Documentation / The modules

Forms

The Forms module shows on your site a form that you build field by field. Replies land in My inbox, and a notice can go to your email address.

Creating a form

1. Add the Forms module to your site ("Modules" screen), then click "Create my form" in its row of the table.
2. Give the form a name and click "Create". It is born with three required fields: "Your name", "Your email" and "Your message". It is live right away.
3. Edit it in the editor, then click "Save". Nothing you change is visible to your visitors before you save.

A site can hold up to twenty forms. The code in each one's "Embed" tab shows that form, and no other.

The editor

The sheet on the left shows the form as it will read: its title, an optional introduction, the blocks, then the text of the submit button. To insert a block, type / in the line under the blocks, or write some text and press Enter. Click a block to set it up in the right-hand panel. When no block is selected, that panel shows the settings of the whole form.

Field types

A field's settings

• Label: the question, 120 characters at most. A field without a label is removed on save.
• Help and placeholder text inside the field, optional.
• Required or not.
• Maximum length: 250 characters by default, 2,000 for a long text, 5,000 at most.
• Options for dropdowns, choices and checkboxes: 20 at most, no duplicates. A choice field left without options becomes a short text again.
• Half width, to place two short fields side by side (short text, email, phone, web address, number, date, time, dropdown).
• For a scale, the words shown at both ends, for example "Not at all" and "Absolutely".

A form holds up to 40 fields and 80 blocks in all.

Layout

Five blocks are not filled in, they are read:

• Section heading, to open a part.
• Text, a paragraph between two questions.
• Divider, a line.
• Image, with its description and an optional caption.
• New screen: what follows shows on a next screen.

An image in the form

Insert an "Image" block, then click "Choose an image". The file is uploaded right away: the image appears on the sheet, and shows to your visitors after you save.

• Formats: PNG, JPEG, WebP or GIF. SVG is refused: it is a document that can carry code, not only an image.
• Size: 512 KB at most, and 8 to 5,000 pixels a side. An image 1,600 pixels wide is more than enough.
• Description (in the right-hand panel): read to people who cannot see the image, and shown if it does not load. Leave it empty if the image is purely decorative.
• Caption (under the image, on the sheet): optional.

A form holds up to 10 images. An image belongs to the form you uploaded it in: it shows in no other, even by copying its address. Removed from the form, it is deleted on save; deleting the form deletes its images.

A form in several screens

Insert a "New screen" block where the form should break. Its text becomes the title of the screen that starts. From two screens on, the form's settings offer a progress bar (checked by default) and the texts of the "back" and "next" buttons ("Previous" and "Next" by default). The submit button stays the same on every screen.

Showing a field under a condition

A field can appear only depending on the answer given to a field placed before it. The possible conditions:

• is (a precise value);
• is not;
• contains;
• is filled in;
• is empty.

The comparison ignores capitalization. A field hidden by its condition is neither required nor stored, even if a value was sent for it. A condition that targets a field placed lower, or deleted, is removed on save: the field becomes always visible again.

The form's settings

• Message after sending: what the person reads once their message has gone. By default: "Thank you, your message has arrived." A "Send another message" link shows underneath.
• Then send the visitor to: optional. An address of your choice where the person lands after a successful send. See redirection.
• Email me when a reply arrives: checked on creation. See below.
• The button text is changed directly on the sheet: click it. By default: "Send".

What happens on submit

Every value is checked again by our server, whatever the browser. If something is missing or wrong, the form comes back with what the person typed and a message under each faulty field: nothing is lost. Otherwise the reply is stored and the thank-you message shows in the frame, on your page.

A form sent entirely empty (all its fields optional) shows the thank-you but stores nothing.

There is no file upload for your visitors.

Sending the visitor to another page

If you fill in "Then send the visitor to", your whole page changes after a successful send, not only the form's frame. The person lands on the chosen address: a thank-you page on your site, a booking, a payment.

• The address must be complete and start with https://, 300 characters at most. Addresses in http://, without a scheme, or carrying a username and password are refused.
• It can lead somewhere other than your site.
• The reply is stored before leaving: nothing is lost if the destination page is slow or does not exist.
• A refused address does not stop the rest from saving: a message says so at the top of the editor, and the previous address stays in place.

To test, click "Preview" in the editor, fill in the form and send it.

The email notice

When a reply arrives, an email lets you know, on two conditions: the form's "Email me" box is checked, and the "Email notices" setting in Account settings is too.

• It goes out at most once per hour and per site: twenty replies at once do not make twenty emails.
• It never contains the content of the reply. You read it in My inbox.
• A reply filed as spam triggers no notice.

Deleting a form

Through the "More" menu, at the top of the form's screen. Deletion is final. Replies already received, for their part, stay in My inbox. To hide a form without losing anything, choose "Take offline" instead, in the same menu: replies already received stay in My inbox.