Hidden Fields

When you create a DIY form, you can choose to include hidden fields, which the constituent does not see, to track values in eTapestry every time that form is submitted. Hidden fields can help you track a variety of information about your constituents that can be useful as you analyze your data.

Note: To add hidden fields to DIY forms, the display type on the user defined field must be single select or multi-select. Text and note fields are not available as hidden fields.

Common uses for hidden fields include:

• Use a hidden field to track different versions of the same form for analytical and comparison purposes. For example, you might use a donation form with a picture representing your mission, and another one with no picture. Or you might want to ask for additional information about the donor in one version, and create another shorter and simpler version of the same form, and then compare them to see which one performs better. In these cases, you can add a hidden field indicating the form's version each time a donor submits it so you can later report on it. In this last example, you could hide a user-defined field called "Form type" and select the value "Long form" for the longer version and a value of "Short form" for the simpler version.

  Note: You can only include user-defined fields that are already configured in your database. If you want to include a user-defined field that is not yet created, you can save your online form and edit it once you have the user-defined field available. For information about creating user-defined fields, see User-Defined Fields

• Hidden fields can also help you track additional information about your constituents when they submit the form. For example, if you are using a form to register individuals as volunteers, you can use a hidden field to mark this person as a volunteer in the database. If you have a user-defined field that identifies your constituents as volunteers, when they fill out a form intended for volunteers you can automatically track the appropriate value in this field without requiring the constituent to select it in the form. In this example, you would add your user-defined field as a hidden field and select a positive value for it.