Formulayt provides administrators the ability to manage form fields and customise them for specific use cases. This article will show you how to navigate the manage fields area and introduce you to the key functionality at your disposal.
The manage fields tab can be found on the left hand side menu and once opened will display all the fields associated with your account.
You can use the search input to locate fields, you can search locally using any information that appears in the table below, we would recommend establishing a globally agreed taxonomy or field name guidelines, as this will save a lot of time and energy as the number of fields grow.
To create a new field click the Create a new field button on the top right hand side, this will load the field editor.
Basic Settings
Typical options include:
- Simple Text
- Large Text
- Check Box
- Email Address
- Phone Number
- Country Selector
- Picklist
- Multi-Select Picklist
- Checkbox Group
- Custom Content
- Hidden Field
Field name - Maps the field to your marketing automation platform, therefore it is essential that it matches exactly the field name within the receiving platform, it must be alphanumeric and contain no spaces. Again, we would recommend establishing guidelines for naming fields to support proper organisation within the platform.
Label - This is the text that will appear to the user on the form alongside or above the field input (depending on your account styling) e.g. “Please Select a Country”
This can be translated into other languages using the translation management area.
Placeholder text - Appears as a light-coloured watermark inside the input area of the field when it’s blank. This can be useful in improving the UX of your form, providing hints, suggestions or formats e.g. “email@gatedcontent.com”. Some fields will already have default placeholder text, for example if they are mandatory or require a specific format like email addresses. Specifying text here will overwrite any defaults. This can be translated into other languages using the translation management area.
Pre-population - Fields can be pre-populated with data from various sources whilst the form is loading. This dropdown allows you to select the input for any pre-population required. Pre-population will greatly increase the forms UX and optimisation by completing as many steps as possible on the users behalf. Depending on your selection different information will be required.
Typical options include:
String - A simple, static string.
Gate attribute - Use a piece of data from the gate configuration, e.g. download URL.
Form attribute - Data about the form submission, such as when it was submitted, or whether it was a blind submission.
Query string value - Track a querystring parameter whenever it appears in the URL, and pre-populate this field with the latest value.
Copy field value - Copy the value of another field. Note that this field must be present in the same form type and must already have a value in it.
Eloqua/Marketo contact field - If the user can be identified by a third party platform, contact field values can be used for pre-pop.
Browser - Data from the browser, including software version and geographic location of the user.
Custom formula - Build advanced pre-pop values by combining other basic values.
Browser memory timeout - This determines how long a field will remember it's value for after pre-populating or completion and submission by the user.
In addition to this, some pre-pop sources (such as MAP contact records or query string values) are cached when retrieved. This can be controlled from the main account settings by your administrator.
Translate field messaging - Determines whether the field messaging (label, placeholder and validation messaging) should be made available for translation. You can find out more about languages and translations here.
Bear in mind, the type of field you select will change the options available at later stages of customisation.
When using checkboxes you must provide a checked value that will be returned to the marketing automation platform. If the field is not checked, the value will always be blank.
When using picklists, the labels to be displayed to the user and the values to be returned to the marketing automation platform must be provided.
Top Tip - You can bulk add picklist options by submitting a list with one option per line in the format:
Value|Label
Value|Label
Value|Label
You will also be shown extra translations options when using picklists:
Translate picklist option labels - Determines whether the picklist option labels (visible to the user) should be made available for translation.
Translate picklist option values - Determine whether the picklist option values (not visible to the user, this is what is sent on form submission) should be made available for translation.
Prevent the picklist option labels from being translated using root language values if the gate is using a sub-language (e.g. de-ch cannot inherit from de) - Don't use root language values. This option can be used to prevent a picklist from inheriting a translation from a root language, if the gate is using a subculture language. An example of this might be a business department dropdown, where only certain options should appear in certain languages (e.g. an option might appear in German (de) but not Swiss German (de-ch)). This option is normally used in conjunction with the 'Hide any picklist options that don't have a translated label' option to control which options appear in which language.
Hide any picklist options that don’t have a translated label - If activated, this option will cause any picklist options that don't have a translation to be hidden, instead of being displayed in the default language (which is normally English). This may be useful for fields like salutations. In English we have Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms, Dr etc. In German Herr and Frau is usually sufficient, activating this functionality would avoid having Herr and Frau repeated unnecessarily in the picklist.
Sort picklist option in alphabetical order after translation - This option will cause picklists to be sorted alphabetically after translation, instead of displaying in the order that they are entered in. Activating this field will help the user find what they are looking for more quickly once the labels have been translated e.g. a state or province picklist. However, you may choose not to use this feature if the list has a specific order like a products or nature of enquiry.
When using Custom content:
Content Name - This will not be displayed to users but is only used internally to show gate editors where the content will appear on forms, and also to identify the content for translation.
Validation settings
Custom Validation message - All fields use default validation messaging specific to the field type when the user attempts to submit the form with invalid fields. This messaging can be overridden for this field below.
Custom Validators - Custom validation rules can be added to this field below. Each validation rule must take the form of a valid regular expression.
Rules
Rules tell a field how to behave under a given set of conditions. You can learn more about rules, what they can be used for and how to use them here.
Push to Live
Once you have created or edited fields you will need to push the changes live before you start seeing them on gates or in the form type editor.
If you need some extra support or have any questions simply click "+ New Support Ticket" above.