Yearly Archives: 2022

Routing Notification Emails Based on Answers

Formsite routing Notification emails

Notification emails send after submitting forms and can use conditional logic to know which ones to send. For example, a form owner can set up several identical emails that send to different account owners based on an answer chosen in the form. Many form owners choose to make a copy of the email and set logic to tell when to send each one, but there’s a better way. See how routing Notification emails with Email Routing items works.

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Notification Formats and Choosing the Right One

Formsite Notification formats example

Notifications are emails sent by Formsite after every new form result gets successfully created. Form owners send emails for many reasons and the Notification formats vary depending on the desired outcome. Example Notifications include:

  • Auto-reply to the form visitor with next steps or confirmation of receipt
  • Email the result data to the form owner or responsible department
  • Results backup for insurance against accidental deletion
  • Workflow links to pass data between forms
  • Acknowledgement of successful payment
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Repeat Fields and Pages for Multiple Entries

Formsite repeat fields examples

Many forms have the need for collecting multiple entries from a single source. For example, registration forms with one or more registrants need the ability to repeat fields for each one. Formsite provides a few ways to set up forms for repeating fields and pages for entering multiples.

Examples of forms needing repeat fields include:

  • Registering multiple people
  • Order forms for selecting more than one product
  • Signing up for two or more events
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Description Text Formatting and Custom Styles

Formsite Description Text sample

The Description Text item lets form owners add formatting content to their forms. This content is text content, images, and sometimes custom code. As with the Custom Code item, the Description Text content does not collect answers so they appear as formatting items, not input items. Considering that they are not input items, they do not appear in the results but only on the form itself.

Examples of content added with the Description Text item:

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Prevent Duplicate Submissions with the Unique Setting

Formsite prevent duplicates example

Form owners sometimes request help to limit their visitors to one result per person. Formsite has a few ways to prevent duplicate results to keep their Results Tables tidy. These built-in functions help to prevent cheating, block spammers, and other useful tasks, too.

Some places to prevent duplicate entries include:

Prevent Duplicate Results

Formsite prevent duplicate unique setting

The most effective way to prevent duplicates is to choose a required item and set its Unique setting. The Unique setting looks through every result in the Results Table for the same value, then returns an error message if it’s already there.

Using the Unique setting with the Email Address item works the best, though other items work as well. Applying the setting on the visitor’s ‘last name’ item would prevent more than one result for the entire family, for example.

Take care, however, in case there are more than one family with the same last name. Other items that can be unique would include neighborhoods, picking teams, auction amounts, etc.

The Prevent Multiple Submissions Setting

Formsite prevent duplicate multiple submissions

The Form Settings -> General -> Security page contains a setting to Prevent Multiple Submissions Per User. This setting works differently than the Unique setting in that it helps to prevent accidental duplicate submissions.

Enabling this setting sets a cookie on the visitor’s browser and prevents the same form from submitting from that specific browser. Using a different browser or clearing the browser’s cookies allows the visitor to easily work around that setting. Since the Unique setting works entirely in the background, we recommend using that instead.

Save & Return

Another way to prevent duplicates is to use the Save & Return feature. That lets form visitors create accounts on the form to complete the form over multiple visits. If the visitor doesn’t remember if they’ve submitted the form, logging in will show any previous results.

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Add Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to Track Online Forms

Formsite Google Analytics 4 GA4 tag

Formsite form owners can add tracking to their forms from any service they prefer. Many choose Google Analytics for its speed, reliability, and integration with Google Ads. For forms already set up with Google Analytics and for new implementations, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the newest way to go.

For forms already using Google Analytics, you still need to change to GA4. This is a service change by Google and the old Analytics has a scheduled date to stop working:

On July 1, 2023, standard Universal Analytics properties will no longer process data. You'll be able to see your Universal Analytics reports for a period of time after July 1, 2023. However, new data will only flow into Google Analytics 4 properties.

source: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10089681

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Search Results Methods and When to Use Each One

Formsite search results how to

Formsite online forms give form owners professional forms for collecting answers. The submitted answers get saved securely in the form’s Results Table as a new row for each new submission. The need to search results for specific names or other data led to development of a few specialized tools.

Account owners can search results in many ways including visually scanning the Results Table or using the Results Filters. The way you choose depends on the number of results, if they’re in the same form, and more.

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Formsite Design Enhancement for New List Navigation

Formsite List Navigation new Notifications example

As part of Formsite’s continuous improvement, the latest interface design now appears in all accounts. In addition to a style update, some areas with lists of settings are enhanced with the new List Navigation. The new List navigation style brings a more intuitive and simplified organization for lists of settings. Several pages in Formsite accounts have ways to create multiple settings and display as a list:

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Collect Custom Code Values in Form Results

Formsite Custom Code values sample

Custom Code items let form owners add code to do special things on their forms. Examples include embedding videos, adding HTML or CSS, and collecting values from scripts. A common question is how to save the output of the Custom Code values in the form’s Results Table.

Custom Code items place their code on the form but do not have a built-in input field, like other form items. Short Answer items, for example, have an input field where visitors enter their text, then that text saves in the result. Since Custom Code items only display their contents, there’s nothing that can collect a value.

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