To create online forms and place them on your website, you must perform several steps in different areas of the program. For Common forms, the fields do not map to another database and the data that website users submit remains in the program.
Step 1
To allow users to create and manage online forms, you must provide security rights. To do this, you add the desired form-related rights to a task group. In Security Assignments, you then associate the task group with a role or an individual user. In the task group, you can provide users with full supervisor rights in Forms, rights to create forms but not edit or delete other users’ forms, view-only rights, or limited view-only rights for the form data that website users submit. For more information about security rights, see Users & Security.
Step 2
To create an online form, go to Forms and click New form. If you do not want to create a form from scratch, you can copy an existing form, create a form based on a sample in the Samples tab, or import an XML form. When you create the form, enter a name and select a form type to determine the available elements. The Common form type is available to all users and includes presentation elements and field elements that are available on all forms. The data you collect with Common forms does not map to another database.
Tip: When you host multiple sites, you can create forms for individual sites. To do this, log in to the site and create the form. For more information, see Go to Site.
Step 3
After you create a form, use the Form Designer’s Form builder tab to select the elements to include. To place elements on the form, select them under Available elements and drag and drop them to Selected elements. To edit properties for an element, place the cursor over the element and click Edit. With presentation elements, you can organize the form into steps and sections and add images and instructional text. Each form must include at least one step and one section. With field elements, you can place fields on the form to collect data. Common fields available on all forms include text fields, text areas, radio button lists, checkboxes, checkbox lists, dropdown lists, and a special email field that sends confirmation email messages to the email addresses that users enter.
Step 4
After you design the form on the Form builder tab, use the Form Designer’s other tabs to enter settings for the form. For information about the Form Designer, see Design Forms.
| • | On the Language tab, you can rename labels, headings, and other text for the form. |
| • | On the Properties tab, you can change the form name and description. You can also suspend the form to allow website users to view their statuses but not start or submit forms. |
| • | On the Targeting & security tab, you set the view rights to target the form to specific users. |
| • | On the Login tab, select whether to require users to log in to access the form. You can also select whether to allow users to save and delete forms, and whether to create sign-up transactions in The Raiser's Edge for users who register for your site through the form. |
| • | On the Payment tab, select whether to charge a fee when users submit the form. |
| • | On the Submit settings tab, select whether to use the default confirmation screen when users submit forms or to design your own. Click Acknowledgement email to design the email message to send to users to confirm receipt of their form data. |
Step 5
After you complete the form, you can place it on your website. To do this, you create a Form Display part in Parts and select the forms to include on the part. When you place the part on a web page, it acts as a landing page for users to access your online forms. On this page, a list of available forms appears, and after website users start forms, they can view the statuses and resume, delete, and print forms. On the Form Display part, you also enter login settings for users who access the page. For more information about the Form Display part, see Form Display.
Step 6
After you place the Form Display part on the website, you return to Forms to manage forms. On the Data tab, you can view summary information about forms and manage the data that website users submit. On the Summary tab, the grid displays the number of forms started and completed for each form on the website. On the Detail tab, you can edit the data that website users enter on the forms. For more information about the Data tab, see Manage Data from Online Forms.