If you are looking to create your own custom form to use for a unique page or event, the Thinkspace platform allows you to easily create your own form to get all of the information you need from your customers. You can choose the fields you'd like to add as well as the notifications you'd like to send when the form has been submitted. Review the instructions below to learn how to create your own custom form and how to create the notification emails associated with each form.
To get started login to your site's Admin.
In this Article
Add Custom Form
1. From the Dashboard (Main Menu in the Admin of your site) go to Forms and click Form Types.
2. On the next page you'll see a list of your existing Forms. Click on Add Form Type at the top right to create a new form.
3. On this new page, there are two fields that must be filled out. The rest are optional. The mandatory fields are Name (What is the name of this form?) and SLUG (This will auto fill when you type in the name of the form - must be lowercase, no spaces or special characters).
- The optional fields are as follows:
- Description: This is a description that will show up next to the form. This is useful if you want to add some sort of explanation of what the form is for, or directions about it.
- Submit Button Text: You can change the wording of the button that will be used to submit the form for the user. This is not necessary, but if you would like to change it you can place the wording in the box.
- Confirmation: When a form is submitted, this text will appear in place of the form. This is useful for saying something like "Thank you for submitting the form, we will contact you within 2 business days" etc.
- Redirect to URL: When the form is submitted you can send the user to a different page rather than showing Confirmation text. If you would like them to be sent to another page upon submission of the form then put the URL here.
- POST to url: This sends the data from the form to an external URL. This is an advanced feature and not used by most users. Please contact us if you want to use it.
- Description: This is a description that will show up next to the form. This is useful if you want to add some sort of explanation of what the form is for, or directions about it.
Once you have filled in the two mandatory fields (and any optional fields that you want), hit Save. That will return you to the Forms page. Now it is time to build out the fields for that form.
Add Fields to the Form
1. From the Dashboard go to Forms and Click Form Types.
2. On the next page you'll see a list of your existing Forms. Click on the name of the form you wish to add fields to.
3. Once you are on the next page, click on the Edit Fields button in the top-right.
4. This new page is where you will build out the various fields you want people to submit as part of your form. An example form can be seen here:
- To add a field to your form, first give it a name (under Name/Type). That is only visible on this page- anyone visiting your website will not see it.
- Next, give the field a Type via the dropdown below the "name" field. Most of the options are self-explanatory, like Section Break will create a break in the form, and phone number will give them a field that is 10 digits for their phone number.
- After you've done that, next you will want use the Label/Help Text area for that field you've created. Label is what the customer will see by that field, so if you want their name then list Name, etc. The Help Text field will appear next to the Label and can be used if you need to provide further help text/explanation to someone filling out your form.
Choices should only be used for certain types of fields. For example, if you have multiple choice options then write each option as its own line within the Choices box.
With the choices option, if you are looking to add a file type, you will need to set the file type in the choices field. For example, if you only want to accept document files, in the choices field you would put something like this:
If it's images that you want to have added to a file submission, then you would put .jpg, .gif, .png, etc. for each file type that you are looking to add.
The Required box should be checked off if you require visitors to submit that particular field. If you don't require it then people may skip that field.
Default/Order shows where each item will show up in the list. By default, the #1 field will show up first, the #2 field second, and so forth. If you wish to rearrange the fields after you've added several of them in, just adjust the numbers on the right and then hit Save and everything will rearrange on the page into numerical order.
If you wish to Delete a row then click the Delete box and then hit save.
Once you've created all of the fields that you want, hit Save and then it's time to add some notification emails! Note: it is wise to save and check your work periodically, especially if you're making a large form.
Add Custom Notifications
When a submission form is submitted, unless notifications have been built out for that form nothing will be sent to the submitter or to the retailer. By default the admin will capture and save the information, but that is it unless you set up notifications to be sent out.
1. From the Dashboard go to Forms and click Notifications.
2. On the next page you'll see a list of your existing Notifications. Click on Add Notification at the top right to create a new email notification.
IMPORTANT NOTE: We recommend every form has 2 notifications - one for the Customer and one for you the Retailer. Just like the example below.
3. On the next page, you will want to click the Form Type dropdown and then select the form that you wish to have submissions be tied to:
4. Once you have selected the form type, you should give the form notification a name. We recommend the name "[Form type] [+] [Recipient]". For example, "Sell Your Items Form - Retailer" or "Sell Your Items Form - Customer."
5. Under Recipients, make sure to choose who you want this form sent to. Typically you would choose Retailer or Customer. In the example below, we would set the Recipient to Retailer.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you leave the Recipient section set to Retailer then the email notification will be sent to the default email address used throughout the site. If you want to send the email notification to a different email address than the default, place the email address (or multiple email addresses separated by commas) in the Email field.
If you want the email notification to go to a specific User who has an account on the site, you can use the User dropdown to choose a specific account. In most cases, this won't be necessary and the default email address will be what you're looking for.
If you have created a form with multiple email fields - for instance, a form that would ask for the customer's email address as well as the company's email address then you can use the Field dropdown to choose which email address is going to get the email notification. In this case we would want to send the email notification to the customer's email so in the Field dropdown you would see something like customer_email_address.
6. In the Message Section, you will add a Subject, Body Text and can also add a Body HTML.
In the Subject line, put in the title you want to show when you or the customer receive the email notification. You can use the existing default forms on your site as an example for what might be a good title for the Retailer email and the Customer email.
If you check Skip Empty Values, this means that if the person who submitted the form left any area of it blank, you will not be notified of that field.
In the Body Text section, put in the message you would like for the customer or yourself to receive when the email notification is sent out. You can use the existing default forms on your site as an example for what might be a good message for the Retailer email and the Customer email.
NOTE: The shortcodes that are included in the default messages may include {name} or {first_name} - choosing one of these depends on what the name of the field is that you ask for in the Form Fields section. In the example above we would use {name}. You may also see the shortcode like you see above that says {all_fields} - you will want to keep this one if you want to see all of the fields that the customer filled out when they submitted the form.
The Body HTML is typically left blank and can be disregarded.
7. You are all done creating your notification template! Don't forget to hit Save and repeat these steps for the Customer version of this form.
If you run into any problems or have questions, please feel free to email into support@thinkspacehq.com.