Form Builder

Form Builder is a powerful tool allowing you to create and edit forms for your website. Whenever a visitor fills in the form you will be emailed their answers. You can split your forms into pages and sections to make it clearer and simpler to fill in.

To enable the application, go to the Content Management tab of the administration pages, then go to the Applications page, and click the Enable button next to Form Builder. Unlike other applications it doesn't appear in the main menu on your website - once you have created a form you should make a link to it from another page.  See the Linking to Forms section below.

Once enabled, you can get to the administration pages for the application from within the administration pages for the website. Go to the Content Management tab, and click on Form Builder in the Site Map.

Concepts

You can create multiple Forms with the Form Builder. Each form is split into Pages and each page can have multiple Sections. You can add Questions directly to a page, or within a section. We recommend that you plan the form in advance to have a good idea of the breakdown of pages/sections that you want before you start building the form.

There are several types of question that you can choose from:

Small text - a small text box in which to type the answer.

Medium text - a medium sized text box to type the answer.

Long text - a large text box to type the answer.

One line - a single line of text.

Number - the user must reply with a number. The system will check that a number is entered before allowing the form to be submitted.

Multiple choice - define a number of options, and the user picks one or more of them using checkboxes.

Single Radio choice - define a number of options, and the user must pick only one of them by clicking on one of the radio buttons.

Single Drop down - define a number of options, and the user must pick only one of them by selecting from a pop-down list.

Creating a Form

There are multiple steps you need to complete before users can fill in a form that you create with the Form Builder:

1. Add a form.
2. Define who will be emailed the answers that users give to your questions.
3. Edit the form to have the pages, sections, and questions that you want.
4. Make the form public, and add a link to it from another page.

Add a form

• From the Form Builder administration pages, click Add Form.
• Supply a name for the form - this will also form part of the form's URL when you make it public.
• You can optionally supply a URL to redirect the user to on successful form completion, or when they cancel their form input.
  • If you don't supply a URL then the system will use an internal default page.
  • You can pick a page that you have created in the Content Management System by clicking on Select Page, or you can type in any URL.
• Click OK. You will be taken to the configuration page for the new form.

Define email recipients

You need to add the email addresses of one or more people who will be sent the answers that users give to your questions. If you don't define any recipients then the answers will be lost.

• From the configuration page for the form, click on the Email Recipients tab.
• Click Add Email Address.
• Enter an email address, and click the small Add button next to the entry box. The address will be added to the list.
• Click on the larger OK button when you have finished editing the list.

Edit the form

• From the configuration page for the form, click on the Edit tab.

This takes you to the main form editing page. On the right of the page you'll see a "map" of the entire form, showing Pages, Sections, and Questions in a hierarchical list. For a newly created form this will contain just one page, called Page 1

You can use this map to navigate to, and edit, different parts of the form. Click on any Page, Section, or Question to edit settings, or click on the form name a the top to return to the form settings. The currently selected item is shown in bold black text.

Adding Pages

You can only add a page when you have selected the entire form in the map. If you currently have selected a Page, Section or Question then you will not see the Add Page button. In this case click on the form name in the map before continuing.

• Click on Add Page.
• Enter the page title, and click OK. The page will be added to the form.

To edit the name of a page, click on the page in the map, or click the edit icon  from the form view.

Adding Sections

These can only be added when you have selected a page in the map.

• Click on the page in the map that you wish to add a section to.
• Click Add Section
• enter a Name and Heading for the section.
• Click OK. The section will be added to the page.

To edit a section, click on it in the map and then click the Edit button.

Adding Questions

Questions can be added directly to a page, or to a section within a page.

• Click on the page or section in the map that you wish to add a question to.
• Click Add Question.
• Enter the name, question, and question type. If you select a question type which has predefined options then you will be asked these on the next page.
• Optionally enter some help text for the question, and select whether the user is required to answer this question.
• Click OK.

If you selected multiple choice, single radio choice, or single drop down as the question type, you will now be required to enter some choices for the user to select from:

Click on Add Item.

• Enter the choice, and click on the small Add button to the right of the entry box.
• When you have added all the choices, click OK.

You can edit a question by clicking on it in the map, then clicking the Edit button.

Rearranging Forms

You can change the order of Sections and Questions on a page by clicking on the one you wish to move in the map, then clicking the Move Up and Move Down buttons.

You can also move questions between sections by selecting the question in the map and clicking the Set Page and Section button. You will be shown a list of all pages and sections, click on the one you wish to move the question to.

Linking to Forms

Before a form can be filled in you must enable it. To do this go to the list of forms in the application's administration pages and click the Enable button.

You must then cut and paste the URL from the Published URL section into a link on a content page. See the Content Management System documentation for further details on adding links to pages.

Permissions

To configure the permissions, go to the administration pages for your website, select the Content Management tab, and then the Applications page. Click the Permissions button next to the Form Builder application in the list. For further details of how to use Permissions, see the Permissions section of the manual.

• Users with Admin permission can edit and create forms.
• Users with Read permission can answer the questions in any form.
• Users cannot add their own forms - only administrators can do this. Therefore adding Edit permission for a user gives them no special rights in this application.