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Form Building Tips

Form Build Order

Map out Form before build: i.e., diagram, whiteboard, etc.

  1. Steps

  2. Categories

  3. Fields

    1. Existing Fields

    2. New Fields

  4. Roles (if needed)

  5. Custom Design

  6. Admin Test

  7. User Test

  8. Launch

Documentation:Form Build Checklist (.docx)

Questions to ask before each build

This list can apply to Forms, Events, Donations, and Memberships.

  1. Who am I building this for? (Audience)

  2. How do they enter the Form?

  3. Is there a total limit to the number of registrations? A per person limit?

  4. Will tickets be sold?

  5. Are there limits to the number of tickets sold?

  6. Will ticket purchases be driving registration?

  7. Will a guest list be displayed?

  8. Are there additional commerce fields needed that do not drive registration?

  9. Do you need a quantity field to drive registration?

  10. Will tickets have individual or group limits on sale?

  11. Are Admin only fields needed?

  12. Donation Opportunity offered?

  13. How do constituents exit the Form?

  14. Will a confirmation email be used, and what will it say?

  15. Will Identity Checkpoint be used?

Use the answers to these questions to create a road map for your Form before building.

Forms Vocabulary

General Forms

Steps: Page display in the Form. You can create additional steps to break up the information collection flow.

Categories: The containers that hold and sort your data fields. Categories can be used as filters in reporting and can collapse fields from view in a form.

Fields: The tool used to collect the data for storage in your database

Existing Fields: Fields that have been created in your database or mapped over from your back end database (example: profile member fields)

New Fields: A new field is created because it does not exist in your database. DO NOT create new fields when an existing field is present. (For example: the phone number field is existing because it is a member field used often, whereas a field requesting someone’s favorite color would be unique and specific to the Form it lives in. This would be a new field.)

Suggested Naming conventions

Building Fields - nameoftheform_nameofthefield

(example: class2004reunion_dinnerselection)

Building Roles - nameoftheform_nameofthefield_nameofthevalue

(example:classof2004reunion_dinnerselection_vegetarian)

For your reference: Glossary of Encompass Terms