Introduction
Forms allow Members to easily fill out information for various uses: joining as a member, sending a donation, renewing a contract or membership, etc.
Select the Communication menu > Form Builder.
The Form Builder includes a list of forms that were created in the browser version of MC Trade.
Each form includes the:
- Name of the form - click to edit the form.
- Number of submissions - click to see more information about each submission including the date, profile, and any related invoices.
- Type of form - includes Join, Donation, Renewal, Prospect, or General.
- Form ID number - a generated ID to identify the form in MC Trade's database.
- Actions - to create a copy of the form or to deactivate/reactivate the form.
If there is a long list of forms, click on a column header to sort by that column, and the option to move between pages at the very bottom.
Adding a Join Form
The process of adding a Join Form involves creating the form, designing the form, reviewing the form settings, and then saving and previewing the form.
Adding the Form
- Click on the Communication menu and then Form Builder.
Your user role must have access to the 'Web Template Manager' security element to access this.
- In the top right corner, click Create a New Form.
- Choose Join form.
This will create the form and put you on a screen where you can add headers, text, and fields.
- Change the Form Title if desired. This will only appear in the Form Builder, so the title needs to help you identify it when you try to access it later.
- Continue with designing the form.
Designing the Form
The form is broken up into blocks and each block contains an element:
You can edit, remove, or re-order elements:
You can also add elements:
- Click New Form Element.
- This button is at the bottom of the form. If you click on it, it will add a block below the last block.
- This button will appear when you hover over a block. If you click on it, it will add a block below the block where you are hovering.
- Below Select Form Widget Type, click on the drop down, and choose an element:
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Add a heading: This allows you to create labels to organize your form into sections. This uses the H3 tag in your stylesheet. There is also a sub-header that you can define which will appear below the heading and use the H4 tag in your stylesheet.
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Add a Block of Text: This allows you to enter text to clarify something at the beginning, at the end, or perhaps adding context to a specific section or field.
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Add a Field: This is the most common element and gathers information from the visitor. If you choose this, then choose a field type, and choose a field.
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- Click Add.
When adding or editing a field, you may see these options:
- Required: It is important to consider this because there are certain fields (such as the organization's name or the contact's first and last name) that you may want to mark as required. However, as you add each field, balance the need for that information with the user experience because too many required fields can be frustrating.
- Label Text: This allows you to change how the field will be labeled in the form.
When editing a field, you may see more options:
- Help Text: This will add a question mark next to the field and, when hovering over it, a text box to provide more context.
- Placeholder Text: Fields where the applicant enters information can have placeholder text. This text will appear in the field to help the user understand what needs to be entered. For example, the Member Contact field: Address 1 could have "Main Address" as placeholder text.
Form Settings
Click Form Settings at the top. This includes settings that impact billing, membership, affiliation codes, and e-mail notifications.
- Billing Options: This allows you to add a credit card payment option to the form, a Bill Me option, or both. If your forms contains the Membership Level or Additional Purchase Items, and any of the levels/items have a cost greater than $0.00, then you need at least one of these options.
There is an option: Do not set as Member if Bill Me is selected. You may or may not want to enable this, but if you do not, and the applicant chooses the Bill Me option, they will be entered into the system as a member (before payment).
- Membership: This allows you to decide if this form is an organization- or individual-based membership. You would also need to indicate which Member Activity Type should be used when the member profile is automatically created.
The join form is, by default, an organization-based membership. it can be changed to an individual-based membership in the Form Settings, if desired.
An organization-based membership means that, upon submission, a member profile will be created for the organization (based on the Member Contact Fields) and a non-member profile will be created for the individual (based on the Main Contact Fields) and appear as a related profile to the member.
An individual-based membership means that, upon submission, a member profile will be created for the individual (based on the Member Contact Fields).
When creating a new form, by default it is created as an organizational membership form. To change it to an individual membership form, update the form settings first and save the form. Then, modify the "Organization Information" header text and fields for the individual membership, and modify (or remove) the "Main Contact Information" header text and fields for the related organization info.
- Affiliation Codes: This allows you to choose affiliation codes that should be automatically added to the new member profile. Enter the affiliation code and, when you stop typing, it will present a list of matching codes. Click on the desired code.
- Email Settings: If you click "New Notification Email," you can enter an email address which will be notified of all submissions for this form.
- Confirmation Email Message Text: This text will appear in the confirmation email that goes out to the applicant upon submission.
In order for the confirmation email to be sent, there MUST be an email address field on the form for the member profile (the Email field under Member Contact Fields), and it must be filled out by the applicant. An email address field for the main contact will not meet this requirement. The best practice is to set this field as required so that it cannot be left blank.
Click here for more details and best practices on each Form Settings option.
Discounts and promo codes cannot be applied through forms.
Previewing the Form
After designing the form and reviewing the form settings, click Save at the bottom of the form.
At the top, click View Join Form to preview the form, test it, and obtain the URL. You will need to copy that URL and add to your website.
Be careful with your testing. This is the actual page, so if you submit credit card information, it will submit. Following your test, remember to manually delete the resulting profiles/invoices.
Submissions
After you add the URL to your website, the form will be accessible.
When the form is submitted:
- A new member profile will be created.
- All information entered will be saved to the corresponding fields of the new profile.
- Related profiles will be created if the main contact or additional related contacts are gathered.
If you created membership levels and added that to the form for the applicant to pick a level, then information from the level will be automatically added to the member including the profile status, billing records, affiliation codes, directory listings, member activity, and benefits.
- An invoice will be created for the member profile if a membership level or additional purchase item was selected with a price that is greater than $0.00.
- If a credit card payment was submitted, it will be applied to that invoice. If "Bill Me" was enabled in the Form Settings and selected by the applicant, an open invoice will be created.
- You can view each submission by clicking on the Communication menu and Form Builder, finding the join form, and clicking on the number of submissions.
- In the list of submissions, you can drill deeper by clicking on the Actions button and View Submission to view all of the information that was gathered.
- Click here for more information on managing submissions.
Copying a Join Form
If there is an existing form that has a lot of what you want, but just needs a few tweaks, you can copy it.
- Find the join form that should be copied.
- Click on the Actions button and Copy.
- Make any desired changes including the name.
- Click Save.
- After saving, click View Join Form to preview the updated form.
Editing a Join Form
- Click on the Communication menu and then Form Builder.
- Find the join form that should be edited.
- Click on the name of the form.
- After making the desired changes, click Save.
- After saving, click View Join Form to preview the updated form.
Disabling or Enabling a Join Form
There is not an option to delete a form as to not lose any history, but deactivating is an option to disable it and to hide it from the Form Builder. At any time you can place a check next to "Show inactive forms" (on the ride side above the grid) to open an inactive form if you need to look at the history or reactivate.
Disabling
- Click on the Communication menu and then Form Builder.
- Find the join form that should be deactivated.
- Click on the Actions button and Deactivate.
The form will immediately disappear, but you can re-open it at any time by placing a check next to "Show inactive forms" on the right above the grid.
Enabling
- Click on the Communication menu and then Form Builder.
- Place a check next to "Show inactive forms" on the right above the grid.
- Find the join form that should be deactivated.
- Click on the Actions button and Reactivate.
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