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Create a form

From Site explorer, click Forms. Forms appears.

Click New form. The Form Designer appears.

If you do not want to create a form from scratch, you can copy a form or use a sample as a starting point.

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To copy a form, locate it in the Forms gallery and click Click here to copy this form. On the Copy Form screen, enter a name, select a folder, and click Next. The Form Designer appears, and you can edit the form as necessary.

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To copy a sample form, locate it on the Samples tab and click Click here to copy this sample. On the screen that appears, enter a name, select a folder, and click Next. The Form Designer appears, and you can edit the form as necessary. For information about samples, see Sample Forms.

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If you previously exported a form or sample in Blackbaud NetCommunity, you can import the XML to create a copy of the form. To create the XML, you click sClick here to export this form or Click here to export this sample in the Forms gallery. To import the XML, you click Import form. On the Import Form screen, enter a name, select a folder, and paste the XML in the Form XML field. Click Next. The Form Designer appears, and you can edit the form as necessary.

Warning: You must copy and paste the XML from Notepad or another text editor. If you copy the XML directly from an XML editor or web browser, the Form Designer cannot create the form.

In the Form type field, select the form type. The form type determines the elements that are available for the form.

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The Common form type only includes presentation elements and field elements that are available on all forms. Fields on a Common form do not map to another database.

In the Form name and Form description fields, enter a name and description for the form.

In the Folder field, select a folder to store the form. By default, the program uses the Forms root folder.

To prevent website users to start or submit the form, select Suspend form. This allows website users to view the statuses of their forms but not start forms or submit data. You can use this checkbox to enforce submission deadlines and still allow users to monitor their statuses online.

To design the form, click Next. The Form builder tab appears.

Under Available elements, the Form Designer displays the Common presentation elements and field elements that are available for all forms. To design the form, click and drag elements from Available elements to Selected elements. Under Selected elements, click and drag items to arrange the order for the website.

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Under Presentation elements, select items to organize the form. With steps, you create distinct portions of the form for users to page through. With sections, you group elements within each step. Each form requires at least one step, and each step requires at least one section because you cannot place other elements directly on steps. You can also add images and text as necessary.

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Under Field elements, select fields to collect data from website users. The Common field elements include the text field, text area, radio button list, checkbox, checkbox list, dropdown list, and a special email field that sends confirmation email messages to the email addresses that users enter. These fields do not map to a database outside of the program.

Note: To edit element properties such as labels, style sheets, and validators, place the cursor over an element in Selected elements and click Edit. An element properties screen appears. For information about properties of presentation elements and field elements, see Properties of Form Elements.

To rename the labels, headings, and other text that appears on the form, select the Language tab. For information about the Language tab, see Language Tab.

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To assign website security rights for users and roles, select the Targeting & Security tab. For information about the Targeting & Security tab, see Targeting & Security Tab.

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To select login settings for the form, go to the Login tab.

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To require website users to log in to access the form, select Require login. Additional login options appear.

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To allow website users to save their data on a form and return to it later, select Allow user to save form.

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To allow website users to delete a form and not submit it, select Allow user to delete a form in progress.

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To create constituent records in The Raiser's Edge for any users who register for your website through this form, select Create Raiser’s Edge sign-up transactions. You enter user login settings for the form on the Form Display part.

Note: For Common forms, Create Raiser’s Edge sign-up transactions is always selected when you require users to log in to access the form.

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To restrict users to submit a form only one time when they are logged in to your site, select Allow only one form submission.

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To charge a fee when users submit the form, select the Payment tab and select Charge fee with form. Additional payment options appear.

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Under Fee amounts, to add a fee amount, click Add form fee. The Fee amounts screen appears.

Enter a name for the form fee.

Enter the dollar amount for the form fee.

In the Criteria field, select if the form fee applies to everyone or based on how a website user answers a field on the form.

If you select Based on fields in the form, click Add a new rule. The New Rule screen appears.

Select the step, section, field, and response, that if they choose on the form, the fee is added to the total form fee amount. For example, if a website user answers yes to participation in a club activity, you can charge a conditional fee on only club participants.

Click Save.You return to the Fee amounts screen.

Click Save again. You return to the Form Designer screen. Add as many separate form fees as you need.

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Under Payment setup, select to use a Payment 2.0 part or to proceed directly to payment with your merchant account.

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If you select to use a payment part, select the payment page and then write an acknowledgement message.

Note: If you select to use the payment part, you first need to set up your payment and merchant information in the Payment 2.0 part before you select it in the form.

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If you select to use your merchant account, in the Merchant account field, select a merchant account such as your organization’s IATS account to process credit card transactions received through the form.

The system supervisor sets up merchant accounts in Administration. For more information, see Merchant Accounts.

To display CAPTCHA text for users to enter before they proceed with the payment, select Display reCAPTCHA.

CAPTCHA is an automated public turing test to tell computers and humans apart to help prevent automated abuse of your website. You enable reCAPTCHA in Administration. For more information, see the reCAPTCHA.

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Select the payment methods available to users. Credit cards are allowed by default.

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To allow users to pay at a later time, select Bill me later.

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To allow users to waive the fee, select Allow users to waive the fee and enter a waiver code in the field that appears.

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To edit settings for when users submit the form, select the Submit settings tab.

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Under Confirmation screen, select whether to use the default screen or create a custom screen.

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To use the default, select Use default confirmation screen.

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To design the confirmation screen, select Use custom confirmation screen. The HTML editor appears. The program’s default confirmation screen appears in the HTML editor for you to customize according to your needs.

Edit the content for the confirmation screen. To format the appearance and layout, use the HTML editor toolbar. To include personalized information, use merge fields. For more information, see HTML Editor.

Warning: If you customize the confirmation screen and then select Use default confirmation screen, your changes to the confirmation screen remain. To remove changes, select Use custom confirmation screen and click Restore default content.

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Under Email alert, select Send an email alert when a user submits a form to send an email to staff members when a website user submits a form.

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Under Recipients, to send the alert to individual users and users in a role, click Add users and roles. The Select users and roles screen appears.

In the Filter field, enter the first letter of the user or role to include.

Note: The Available box displays 30 users and roles in alphabetical order. Use the Filter field to find additional users and roles that do not appear in the box.

Locate the user or role, and click Add. The user appears in the Selected box.

To select multiple users or roles, press Shift while you select the multiple users, and then click Add all. The users appear in the Selected box.

Click OK. You return to the Submit settings tab. The users and roles appear in the Users and roles box.

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To send the notification to a staff member who does not have a Blackbaud NetCommunity account, enter an email address under Email addresses.

Note: You can select to send the notification to individual users and users in roles instead of, or in addition to, individuals who do not have a Blackbaud NetCommunity account. When you enter multiple email addresses, separate them by a comma or semicolon.

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Enter a subject in the Subject field and an email address in the From field for the email alert.

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To display form data in the body of the email alert, select Include form data in the email alert. By default, the email links to a PDF version of the form, and when you select this option, the email also includes form data.

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To create an acknowledgement email for website users who submit forms, click Acknowledgement email. The Acknowledgement Email screen appears.

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Enter a name for the acknowledgment, a subject, a return address, and a name for the From field of the email message.

Tip: In the form, the email address field is used to send the acknowledgement only if the user is not logged in. If the user is logged in, the acknowledgment email is sent to the email address associated with the login profile account.

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In the box, edit the content of the acknowledgment. To format the appearance and layout, use the HTML editor toolbar. For information about how to design an email acknowledgement, see Acknowledgments.

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Click Save to save your progress and continue to set up the form. You can also click Save and Close to return to Forms.

To post the form on your website, place it on a Form Display part. For information about the part, see Form Display.

After you place the form on the website, you can view summary information about the form and manage the data that website users submit on the Data tab in Forms. For information about the Data tab, see Manage Data from Online Forms.