What is it?
Forms are used in MemberClicks to collect and process payment, process membership applications and renewals, register event attendees, and collect survey information. A form can be used for both membership and event registration, and this article walks through the different aspects of creating a new form with either options.
- Create a New Form
- Adding Form Elements
- Form Settings
- Form Sections:
- Login / Membership / Event / Summary / Payment / Confirmation
How to Access
Forms are created and edited under Forms > Form List
The "Edit", "Take This Form", and "..." buttons will appear per form when your cursor hovers over them. The "..." turns into the additional options to "Copy" and "Delete". Please note, a form with a submission cannot be deleted.
From the Form List, you can also create Labels to help organize your various Forms. To add a label, simply type it in. If it's an existing label, you can select from the drop-down; for a new label, just finish typing and press enter. This will not only apply the label, but also save it to the list of labels for future use.
Whenever labels are added, they will also populate in the Label Menu so you can filter your Form List by a label topic. If you only want to see forms assigned as "Membership", for example, you need only select that filter.
You are also able to Edit and Delete your Labels by clicking on "Manage Labels", in case a typo sneaks in, or you find you no longer need a particular label.
Create a New Form
1. To begin, select Create New Form.
2. In the modal window that appears, name the form, provide it a description (optional), and choose whether the form is used for membership, event registration, both, or neither. For example, a survey form would not be used for membership or for event registration. Checking the boxes here isn't locking in functionality - it's pre-configuring the option to have the membership and/or event sections on your form.
3. Click Save.
Adding Form Elements
Built-Ins: Built-ins are Attributes within your database. Drag and drop a built-in to add it to your form. Built-ins are dynamically linked to database profiles. When a new user fills out a built-in field on the form, the information will be filled out in the user’s database profile.
Custom Attributes: Custom attributes created within your database. Drag and drop a custom attribute to add it to your form. Custom attribute are dynamically linked to database profiles. When a new user fills out a custom attribute field on the form, the information will be filled out in the user’s database profile.
Form Fields: Fields collected on the form and stored within the form submission record. Form fields are not linked to database profiles, but will be exportable in the form submissions.
Presentation: Presentation form elements affect the visual layout of the form.
Element Properties
With a form element selected, you can edit the element within the element properties tab of the form editor.
Form Settings
The form builder is designed to take the Admin through the form build chronologically as the member will experience it. The form will go top down, and outside of the Name and Address fields, all fields will be laid out in a one-column layout as a best practice.
General
- Form Name: Name of the form that will display on the form page and internally.
- Form Description: A form’s description displays in the form editor for admins.
- Form Alias: The form’s alias is how the form will be directly accessed by Admins and members. For example, your-domain.com/2015-conference-registration. In this example, “2015-conference-registration” is the form’s alias.
- Publish Form: Toggle this option to ON when the form is ready to use.
- Enable form expiration date: Toggle this option to ON and set a date if you want the form set to inactive automatically on a specified date. NOTE: The form will be active through the date specified. An Expiration Date of 09/30/2017 will become inactive on 10/01/2017, when the end-date is through.
- Permissions: Click Edit Group Permissions to set the Groups that have permission to use the form.
- Date-based Pricing: Click Add a Date-Based Pricing Rule to create date-based pricing for early-bird specials or late registration rates.
- Discount Codes: Click Add Discount Code to create discount codes that override all other pricing on affected fields.
- Forward URL: Enter the URL to forward users to at the end of the form.
Form Sections
All form functionality will take place in the sections on the righthand side of the form.
Login Section
We recommend enabling the login section unless the form is an anonymous type form, like a ballot or anonymous survey.
Login Type
- Existing Users: will allow existing members to log in
- New Users: will allow non-members to access the form
Membership Section
This section handles applications (for non-members), renewals (for people who are in their renewal period), and will not display either option for members in good standing who are not up for renewal. The form will handle both individual and organization memberships.
Text within each section in the Membership section is able to be customized by clicking into the box and using the WYSIWYG on the left.
For new members joining, you can configure which Member Types are available for them to join.
After choosing the Member Type, Membership Options and Auto Renew will display if applicable.
If the application form is being used by individuals and organizations, you can add specific fields to the organization area that you want to capture for the organization, and specific fields you want to capture for individuals.
Fields with a silhouette indicate that they are tied to an attribute. Fields with a red asterisk are required.
When adding address or phone number fields to the individual section, use the Labels on the left under properties to determine which options show. For example, if you want both the Work and Home address to display, set both labels to "Available."
Event Section
The event section can be added after a form is created under Add Form Elements.
Inside Element Properties, choose the date of the event.
Choose whether you want to Require at least one registrant for the event. A form can have multiple event sections, so you may want to require one registrant for one, but make the others optional.
You can also choose to limit the number of registrants for the event. This will limit the total number of registrants. If there is a cap in place, a small timer will display when a person registering through the form becomes inactive for 1 minute letting them know that their submission will become inactive.
Underneath this section, you can also choose what happens when the registrant limit is reached.
Next, if the form is available for organizations, you can toggle ON the option to Allow key contacts to register linked profiles.
You can also toggle ON the option to allow Guest registrants. Guest registrants are event attendees that are not members. Here you can set a limit on the number of guest registrants allowed in one submission.
Finally, if you would like the form to Create prospect profiles for guest registrants, toggle that option ON.
After configuring the Properties of the event section, drop the appropriate custom and built-in attributes, as well as any form fields or presentation elements you like.
Summary Section
This section includes an area for the member to enter any Discount Code and you may enable Summary Fields. If you click ‘Properties’ in this section, in the element properties on the left, you can choose to Add/Edit Summary Fields to configure the fields that appear in the Summary so that the member may review what they entered before moving on to the payment section.
Payment Section
This section includes credit card payment fields. The Name and Address sections will pre-fill with information captured in the Membership section. If you click ‘Properties’ in this section, you can add the Payment Processor and Invoice Template.
Confirmation Section
This section includes the confirmation page that will be seen once a member submits the form. Just click on the section to edit the text in the Element Properties. If you click on ‘Properties’ in the section, you may enable the confirmation email, which can go out automatically once a member submits the form.
Comments
69 comments
Thank you, Jay.
Hi Helen - Members can see what forms they've submitted in their profile after logging in. From the My Profile page, members can hover over My Profile and choose Submissions to see previously submitted forms.
Hope that helps!
Can you please remind me what kind of pricing elements I need to use in order for a discount code to work on an event form? thanks
Hi, Kinsey. I'm back again with a follow-up question. On August 9, you explained how to add member and non-member prices to date-based pricing. Unfortunately, I ran into a wall on the very first step you suggested. I've set up the date ranges, but when I click on what appears to be the live "Edit" link for the first date range, to set the prices for different member types, nothing happens. I can delete the date range or disable it, but I can't edit it. Any other ideas?
Hey Denise! If you make that field required, the "None" option will go away. I hope that helps!
if you go to that element...then to the box that pops up on the left...scroll down it has a delete button :-)
Hi Jen - we have received some feedback about the ability to edit a previously started form submission. We'll continue to take feedback and evaluate how the functionality should work, so I don't have anything concrete at this point, but it's definitely on our radar!
For the "file upload" feature - what file types does it allow? How large can the file be? There doesn't seem to be any options with this and I just cannot find any information on this. We are trying to use this file upload feature to upload small videos to a form.
Hi, again. Sorry about the previous question. I decided to start over and create a brand-new form. Now it's working perfectly. There must have been a some kind of bug in my first one!
Hello Marci! The Payment Section cannot be disabled on a Form, however, if you have no pricing on the Form, end-users won't see it at all. If you still have any trouble or concerns, please let us know at help@memberclicks.com or 404-879-2800!
wondering how i test a form in thsi new version?
Hi, Is there a way for the user to see a list of forms submitted? E.g. A member could log in and check to see if they are registered for our conference. Thanks.
Hello Alyson - There are currently no restrictions on the type or size of files uploaded to forms. There is, however, a 30 second timeout - so if the file is huge and/or the user's internet connection is slow, and it takes longer than 30 seconds to upload, it will not work.
Hi Nina - Right now, all of your forms will be viewable in the form list, including those that are unpublished. We will be adding an organizational structure to the forms area in the future, though I don't have details on how it will function since it isn't yet in development. In the meantime, when you're finished with a form and unpublish it, you might consider adding a "z" to the front of the form's name - that will push the form to the bottom of the list, and indicate to Admins that it's not in use.
How do you set and add pricing?
Does MC plan to add the ability to "save and return" to an incomplete form submission (on the front end, for someone who fills out a couple pages of the form but has to finish later on)? Our members have been asking for this.
Per MemberClicks team for the "Upload a file" option when creating a form:
The max size that can be uploaded is: 25 MB (0.025 GB or 25,000 KB)
Supported File Types:
BMP, CSV, DOC, EPG, GIF, ICO, JPG, JPEG, MP3, ODG, ODP, ODS, ODT, PDF, PNG, PPS, PPSX, PPT, SWF, TXT, XCF, XLS, XLSX, DOCX, PPTX, ZIP, TIF, WAV, MP4
Are you able to hide inactive forms from the form list and if needed be able to retrieve them at a later date?
Hey Kiri! No need to apologize. (: If you're using Attribute Fields, the use's information will update based on what they put in, yes. If you use Form Fields, however, they will not. I hope that helps clarify!
Hi Lisa - You can test a form by adding the form's alias to the end of your URL. I recommend either testing with a test profile to test as a member, or using a fake email address in the New Users section to test as a non-member. Here's a screenshot of where the form alias is located.
Hi Leah - To set pricing on a form field, select the field and toggle on the "Price field" toggle. After that, click on Edit Selections, Option Limits, & Base Prices to add selections and pricing. I've included a screenshot below that should help.
Is it possible to limit the number of times a member/profile may use a form?
Is it possible to remove the payment field entirely? I see the option is inaccessible in the demo picture here, as it is on my own interface. I'd like to remove it entirely from one of my fields so as to cancel the "$0.00" that appears before form submission.
The weird thing is that other payment fields are working just fine, and as far as I can see, this one is configured just like they are, only since it wasn't showing up I added the default option and made it required -- and it still doesn't show up. I have all my groups able to see it, but unfortunately nobody does, and I'm having to invoice people outside MemberClicks to get their registration funds. Maybe I should take this to the help team.
Hi Christine - I would need to look at the specifics to be sure, but I think you'll want to toggle off "Field is For Currency" inside the Donations attributes, then go back to the form to set up pricing. For questions like this one that require looking at a specific form or specific attributes, I recommend contacting the Help Team so that they can log in to your site for the details.
Our annual meeting is currently 26 days away. Our event registration form was generating invoices where the registration fee doesn't need to be paid until after the meeting (default was +30 days, which I just turned down to +15 days).
When making an event registration form, is there any way to tie invoice due dates to the date of the event (like how dues invoices are tied to member expiration dates)?
Alternatively, are there any plans to make it possible to select a specific due date, or a specific number of days between invoice creation and due date, apart from the current/very limited drop-down menu options (+15, +30, +60, +90)?
Lastly, once we're less than 15 days away from the meeting, if we want to make sure none of the invoices have a due date later than the meeting start date, is our only current option to disable the registration form's "pay later" option altogether?
Hi Kay - It is! If you click properties in the Login section of a form, you'll see that there's a toggle for 'multiple submissions.' When a new form is created, that is toggled OFF by default, meaning that each member/profile may submit the form only once. If you want a member/profile to be able to submit the same form more than once, you would want to toggle Multiple Submissions ON. Hope that helps!
Hi Chris - It looks like you've created a ticket with the Help Team. That's typically what I would recommend for organization specific questions, as I don't check the forum every day and the Help Team is available every week day. I hope you're all set!
Hi Annette - You'll want to use a Label type field for explanatory text on the form. You can find the Label field in the Add Form Elements tab categorized as a Presentation Element.
In case it's helpful, here's a link to the September MemberClicks University training I recorded on How to Move Your Surveys and Elections Online.
Hi Linda - To update these settings, navigate to Forms > Form List > Edit the form > click on Properties in the Confirmation Section. From there, choose to Edit Confirmation Email. You'll put that person's email address in the Confirmation BCC area.
Hope that helps!
Do the form expiration dates apply to the start or end of the date listed? E.g. if a form is set to expire on 2/6, does it expire at midnight on the night of 2/5-2/6, or the night of 2/6-2/7?
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