Creating Forms

How to create custom forms in CommonSpot

Prerequisites

This tutorial assumes you are familiar with the following:

Overview

Forms can be used to get information emailed to you from website users.

Before creating a form, make a list of the essential information you would like to receive. Try to make the form as short as possible, and keep the multiple-choice questions to a minimum. People are less likely to fill out long forms.

Setting Up the Form

Navigate to the page you would like to put the form on.
Go to Author or Edit mode.
Insert the Simple Form element (in the Miscellaneous category).
Click to define the Simple Form Element
Select "Create new simple form"
Name the form (letters and numbers only, no spaces or special characters).
Provide one or more email addresses, separated by commas, that the form data will be sent to.
Sender's email address checkbox: If this is checked and a user is logged in to the website, the email will look like it was sent from that person. Otherwise, it uses the anonymous email address below.
Anonymous sender's email address: This is what the "From" field will be in the emails sent by this from. The web team usually uses 'cinweb@stlouis-mo.gov.'
Form action: After the user submits a form, you can either display some custom text (the first option), or you can send them to another page (the second option).
Press "Save."

This will bring you back to your page, and the form element will still be blank, like in the image below.

Blank form element

Field Basics

You have set up the basics for the form, but now you need to add some form fields for people to fill out.

Click on the yellow box with the plus sign to edit the element, then click on "Edit fields."
This brings you to the form's list of fields. Click "Add new field."
Select a field type from the drop-down box.

Each field has a:

Name: No special characters or spaces (users won't see this).
Label: Short descriptive text to the left of the field.
Description (optional): Just in case the field needs extra explaining. Shows up below the field.
Required: Yes/No. If you select "Yes" then people will be forced to fill it out before submitting the form.
Default value (optional): A value that shows up in the field by default. This is under the "Other Properties" tab.

Once you are done, click the "Create" button.

Add as many fields as you need, then press "Close." When you are satisfied with your form, submit the element to be published, then go through and submit the form to test it out.