What is it?
Forms are used in MC Professional 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.
If you would like the form to Create prospect profiles for guest registrants, toggle that option ON.
Finally, if you would like for guest registrants to receive Public/Prospect pricing instead of Member Type pricing for their registration, you will turn the "Prevent guests from receiving member type pricing" toggle to 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
81 comments
Thank you, Jay.
I have a form that I have the individuals to either select yes or no but the option None automatically comes up when I really do not want that option to show. Is there anyway to not have that come up?
Denise
Hey Denise! If you make that field required, the "None" option will go away. I hope that helps!
I am trying to disable the payment section of a form, and it won't let me? Where do I do that? Hoping I don't have to redo the entire form!
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!
Hi,
Sorry if someone's already asked this. If a form taker updates contact information in a form, will it update in their profile as well, replacing outdated information?
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!
For the new feature, can you only apply one label to each form? It would be really great if we were able to apply multiple labels to a form.
Hey Jen! That is correct, at this time, only one label can be applied to each form. Please feel free to submit some feedback about adding multiple labels!
Hi! If users complete forms and each uploads a file, is there a way to export those uploaded files along with the field data? Or do I need to access each uploaded file separately by clicking on each individual submitted form?
Can I add member pricing on a number (quantity) field? Thanks!
Hey WFWA Tech! You would need to access each submission separately to pull those files. However, we have an add-on product that could meet your needs with that. You can check out more details for Review Panel here: https://www.memberclicks.com/reviewpanel
Hey Ryan! You cannot add Member Type pricing to a Number field. However, you could have multiple Number fields on your Form, and permission them so different Groups see differently priced elements. Feel free to leave us some feedback on that, too!
Thanks, Jay! That's exactly what I did, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing a way to streamline it. I'll leave feedback on it. Thanks!
How do I add an image to a form? I have added the element "image" but it when I click "upload image" it doesn't go anywhere. The image I want is in our Media Manager.
Hey there Laurene! The Image Field is actually for if you want a user to add an Image to their submission. If you want to add one to a Form, you'll add a Label (under Presentation). This works like any other editor in your system, where you can use the Image button at the bottom to upload from your Media Manager.
For Text Areas, what's counted as characters if we want to impose a character limit? Spaces and text or just text?
If a form is set to be accessed only by a Member, can a lapsed member (not in renewal period anymore) take the form? I've been testing this and the lapsed member can take the form. If they aren't supposed to be able to, I must be missing a setting. If any member (lapsed or not) can take a form limited to members, how can I ensure a lapsed member can't take it?
Hello Brenda! Spaces also count as characters in a text field.
And hello to the WFWA account! Lapsed members can only take a Renewal Form. What you're experiencing is the admin ability to do more than an actual member would be able to. I hope that helps clarify.
Hi there,
We have a couple of feedback or contact forms. When they are completed by a user, I would like to receive a copy of their completed form. Is there a way to do that besides sending them an email and cc'ing myself?
Thanks,
Angi Roberts
Hello Angi! Currently BCCing yourself on the Confirmation Email is the way you would get a copy of what a Form submitter has done. You will want to merge in the appropriate data from the Form that you're looking to see within that notification.
I have an anonymous form that I created and I have the Multiple submissions button toggled off. Someone was able to submitted the form twice. Is that because it is an anonymous form?
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