Formsite has wrapped up migrating our architecture to a 100% cloud-based processing and storage system. This monumental task puts the power of cloud computing in our hands with a practically limitless scalable structure. In addition to processing power, cloud computing also allows Formsite to establish servers in geographically advantageous locations to enable faster connections and diverse redundancies.

Cloud Services for Customers

Cloud servicing offers our customers the peace of mind that comes with virtual computing and knowing that their data is secure. Since the cloud is made up of a large network of computing systems, data is invulnerable to physical events like hard drive crashes, power outages, or other machine failures. With the cloud components sharing the burden of data storage and processing, the potential for data loss is lower than ever.

The latest Formsite release presents a new set of Themes to the Look & Feel capabilities, as well as an updated default form style. The updated style presents a cleaner experience for form visitors and a more seamless transition for mobile users. The text fields and buttons have been given a larger footprint to provide easier access on smaller screens, and the gradients and shadows have been minimized to lessen form distractions.

Theme options

The new themes provide color options of our new default style and give form designers the ability to quickly select a personality for their form. Ranging from conservative blues and grays to wild oranges and greens, there is a theme for every subject.

The Customize tools have been modified to allow for more control over common elements and some names have been changed for clarity. All of the previous tools are still available for customers looking to match new forms to old styles. Form designers can either rebuild legacy themes or copy styles from existing forms in their account by going to Look & Feel and clicking the Copy From Form button.

The most recent Formsite release gives customers more control over their form results through enhanced attachment processing tools. Exporting results has had the ability to limit the export to a date range for some time now, but targeting files separately has been a frequent request. New in this release is the ability to delete just form attachments, which lets form owners reduce their account file storage, as well as the ability to limit to a specific date range.

Managing Attachments

A previous release added the ability to export attachments as a zip archive, and this new feature gives form administrators the ability to delete files from form results. An example of the usefulness of this feature is with a form that collects uploaded files, such as a contest submission or photos of items for sale. The form owner can now export the files for safe-keeping, then delete all attachments in a specific date range. This allows you to delete attachments while retaining the other information collected by the form.

Formsite enterprise customers are high-volume users whose needs often require extra processing power, higher limits, and dedicated servers. Additionally, our white label options are frequently used to create a seamless integration of Formsite into enterprise websites. Newly added to the site are enterprise customer profiles showing how customers in a variety of industries are benefiting from Formsite services.

Enterprise customers use forms in a variety of ways, including conducting surveys, collecting registrations for events, as an interface for updating customer information, and as a lead generation tool. Developing these forms would typically require an extended design and programming period, along with constant monitoring and results processing. Through Formsite, enterprise customers use the same form builder and results system – but on a much larger scale. Our system eliminates all of the nuisance activities associated with building and maintaining forms, and provides an efficient productivity-enhancing process instead.

White Label services are available for enterprise customers for seamlessly integrating Formsite into their own domains and styles. With white labeling, all of the components of Formsite are custom branded to present a unified and consistent user experience, while still receiving the support and processing power from Formsite. White label customers are provided a dashboard tool that enables them to easily manage all of their accounts. White label customers are also free to charge different prices to their customers that are in line with their value add.

Visit the profiles page for more information on enterprise services and how Formsite is creating solutions for enterprise issues.

FormSite's latest release has moved many of our services into the cloud. This move has given us the ability to create capacity on the fly, provide more efficient global service, and reduced the dependency on a single geographic location.

What is the cloud?

Cloud computing broadly refers to applications and data hosted by virtual servers, which are not literal computers but instead virtual computers that are simulated by a large number of interconnected computers. These virtual computers can be modified in place - growing or shrinking as necessary - much like a cloud does.

Our most recent release contains a few new features to help with both front-end compatibility and back-end workflow. The most visible feature is the new Mobile Friendly switch we’ve included in the Look & Feel page for all forms.

Accessed on the Advanced/CSS tab within Look & Feel, the Mobile Friendly switch is on by default for new forms (off for existing forms) and applies certain style definitions that provide a mobile optimized experience. These style definitions include making the form fields a little bigger for easier finger tapping, zooming the page to fill the screen by default, and other subtle usability enhancements.

We have included the switch to allow customers to decide for themselves whether they want or need the mobile optimization, as well as the ability to disable these definitions for maximum control of form styles. Visit our documentation page for more information about how we optimize Formsite forms for mobile devices.

A newly-released function to enhance back-end workflow is an optimization to provide a date filter when exporting attachments.

This is a request from customers that we are sure will be popular, especially with those using our Signature feature. Forms that include signatures or file uploads can become difficult to deal with after a period of time due to a large number of attachments. The previous method to export attachments from multiple responses was to export the entire attachment library. This new feature lets customers select a time period to limit the attachment export in order to ease the burden of large or numerous files, or for those customers who only want to download files since their last visit.

The new tool replaces the previous attachment export function accessed at Results -> Export -> Export -> Attachments. The ability to export the complete attachment library is still the default operation, with the date filtering a new option. Read more about Formsite features on our Features page.

Our most recent release has published a few new features to help with both front-end compatibility and back-end workflow. One feature is the new HTML5 validation that benefits from the power of new browser technology.

HTML5 offers new code elements that allow programmers to present interactive content easily. In addition to providing more types of content, HTML5 validation will automatically check form fields for the correct format. This automatic validation lets the visitor know when the form encounters a response that doesn’t match the expected response format, such as URLs and email addresses.

While validation is nothing new, the ability to tag the fields and let modern browsers alert the user when they’ve entered the wrong kind of value is a feature of the new HTML5 standard. These tags do not require any configuration and are automatically placed with each applicable form item and validation pair. We’re looking forward to using more HTML5 features as the standard is evolved and browsers increase their compatibility.

Read more about the exciting new possibilities of HTML5.

Our online form examples section is one of the most popular areas on our website for new and existing customers to get inspiration. In addition to providing sample content like survey questions, registration options, and online order form examples, they also show a wide range of form features and creative ideas for all experience levels. There are examples that show the built-in features of our form building tool, as well as examples that show the advanced possibilities available through directly editing the style sheet.

The new example section contains the previous categories showing example registration forms and sign-up form examples, marketing and online survey templates, and order form examples. Additionally, three new categories have been added: Form report examples, form style examples, and form email examples.

Finally, there is a new category called Real Life Form Examples that shows some actual samples from our customers. These real world online form examples show how others have used our services to create real business tools that are both useful and effective. Take a look and let us know what you think.

We have added a new Signature item that can be added to your form. You can now capture electronic signatures on forms by allowing visitors to sign with their mouse, finger, or stylus. This will help you to verify your users’ identities or allow your users to provide an extra layer of consent to your forms.

The Signature item will generate an image of the electronic signature that you can view with your results, depending on the format. For example, you will see these inline with the rest of the form results in most email formats. They can also be downloaded along with your Attachment item results.

Please Contact Support with any feedback, comments, or suggestions.