How to Add a Form to the Web Site

A Web form is used to collect reponses from users and e-mail the results to one or more recipients.

A Web form consists of four elements:

Mailer Adapter

A form action adapter that will e-mail form input

Form Fields

These are added to the form to pose questions and collect responses. Plone offers a wide variety of form fields to collect different types of responses. For more information see the Guide to Form Fields.

Thanks Page

A page that appears after the form is submitted that displays the responses that were e-mailed to the form recipient(s)

Save Data Adapter

A form action that writes the form input to a comma separated file

Instructions

1. Navigate to the location on the Web site where the form will reside.
2. Click on Add Item and select the Form Folder option.
3. Enter a short name in the Short name field. The short name should not contain spaces, underscores or mixed case.
4. Enter a Title in the Title field.
5. Enter a Description in the Description field. This will tell the user the form is for. It is a short summary of the content.
   
6. The Submit Button Label is the name of the button that will show at the bottom of the form. The default is "Submit", other options could be, "Send", "Done", or "Finished".
7. The Show Reset Button and the Reset Button Label add the option to clear the from at the bottom of the form. It is off by default. Check the box if you want this option to appear.
8. The Action Adapter is what makes the form do something when the form is submitted. The Mailer adapter is added by default. The Mailer adapter sends and e-mail with the form contents to a designated recipient.
9. The Thanks Page, if selected, will appear to the user after the form has been submitted. The Thanks Page can be customized.
10. The Force SSL connection is NOT used on PLOW Websites.
    
11. Enter text in the Form Prologue. This text will be displayed above the form. This text could introduce the form, provide instructions and examples. This text could also provide disclaimers about the form data.
12. Enter text in the Form Epilogue. This text will be displayed below the form.
    
13. Click on the Save button.
14. A view of the form will display. The form already contains three fields.
15. Click on the contents tab.
    
16. The form folder contains five items: A mailer action, three fields, and a thank-you page.
17. Delete the fields the are unnecessary for your form. For example, if your form does not need the "Comments" field, click in the checkbox next to "Comments", then click on the Delete button at the bottom of the table.
    
18. Click on the  Add New... menu and select a field item from the drop-down menu. Each type of field is used for a different purpose.  For an explanation of field items see Guide to Form Fields
    
19. Complete the metadata fields.>/li>
    • The Field Label is usually in the form of a question. For example, "Who is your favorite author?"
    • The Field Help should contain instructions to help the user give the kind of answer you are expecting. For example, "Please enter only one author's name, such as 'John Grisham'. Do not enter a genre, such as 'mysteries'."
    • Required - Check if you want to be sure your users fill out this field. This will put a little red square by the field and return a form error if it is not filled in.
    • Hidden - this is never used
      
    • Default - The value the field should contain when the form is first displayed.
20. Click on the Save button.
    
21. A brief view of the form as it is taking shape will be displayed. Each item has a Delete, Edit and Order button.
    
22. Click on the Add New... button to add more fields. Save each field.
    
23. To change the order of the fields on the form, place your mouse in the order column and click and drag a field to place it in the desired order.
24. To prevent spambots from sending spam to the recipient using this form it is recommended you add the CAPTCHA field. Add the captcha field after all the other fields have been added; it has to be the last field in the form!Suggested metadata for the CAPTCHA field:
• shortname = security
• Field Label = For security, type the characters in the box
• Field Help = Characters are case sensitive. Use capital letters.
25. Click on the Contents tab
    
26. Click on Mailer (the form mailer adapter)
27. Click on Edit tab
28. In the Recipent's full name field enter the full name of the recipient who will receive the e-mail message.
29. In the Recipient's e-mail address enter the recipient's e-mail address
30. Click on the Addressing button from the sub-tabs menu.
    
31. Leave Extract Recipient From set to None
32. In the CC Recipients enter the e-mail addresses of the recipients who should receive a carbon copy
33. In the BCC Recipients enter the e-mail addresses of the recipients who should receive a blind carbon copy
34. Click on the Message tab
    
35. The message page is used to add text to the e-mail message that will accompany the form results that are sent to the recipient.
    
36. In the Subject field enter the subject line of the e-mail message. This is used if Extract subject from is set to none or the contents of the field selected is empty
37. In the Extract Subject From field select a form field to use as the mail subject line
38. In the Body (prepended) enter text pre-pended to fields listed in the mail body, such as instructions to the recipient. For example, "Please add this information to the spreadsheet"
39. In the Body (appended) enter text appended to the fields listed in the mail body
40. The tabs Template, Encryption and Overrides are NOT used
    
41. Click on the Save button
42. From the breadcrumbs, click on the name of the form.
43. Click on the contents tab.
44. Click on Thank You.
45. Click on the Edit tab.
46. Accept defaults on Short Name, Title and Description fields.
    
47. In the Thanks Prologue enter text that will displayed above the selected field responses.
48. In the Thanks Epilogue enter text that will displayed below the selected field responses.
49. Click the Fields tab from the sub-tab menu
    
50. Leave Show All Fields checked to display responses for all fields. The choices in the Show Responses will be ignored.
51. To use Show Responses, uncheck Show All Fields and pick the fields that should be displayed on the Thank You page.
52. Leave Include Empties checked to display field titles for fields that receive no input.
53. Click on the Save button.
54. From the breadcrumbs, click on the name of the form.
55. From the State menu, select the Publish option.
    

Add a Save Data Adapter to collect responses

If your form is collecting data that will eventually be added to a spreadsheet (for data analysis or distribution) a Save Data Adapter can be added to the form. This will collect the data and present a CSV (comma separated value) file that can be downloaded and viewed in a spreadsheet such as MS Excel.

1. Navigate to the form folder
2. Click Add New... and select Save Data Adapter from the drop-down menu
3. Add the shortname,  and title
4. Click next to Posting Date/Time under Extra data if you want to save this information with the form input. Ignore the other options under Extra Data
5. Choose the Download Format you want
6. Check Include Column Names
7. Click on the Save button

 Download the Data

1. When some responses have been received, navigate back to the form folder and click on the Contents tab
2. Click on the Save Data Adapter (it will have the name you gave it)
3. Click on  the "Click here to get the saved input" link
   
4. Click Save File and then click OK

   • Note: DO NOT "Open with Microsoft Office Excel". Always save the data to your computer before proceeding or you may lose the data.

5. Once you have checked the data by importing it into MS Excel, or another spreadsheet, go back to the Save Data Adapter and click Clear Saved Input
6. If you do not clear the saved input, the data will continue to append to the file.