Managing and Configuring your Forms
Features of Sitefinity Website Forms
Collecting valid information is one of the biggest challenges of using website forms. Businesses want to get the maximum amount of real data, such as location, email address, and phone number, from website visitors to create their email list and personalize customer’s experience. Quality information is necessary to generate and convert leads. Sitefinity web form builders are equipped to validate input data and send customized error messages as well.
Sitefinity CMS also makes creating user-friendly forms straightforward. Users can take advantage of many features to make filling forms as easy as possible for website visitors. Content creators can build multipage forms with content divided with page breaks to make it more digestible.
Additionally, website visitors can navigate the pages in the form if the ‘Next’ and ‘Previous’ buttons are enabled to fill it out quickly. Another feature is the option to create rule-based forms. These forms hide or display specific fields depending on the information inputted. This is beneficial since it allows users to collect more or less information depending on the information being filled in. Moreover, this goes a long way in personalizing the user experience. Rule-based forms are used frequently in eCommerce, such as on checkout pages to calculate shipping charges depending on location.
Sitefinity CMS also records all data submitted in the forms and can display it online or export it for viewing in Excel. This allows businesses to keep track of and utilize forms accordingly. Administrators can limit access to this data using special permissions for privacy. Furthermore, Sitefinity’s latest versions also include a visual email template editor for Sitefinity website forms. This editor can personalize notifications and communication for increased engagement.
How to Manage a Sitefinity Web Form (In Order)
- Click on the “Pages” button from the toolbar and click on “Create a page.”
- Add a title for the page and then click “Create and go to add content.” Save.
- Click on the “Create a Form” option on the dashboard. Alternatively, you can open the Forms page by clicking on “Forms” in the dropdown menu of content from the toolbar.
- Add a Title in the relevant field. Then, click on the “Advanced” button to select a web framework (either MVC only or Web Form only).
- Click on the “Create and go to add fields” button.
- There will be a list of widgets on the right-hand side of the page you are directed to. You can drag and drop any widget from this list onto the Body of the draft. This will help you structure your form.
- Click on the “Edit” button on the widget added to add information about the field. Fill in the “Name” and “Placeholder” fields.
- You can also set rules by clicking on the “Limitations” button. This forces website visitors to enter a particular type of data (e.g., email) or a limited number of text characters. You can also set an error message that will be displayed if invalid information is entered. Save.
- Do the same for all the widgets that you’ve added.
- You can edit and check the “Required Field” box in all the required content boxes. You can also set an error message to be displayed if this field is left empty.
- Publish.
- Go back to the page you created and open it. Add the form (either Form or MVC Form) widget onto the Body of the page. Click “Edit” and select the form you just created. You can also select a custom confirmation by checking the “Use custom confirmation” from the Settings option. You also have the option of redirecting website visitors to a different page after form completion.
- Publish the page after you are done.