Forms (known as LDP forms in Omni CMS)
A commonly used asset is the form. The Omni CMS form is not recommended for collecting sensitive information such as credit card numbers or social security numbers. This is a simple form for collecting basic information. The form submissions are housed and accessible through the Omni CMS system.
Building a simple Omni CMS form
Step-by-Step Guide
Creating a form asset
- From the top menu, select “Assets” from the “Content” drop-down menu.
- Click on + NEW
- From “Create new Asset”, click on Form:
- You will be prompted to add an asset name. You may also add a description and tags. Tags make the asset easier to find when you are searching for it. For example – you may wish to tag it by your department / college name.
- Click or drag elements from the Form Elements toolbar (on the left) to “Elements” to build your page:
The form elements include:
- Single-Line Text Field
- Multi-Line Text Field
- Radio Buttons
- Checkboxes
- Drop-Down
- Multi-Select
- Date/Time Picker
- Instructional Text
Using +Single-Line Text Field as an example:
- Each element needs a label (this is the question in which you are seeking). Each element needs a name. This is automatically populated based on the label value.
- No spaces or special characters are allowed.
- Element names can only be edited before you save the form, and are limited to thirty-two characters.
- Elements cannot have identical names.
- All elements can have helper text, which gives users more information about what you are seeking (information/answer to a question).
- All elements can be marked as required. The user will not be able to submit the form until the question/information is provided.
Adding a drop-down menu for states
- Within your form asset, add the +Drop-Down form element to your page.
- Add the State label
- Within the Advanced field enter: dataset=state;
- Identify where you would like your fieldset to start.
Within the advanced field, type:
fieldset_start=true;
- In addition, you will want to label your fieldset.
Within this same advanced field, type:
fieldset_label=About;
In this example, the fieldset label name would be About. This name can be entered without quotes and may include spaces.
Following these instructions, will display a fieldset around the starting element (as indicated) and the ending element (as indicated) and includes elements in between.
Setting up a form submission confirmation email
You may configure one or more optional email messages to be sent to one or more people when a form is submitted.
- More than one addressee can be added to an email by separating each address with a semicolon.
- The "From" and "To" fields must both be properly formatted email addresses, or the form won't send emails. The "From" may be your unit / departmental email account. At this time, WSD is discouraging the practice of sending a confirmation email back to the email address provided by the submitter of the form.
- Check "Include all submitted values" for every question answer to be added to the "Body" text when the email is sent. Uploaded files will be included in the email as download links; these links expire after seven days from form submission (but you can still access the file from form submissions).
Form Settings: Setting up success and failure messages for form submissions
While you can format the text using the mini-WYSIWYG editors, the appearance of the messages is also defined by your site styling.
- Check "SAVE Results in Database" to record form submissions.
- Enable “Include CAPTCHA”.
- Use "Submission Button Text" to customize this text. It is “Submit” by default.
- Click Create to make the asset.
Placing the form asset on your page
- Navigate to the page on which your form will appear.
- Click on Main Region.
- Click on assets
(rotating arrows) to bring up your asset folder.
- Navigate to and click on your named asset and click on Insert.
Your asset will appear on the page like this:
SAVE. Once saved it will appear as a form in preview:
See the example below. This is how it will appear on the published page.
Retrieving form submissions
If you checked "Save Results in Database" to record form submissions, you will be able to view them in Omni CMS.
- Navigate to Content > Assets.
- Find your form asset.
- Click to open the More Actions menu.
- Click Review > Form Submissions.
or
While viewing a form asset, click Form Submissions in the page actions toolbar.
The form submission list will show:
- Each form will be assigned an id number.
- A column for each form element with the submitted answer if provided.
- IP address of the submitter.
- Date submitted.
Note: Any files uploaded via the form display as a link; click the link to download the file. The file is accessible to anyone who has that download URL. The download link will expire after seven days from CSV export.
To download your form submission list:
- Click "Export CSV" in the top-right corner. This will provide a downloaded CSV file with the form submission data.
Note: Do not click “DELETE ALL” unless you wish to permanently clear the submissions. This cannot be undone.
Other form options
If you need a more sophisticated solution, there are more options available to content editors:
Dynamic Forms by NextGen Web Solutions
- MSU has an institutional license to use.
- An end user may save their form and go back to complete it at a later time.
- Uploads are permitted.
- May route the form to numerous approvers.
- Can digitally sign.
- These forms are intelligent.
MachForms (Dosaforms)
- Requires an initial set-up fee of $150 and a server. Must submit a Sensitive University Data Export Request System (SUDERS) request through Information Services for server set-up.
- Provides a downloadable spreadsheet of form submissions.
- These forms are intelligent.
- An end user may save their form and go back to complete at a later time.
- Can digitally sign.