Posts Tagged ‘form results’
Engage Users via Twitter & Facebook to Increase Form Conversion
FormSmarts allows you to better engage with your user community by adding a social component to your online forms. The assumption with social networks is that a user is more likely to perform an online action such as filling out a form, registering for an event or sign up for a class if she knows that her friend or colleague has already done so.
Online Forms Get Social
For each form, FormSmarts allows you to set up a message template that will be used to post an update to social networks when the form is submitted. The message can incorporate any information entered on the form.
The user’s expectation when filling out online forms is that the information submitted will only be disclosed to the form owner, and you clearly need to ensure you don’t leak personal information (more about this in the last section). We define two types of input fields on a form. Those which will be populated by information which—taken out context—is so general that it can be safely disclosed, and those which should be kept private. In the example below, we deem First Name, City and Country as public, while all other fields are deemed private.
How to Set Up FormSmarts to Post Twitter Updates
First connect your Twitter account with FormSmarts to allow FormSmarts to post tweets on your behalf. You will be taken to Twitter for authentication and asked to authorize FormSmarts to post updates using your account. You will only need to do this once. Note that FormSmarts will not have access to your Twitter password. Once this is done, Twitter will send you back to FormSmarts.
Next click on Twitter Feed Setup in the Form Details screen of the form builder. Enter a short text using placeholders $1, $2, $3,… where you want the value of the corresponding input field to be inserted. Use $1 for the value of the first input field, $2 for the second, etc., in the order fields appear on the form.
Posting Updates to Your Facebook Wall
When someone submits a form, FormSmarts can post an update to your Facebook wall via the Twitter App for Facebook. First set up FormSmarts to post updates to Twitter as described in the previous section, then add the Twitter App to your Facebook page or profile. We will add native support for Facebook if there is demand—please let us know here. (Note: if you ended up here while looking for information on integrating an online form to Facebook, read this).
Respecting the Privacy of User Information
Protecting the information of your users is of paramount importance. When someone submits his information via an online form, he does it with the implicit understanding that his personal information will not be disclosed.
- Add a privacy note on the form (like on this demo) to ensure people understand that some none-personal information will be posted to social networks. Say what information will be published.
- Make sure you’re using the correct placeholder (e.g. $1, $2,…) in the message template. Remember that $1 will be replaced by the value of the first input field in the order they appear on the form, $2 will be replaced by the value of the second input field, etc.
- If you change the order of fields on the form, don’t forget to update the message template with the correct placeholder name.
- Always test the form after setting up a Twitter feed or changing field order.
To further prevent the leak of confidential information, FormSmarts will not publish Twitter updates for SSL secure online forms, even if this has been set up through the online form builder.
How to Disable a Twitter Feed
If you no longer want FormSmarts to post a Twitter update when a form is submitted, simply erase the message template in the Twitter Feed Setup screen (pictured above) and save changes.
Posted on December 13th, 2011 in form builder.
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Tags: facebook, form builder, form recipient, form results, form submission, pro, twitter
Form Confirmation Page & Redirects
We’ve added two options to complement the default confirmation page that is displayed after a form is submitted. You can now:
- Redirect users to the Return URL of the form
- Show a detailed confirmation page with print, PDF and email features.
Redirection
Select the redirect option in the Form Details screen of the form builder to automatically redirect users to the Return URL of the form instead of showing them the confirmation page. Redirects have been supported for a while, but could not be set up via the form builder.
This feature allows you, for example, to redirect users to a download URL of your site after they’ve entered their information.
Note: Do not choose this option if your form includes a payment, as users would be redirected instead of being led the page where they are asked to make the payment.
Detailed Form Confirmation Page
The detailed confirmation page shows a summary of the data submitted and allows form users to:
- Print a copy of the data submitted
- Download a web receipt in PDF format with the same information
- Have a copy of the form data emailed to them.
Use the detailed confirmation page whenever you want users to be able to keep a copy/proof of the data they’ve submitted. Feel free to try this demo. This feature is only available with Business accounts.
Posted on October 12th, 2010 in form builder.
11 Comments »
Tags: business, email notification, embed, form results, form submission, form to pdf, payment integration, paypal, pro
Web Form to Excel
Stored form responses and export to Excel allow FormSmarts users to collect online form responses on FormSmarts and download a report at their convenience in Excel format.
Activating Form Data Storage for Export to Excel
Export to Excel requires that data storage be enabled for each of the forms for which you would like to be able to access form responses online. For privacy reasons, data storage is disabled by default. To activate stored form results and allow Excel reporting, visit the Form Details screen of each of your forms for which you would like to access form responses online.
You will then be able to easily create Excel reports from stored form responses in a few clicks with the report generator. Business-level members may also view individual form responses online and download a PDF Report.
Excel Report Generator Settings
Show Field Names in the First Line
If checked, the first line of Excel reports will show the name of each field. This option is enabled by default.
Week Starts
The report generator allows you to specify the date range over which a report is generated by either picking a start & end date or choosing a preset period of time (This Week, Last Seven Days,…). For the time periods that depend on the first day of the week (This Week, Last Week), we use the default first day of the week for your country (as set in your account). You can change this under More Options.
Time Zone
Preset time periods, date ranges and the form submission timestamp shown in Excel reports are now using your time zone (as defined in your computer settings). If you would like to generate a report using a different timezone, select the relevant city in the Timezone drop-down list. Note that the city selected by default may not be your city of residence, but it will be a city in the same timezone.
Importing an Excel Report
If an Excel (CSV) report contains text in a language other than English, you may need to change the character encoding to Unicode (UTF-8) in Excel’s Text Import Wizard, as illustrated below. The report may not display correctly for languages other than English unless the encoding is set to Unicode (UTF-8).
Posted on July 8th, 2009 in form builder.
13 Comments »
Tags: excel, form results, form to excel, form to pdf
Get Online Forms as HTML Email or PDF
The email format we use to send form responses is flexible and supported by all desktop, web-based, and mobile email clients. Plain-text emails however become tedious to read and process for long forms and when form results must be printed for processing, e.g. for mortgage application forms, quote request forms, and many types of forms in the insurance and real estate industries.
Get Form Responses in Rich-Text Format
FormSmarts users now have the option to have form submissions sent formatted as a table in a rich text (HTML) email.
The main advantages of HTML emails are:
- Form reports are shorter
- Look is more appealing online and printed
- Email addresses, web links, and callto links (e.g for Skype) will launch the relevant application when clicked, as long as the field type as been set correctly.
To start receiving form results in HTML, change the Email Format to HTML Email in the Settings tab of your account. This option is initially only available to FormSmarts Pro members, but we plan to extend it to all users if there is demand, and pending review of performance implications.
View Form Responses Online or Get a PDF Report
Business-level customers may also view form data online and download a PDF report using the link located at the bottom of email notifications. In addition to form data, the online and PDF reports contain additional information about the transaction that is not accessible by other means. Additional information is currently limited to the IP address from where the form was submitted.
Note: This feature requires that data storage be enabled for each of the forms for which you would like to be able to access form responses online. For privacy reasons, data storage is disabled by default.
We welcome your feedback about the ability to get form submissions in HTML format.
Posted on June 4th, 2009 in form handler.
10 Comments »
Tags: email notification, form recipient, form results, form to pdf
Send Form Results to Multiple Email Addresses
We’ve updated FormSmarts form builder and form processing back-end to allow several email subscribers for each form. We’ll be releasing more subscription mechanisms later this month.
Before using an email address as a form recipient, you first need to add it to your account, and verify it. You can change the recipients of a form in the Form Details screen of your account.
The number of email subscribers allowed for each form depends on your plan.
Posted on May 31st, 2009 in form builder.
2 Comments »
Tags: form recipient, form results
Attaching Multiple Email Recipients to a Form
With the new version of FormSmarts, Pro users can now subscribe to form results using one or more of the following mechanisms:
- Email subscription. Subscribe one or more email recipients.
- Stored form results. Aggregate form submissions on FormSmarts, and
download them later as Microsoft Excel documents.
A notable change is of course the ability to send forms to several email addresses. The allowance of one email recipient per form for users of the free service stays unchanged.
The new subscription mechanism should best fit the needs of most users. We welcome your feedback about this development.
Posted on January 20th, 2009 in form builder.
2 Comments »
Tags: form results, pro
Managing Form Recipients
You can manage the email addresses registered on your FormSmarts account in the Settings tab, under Email Accounts.
Adding an Email Account
Before you can start using an email address as a form subscriber, you must first add it to your FormSmarts account and verify it. We verify that the email account owner agrees to being added to a FormSmarts account by sending a verification link. Once the email address owner has visited the verification link, the status of that email address will change to Verified (Note: you will need to refresh the list of email accounts if you opened the verification link in a new window). You can use any verified email address as a form subscriber or as your FormSmarts login.
Changing the Recipients of a Form
When you create a new form, responses are sent to your login email address by default. To have a form sent to other email accounts:
- Add the email addresses you need to your account as just described (Email Accounts pane in the Settings tab).
- Edit the details of each form in the Forms tab, checking or un-checking each email subscriber as required.
A recipient must be verified before it can be used as a form recipient.
Changing Your Login Email
You can set any of the verified email addresses registered on your account as your FormSmarts login. Note however that you won’t be able to use an email address as you login if it’s already the login of another account.
A key icon is displayed next to your login email address.
Note: any email addresses that you use as your login or form recipient has the Active status and cannot be removed from your account.
Removing an Email Address From Your Account
To remove an email address from your FormSmarts account, Visit the Email Accounts pane of the Settings tab and click on the trash can icon corresponding to the email address you want to remove.
If the trash can icon is greyed out, that means the email address is still in use as a form recipient by at least one form or is the account’s login. To remove the email address, first edit each of your forms in the Forms tab and uncheck that email address. Then go back to the Settings tab, refresh the list of email accounts, and click on the relevant trash can icon.
Give Feedback!
We welcome your feedback about this feature. This will help us improve it in the future.
Posted on June 16th, 2008 in form builder.
20 Comments »
Tags: form builder, form recipient, form results