How do I design a form?

Describes how to add, edit, and delete fields on a form.

Updated over a week ago

You will need the Full Write Forms permission to perform this action.

After adding a new form, the next step is to add the fields you want to collect data for onto the form. To do this, navigate to the form and click on the "Fields" tab. From here, you can add, edit, and delete fields on the form.

The designer is split into two columns. The left-hand side contains a preview of how the form looks. Refer to this area as you add fields to see how the form will appear. The right-hand side contains the fields that you can add to the form. 

When you click on a field button, it will be added to the bottom of the preview area. You can reorder the added fields by dragging and dropping them as desired. The only exception is the "Profile Information" section, which must appear at the top of the form.

Fields

This section lists all the fields that can be added and describes how each one works.

This button represents a collection of fields that can be included in the form. At a minimum, it is recommended that this is added to every form you design as it contains fields that help identify who is submitting the form. 

When selected, a pop up will appear. Select "Yes" for "Include Profile Fields?" to view the list of possible fields. Check the "Show" column to include the field and the "Required" column if the person must provide a value when submitting the form.

  • Name - adds first and last name fields (must be included and required)

  • Email - adds a field to collect email. The format is enforced.

  • Phone - adds a field for the phone number. 

    • Note: when a mobile number is selected in the Phone field, a question will populate asking if the member wants to opt-in to text messages.

  • Campus - adds a dropdown for campus

  • Address - adds fields for each part of the person's address

  • Birthday - adds a dropdown for the date of birth

  • Gender - adds a dropdown for the gender

  • Marital Status - adds a dropdown for the person to specify their marital status

  • Contact Preference - adds a dropdown for contact preference

    • Note: this has no system effect but is informational

The "Enable Login?" check box decides whether the login button is displayed on a form.

Text

Example:


Adds a text box to the form. The following fields are available when configuring this field:

  • Label - the field name

  • Is Required? - select "Yes" if text must be entered for this field before being allowed to submit.

  • Placeholder - text that should appear in the field by default. Will disappear once a value is entered. Use this to include an example of a valid input, some helpful text, or a default answer.

  • Description - text entered here will appear between the field name and the text box.

  • Character Limit - the maximum number of characters a response can be.

 

Paragraph


Example:


Adds a multi-line text box to the form. The following fields are available when configuring this field:

  • Label - the field name

  • Is Required? - select "Yes" if text must be entered for this field before being allowed to submit.

  • Placeholder - text that should appear in the field by default. Will disappear once a value is entered. Use this to include an example of a valid input, some helpful text, or a default answer.

  • Description - text entered here will appear between the field name and the text box.

  • Character Limit - the maximum number of characters a response can be.

 

Number


Example:


Adds a field that only accepts numbers to the form. If the field should contain money, then add a "Currency" field instead. The following fields are available when configuring this field:

  • Label - the field name

  • Is Required? - select "Yes" if text must be entered for this field before being allowed to submit.

  • Placeholder - text that should appear in the field by default. Will disappear once a value is entered. Use this to include an example of a valid input, some helpful text, or a default answer.

  • Description - text entered here will appear between the field name and the text box.

  • Acceptable range of values - the minimum and maximum allowed number.

 

Currency


Adds a field that accepts money amounts to the form. The following fields are available when configuring this field:

  • Label - the field name

  • Is Required? - select "Yes" if text must be entered for this field before being allowed to submit.

  • Description - text entered here will appear between the field name and the text box.

 

Date

Example:

Adds a field for entering dates to the form. The following fields are available when configuring this field:

  • Label - the field name

  • Is Required? - select "Yes" if text must be entered for this field before being allowed to submit.

  • Description - text entered here will appear between the field name and the text box.

 

Item/Ticket

Example:

Adds a section on the form that contains tickets or items that the person can purchase. When the person enters a quantity greater than 0 on any item, a payment form will appear. Since they indicated they wish to purchase an item, payment must be entered before submitting the form. 

The following fields are available when configuring this field:

  • Label - the field name

  • Is Required? - select "Yes" if text must be entered for this field before being allowed to submit.

  • Description - text entered here will appear between the field name and the text box.


You can add one or more items for purchase under the "Items" section by clicking on the "+" button. This will add a new row underneath.


Each row contains the following fields:

  • Name - the name of the ticket or item for purchase

  • Price - the price you want them to pay

  • Fund - the fund the money should go towards. You can click on the "split" to specify multiple funds. For example, you can set that 25% goes to one fund, and the other 75% to another fund.

  • Limits per person - the minimum number and maximum number of tickets/items the person can purchase. If the minimum is greater than 0, the person will be required to purchase that particular item before submitting the form.

  • Total Quantity - the total number of tickets/items that can be sold. This field will go decrease every time a purchase is made. Once it reaches 0, the ticket/item will no longer be available for sale. Leave blank if you do not want to limit this. For repeating events, this amount will be per event occurrence (i.e. day or range). For non-repeating events and stand-alone forms, this will be the total availability and will not reset.

To delete a row, click on the "x" button at the end of the row you want to remove.

NOTE: Forms can only accept payment via Debit or Credit Cards (and with One Church Giving enabled).

ACH payment is NOT accepted on form payments.

Donation


Example:


Adds a field where the person can add a donation amount. If an amount greater than $0.00 is entered, the payment form will appear. The person will then need to also complete the payment section before submitting the form.

The following fields are available when configuring this field:

  • Label - the field name

  • Is Required? - select "Yes" if a donation is required before being able to submit this form.

  • Allow recurring donations? - select "Yes" if you want to give the person the option of turning this donation into a recurring gift. The default is "No."

  • Description - text entered here will appear between the field name and the text box.

You can set the funds that a person can give to under the "Funds" section by selecting a fund in the dropdown. To add all funds, click on the "select all funds." To remove all funds, click on "clear all funds."


Each row contains the following fields:

  • Fund - the fund the person can give to.

  • Limits - the minimum and maximum amount a person can give. If there is a minimum, the person will be required to donate at least that amount before being able to submit the form.

To remove a fund, click on the "x" button at the end of the row containing the fund you want to remove.

NOTE: Forms can only accept payment via Debit or Credit Cards (and with One Church Giving enabled).

ACH payment is NOT accepted on form payments.

File Upload


Example:


Adds an area to the form that accepts files for upload. Each file uploaded must be less than 5 MB in size. Allowed file formats are txt, pdf, png, jpg, doc, docx, xls, xlsx, and zip.

The following fields are available when configuring this field:

  • Label - the field name

  • Description - text entered here will appear between the field name and the drop down

  • Is Required? - select "Yes" if at least one file must be uploaded before being able to submit this form.

  • Is Hidden? - select "Yes" to hide this field from the form. 

  • Maximum Files - the maximum number of files a person can upload at once. Defaults to one file.


Any uploaded files will be included in the notification email you receive after submission. You can also download the files again when viewing the form submission from within the software.

Repeating Section


Example:


Allows you to design a section of fields that can repeat. Any fields added to this section will duplicate when the user clicks on the "+ Add" button. Useful when you want to capture related information from the person, but the number can vary.

The following fields are available when configuring this field:

  • Label - the field name

  • Description - text entered here will appear between the field name and the drop down

  • Is Required? - select "Yes" if at least one item must be added to this section.

  • Is Hidden? - select "Yes" to hide this field from the form. 

  • Minimum - the minimum number of items that must be added to this section.

  • Maximum - the maximum number of items that can be added to this section. Once reached, the "+ Add" button will disappear.

  • Record Name - the name of each item. This will appear at the top of each item (i.e. School 1, School 2, etc) as well as on the add button (i.e. + Add School). If no value is given, the name used will be "Item."

  • Fields - add one or more fields to this area. This will make up the item that can be added multiple times in this section.

People


Use this field type when you want to capture information related to other people included in a submission. This is very similar to the Profile Information field. The system will attempt to match the additional people to existing profiles using the typical rules. However, it will also look in the submitter's family (if matched to their profile) for a match using only their name.

Dropdown


Example:

Adds a dropdown field to the form. Use this when you want to provide a list of values to the person of which they can only select one.

The following fields are available when configuring this field:

  • Label - the field name

  • Is Required? - select "Yes" if text must be entered for this field before being allowed to submit.

  • Choices - enter each drop down item here. You can click on the "+" to add a new item and on the "x" to delete one.

  • Description - text entered here will appear between the field name and the drop down

Once a form is submitted that uses one of the dropdown values, that value cannot be removed from the form anymore. You can tell this is the case because of the eye icons next to the choice. Avoid changing the meaning of this field since that would change the meaning on any past submissions as well. 

You can use the eye icons to show and hide the choice on the form.

  1. The open eye means the value will not appear in the drop down so people will no longer be able to select it. The choice field will also become grayed out as shown above.

  2. The eye with a slash means that the field is visible and people will be able to select this value in the drop down.

 

Checkbox List

Example:

Adds a list of check boxes to the form. Use this when you want to present a predefined list of possible values and the person can select more than one.

The configuration for this works the same as for a Dropdown field. Please see section above named "Dropdown."

 

Radio Button List

Example:

Adds a list of radio buttons to the form. Use this when you want to present a predefined list of possible values and the person can only one. The difference between this and the Dropdown is that all the values will be visible at the same time.

The configuration for this works the same as for a Dropdown field. Please see the section above named "Dropdown."

Section Break

Example:

Adds a new section header to the form. Use this to help break up long forms into multiple sections. Any fields you add below that section should make sense to appear in that section to avoid confusion.

The following fields are available when configuring this field:

  • Label - the section header

  • Description - any text you want to include underneath the header

 

HTML

Adds an HTML block to the form. You can include any valid HTML here, including embedding video and links. You are not permitted to enter any JavaScript as that will be removed.

Use this when you want to add arbitrary text to the form such as instructions or background information.

Grouping

Example:

This will allow you to add a group of several fields together. This is useful if you want to conditionally make all of those fields appear together. You would set the condition on the grouping field itself in this case and either all the fields will appear or none. This saves you from having to set each field individually.

The following fields are available when configuring this field:

  • Admin Only? - If yes, will ONLY appear when editing a previous form submission and is meant to be filled out by an administrator.

  • Is Hidden? - select "Yes" to hide this field from the form.

  • Fields - add one or more fields to this area. This will make up the fields that are grouped together.

Editing a Field

You can edit an already added field by clicking on the field while hovering over the field in the preview area. The field will have a dotted border around it.

Deleting a Field

To delete, hover over the field and click on the trash can icon. Be aware that any data submitted for this field during past submissions will be deleted.

Finishing Up

While there are unsaved changes on the form, there will be a red yield symbol next to the save button. Once saved, it will disappear.

Once you are done adding fields to the form. Click on the "Save" button in the upper right area of the screen.

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