliminates the need to create a new form for every single action and you can then reuse an existing generic form across a number of actions. Including all form fields in the form doesn't mean that you need to use them on action pages – the ones that are not relevant to a specific action can be simply taken out in the 'design' stage.

Using a form

For the majority of actions, you can generally use one of the existing forms – just select the form that you want to use in your action and click 'submit'.

If you would like to add new form fields to the form or create a form in a different language, you need to create a new component using one of the two methods:

Duplicating an existing form by clicking on the duplicate icon and saving the form under a new name (RECOMMENDED). Once you duplicate the form you will need to adjust its labels and buttons, as explained in the section below.
Creating a new form using 'create new' link.

Modifying an existing form

Modifying submit and reset button labels

To modify 'submit' and 'reset' button labels, click on the form name in the 'Form' list menu.

Update the labels and click 'submit' to save your changes.

Selecting error alerts type and positioning

Click on the form name in the 'Form' folder to activate ajax error alerts. The following options will be available to you below the 'submit' and 'reset' button labels:

Field	Description
PAF validation	This validation is specific to US address fields. Select 'USA' to activate it. If a supporter enters a valid street and 5-digit zip code combination, or a valid street/city/state combination, the full, validated address, complete with 9-digit zip+4 code, will be saved to the data record. If the supporter enters invalid details, they will see an error alert, provided one has been set up for the campaign (check 'Error alerts' section for more details).
Error message position	The error message can be positioned above or below the form field.
Error message package	The following error packages are available: Text only – the text will appear as soon as the user leaves the field, the position of the text is specified in the 'Error message position' dropdown (see above). Text and icon – the text and icon will appear as soon as the user leaves the field, the position of the elements are specified in the 'Error message position' and 'Validation icon position'. Text and background – a background color can be added to the error message. The color of the background can be changed with css.
Validation icon position	Validation icons can be positioned on the left- or right-hand side of the form field.
Validation icons	If you would like to use another set of icons, you can use the 'browse' buttons to upload your new images.
Captcha	If a captcha has been created in 'Account defaults' > 'Manage captchas', then it will be available here as an option. A 'captcha' is an image that renders with random numbers and characters, which the supporter has to re-enter as part of the form validation.

Modifying form fields and labels

Click on the icon in the 'Form' folder to modify form fields and their labels.

The page will display a listing of all of the visible data columns in your 'default user record' (listed by 'field name') together with labels given to each field ('Display name').

Click the 'edit' button that appears beside each data field to edit it. The page will 'split open' and provide the options presented in the table below. Make the appropriate edits, and then do the same for each form field you want to edit. Click 'submit' to save your changes. Then select the form from the list. If the form has already been selected, there is no need to resave the selection.

Field	Description
'Type'	A form field can be created in several formats: text field, text area, select menu (or dropdown menu), radio button, check box, or multiple check box. If you choose to format a form field as a 'select menu', 'radio button', or 'multiple check box', then you must enter the values that will appear in the list in the 'default content' area, separated by a tilde '~', e.g. Red~Green~Yellow. If you want the first value to appear as a blank space, enter a tilde at the beginning of your list. If you want a different value to be saved to the database to the one displayed, put this in {curly brackets} after the value, for example Red{1}~Green{2}~Yellow{3} If your action is targeting a client contact database, the values entered into 'default content' must mirror exactly what is in the 'match field' column in the database, otherwise the software will not know who the email is meant for. For example, if the campaign is targeting local councils, the value in this dropdown AND the database both need to say 'Poole Council', 'Bournemouth Council', etc. Multiple value input types can show different sets of values depending on the supporter's profile by using a 'selection list'. Click 'Add selection list' to do this. You can also use this method to show different sets of values depending on another field via dependencies.
'Use field?'	You are being asked if you want to use the data column as a form field. Tick the appropriate box: 'yes' or 'no'.
'Visible'?	You can decide if the form field should be visible on the page or hidden.
'Layout'	You can choose one of the four positions of the field label: left, right, below, above.
'Item label position'	This option is available for 'radio' and 'checkbox' field types only. You can choose one of the four positions of the individual radio or checkbox labels: left, right, above, below.
'Label'	The form field label that will appear next to the form field on the pages viewed by your supporters.
'Mandatory?'	If the supporter's postcode identified a target that is using a web form containing a captcha image, the supporter will see an alert requesting further authentication. You can customize the alert by inserting the target's name.
'Default content'	Default content for certain form field types is explained above ('Type' section of this table). However, you can also enter default copy for text fields and text areas, for example 'please enter your email address' in the email address form field.
'Width'	You can specify the width of each form field - the width of the field is expressed in pixels.
'Validator'	You can apply a relevant validator to the form fields you create: numeric, alphanumeric, date, email, or custom validation, provided they are created in the account (check 'default' 'form validation' section for details).

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