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. Click on the next button.
7. 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.
8. Enter text in the Form Epilogue. This text will be displayed below the form.
   
9. Click on the Save button.
10. A view of the form will display. The form already contains three fields.
11. Click on the contents tab.
    
12. The form folder contains five items: A mailer action, three fields, and a thank-you page.
13. Delete the fields the are unnecessary for your form.
14. From Add Item menu select a field item. For an explanation of field items see Guide to Form Fields
    
15. Complete the item fields
16. Click on the Save button.
    
17. A brief view will be displayed. From the breadcrumbs, click on the name of the form.
18. Click on the contents tab.
19. To change the order of the fields on the form, click and drag, or use the arrows, to place fields in the desired order.
20. Repeat steps 14-19 to until the form is completed
21. To prevent spambots from sending spam to the recipient using this form it is recommended you add one more field. See Form Spambot Control for instructions
    
22. Click on Mailer (the form mailer adapter)
23. Click on Edit tab
24. Click on the next button to accept the default page.
    
25. On the addressing page in the Recipent's full name field enter the full name of the recipient who will receive the e-mail message.
26. In the Recipient's e-mail address enter the recipient's e-mail address
27. In the CC Recipients enter the e-mail addresses of the recipients who will receive a carbon copy
28. In the BCC Recipients enter the e-mail addresses of the recipients who will receive a blind carbon copy
29. Click on the next button
    
30. 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
31. 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
32. In the Extract Subject From field select a form field to use as the mail subject line
33. In the Body (prepended) enter text pre-pended to fields listed in the mail body, such as instructions to the recipient.
34. In the Body (appended) enter text appended to the fields listed in the mail body
35. Click on the Save button
36. A brief view will be displayed. From the breadcrumbs, click on the name of the form.
37. Click on the contents tab.
38. Click on Thank You.
39. Click on the Edit tab.
40. Accept defaults on Short Name, Title and Description fields.
    
41. Leave Show All Fields checked to display responses for all fields. The choices in the Show Responses will be ignored.
42. To use Show Responses, uncheck Show All Fields and pick the fields that should be displayed on the Thank You page.
43. Leave Include Empties checked to display field titles for fields that receive no input.
44. Click on the Next button.
45. In the Thanks Prologue enter text that will displayed above the selected field responses.
46. In the Thanks Epilogue enter text that will displayed below the selected field responses.
47. Click on the Save button.
48. From the breadcrumbs, click on the name of the form.
49. From the State menu, select the Publish option.