Forms editing - Documentation Ametys

The online rich fields editor lets you create and manage forms in your content.

This page documents the process of creating a form using the online editor. This applies both to forms managed within the application and to forms sent to an external site.
All other information on forms-related functionalities in Ametys can be found on the following page: Forms.

Create a form

In editing mode, a form is created using the following button: You can choose the type of form to be created: a CMS form is fully managed by the application. a form to an external site sends data to this site Such a form is not managed by the application CMS

Form CMS

A CMS form:
- Stores data entered by users in a database.
- This data can then be processed using the data export function in Excel format format (file CSV).
- In addition, it is possible to define form recipients who will receive the data entered by users.
- Finally, you can set up an acknowledgement system enabling the user to receive a email confirming successful receipt of data in the application.

In the Edit tab, a form is represented by:

In the Form contextual tab CMS, you can add fields and format your form.

Manage the CMS form:

Field	Description	Overview
Name	Choose a form name to facilitate internal processing of the form. CMS
Lifecycle	Selects the life cycle to be used for form entries. (see Forms page)
Submit in another window	Check this box if you want the form validation to open in a new window.
Appearance	Selects the appearance of the form: Label on left: one line per field; label on left, field on right Label above: label above the field customized: you can move elements as you wish To keep your site accessible, the labels must be next to the fields.
Success page	Selects a page in the site map to which the visitor is redirected after submitting the form. By default, a page outside the navigation is automatically generated.
Acknowledgement of receipt	Select the field containing an address email to which the user will receive an acknowledgement of receipt. (see Forms page)
Emails of form recipients	Enter the e-mail addresses of the people who will receive the data sent by visitors. You can enter one email address per line, or separate them with spaces or commas as you wish.
Convert to external form	Transforms the current form into a form for an external site.
Delete	Deletes the entire form.

External form

In the Edit tab, the external form is represented by:

In the toolbar, you can manage the form:

Managing an external form :

Field	Description	Overview
URL	Web address of the application that will receive and process the formualire. This address must be given to you by the external administrator in question. For example: http://www.monserveur.fr/monapp This field is required for your form to work.
Submit in new window	Check this box if you wish to open a new window after the user has validated the form.
Appearance	As with the CMS form, you can choose the appearance of the external form.
Convert to form CMS	Transforms the current form into an automatically-processed CMS form.
Delete	Deletes the entire form.

Lifecycle

For each of your CMS forms, you can choose a workflow that will apply to form entries (i.e. responses submitted by visitors).

The list of lifecycles depends on your application. Lifecycles are defined by the integration: Plugin Forms - Integration manual v1.9.0

If, during the life of a form, you modify its lifecycle, the status (workflow state) of all entries will be reset.

Input limitation

This feature is available from v2.10 onwards.

When editing a form, you can limit the number of entries, i.e. the number of submissions visitors can make before the form is closed.

This limitation can be accessed via the which opens the following window:

Parameter	Description	Mandatory
Number of authorized bids	Integer with minimum value 1 Corresponds to the limit on the number of submissions that can be made on this form. After this limit, the form will be closed.	Yes
Remaining number display	Text at the beginning of the form to indicate the number of remaining places available. You can leave this field empty, in which case no text will be displayed. Des mots clefs (à écrire entre {}) peuvent être utilisés et seront remplacés dans le texte par les valeurs correspondantes : {remaining} : nombre de places restantes {submissions} : nombre de soumissions déjà effectuées {limit} : nombre de soumissions maximales autorisées Par défaut, la phrase proposée est : Il reste {remaining} place(s)	No
Closed form display	Text shown in place of form when submission limit reached. You can leave this field empty, in which case no text will be displayed instead of the form. The same keywords as above can be used. By default, the suggested sentence is: Sorry, this registration form is no longer available as there are no places left.	No

The "Ok" button is used to set up the input limitation,

the "Delete" button is used to remove limitations. In this case, the number of submissions is not controlled.

Form fields

This is a list of the types of fields you can insert in a form; their properties are described below.

Field	Editing rendering	Further information
Simple text
Text area
Drop-down list
Check box
Selection boxes		To create a set of choice boxes : Create a group of fields with the name of your choice (edit Grouping in the rich field) Create the choice boxes one by one by specifying : an identical group name (e.g. groupA) the label associated with the box the value that will be sent when this box is selected (in the illustration on the left, the boxes are associated with values A, B and C respectively).
Password		Please note that the password specified by users will be stored in clear text, and can be viewed using a simple export.
File
Hidden field		A hidden field is one that is not visible to the user. It is used to store information that will be used in post-processing or simply stored for future use. The value of this field is static. For example, an external form script may need a reference to know where the form data has been entered. In our case, the hidden field could be named fromApplication and have the value *Ametys*.
Cost		This field is available from version 2.11 of the forms.
Captcha
Field group
Validate button
Cancel button		This button is used to reset the form.

The rendering of fields in edit mode is for information only.

The contextual tab for each field offers several parameter-setting areas:

The"properties" zone is used to enter general parameters.
The"rules" area is used to define certain aspects of the field's behavior (mainly constraints).
The"control" zone is used to move or delete the form field.

For your site to remain accessible,radio buttons in the same group must be located within a field group.

In the case of an external form, it is important to ensure that the field identifiers match those expected by the external application.

Field type details

Simple text

Check the"Mandatory" box to make this field mandatory.

Check the"With confirmation" box to add a second simple text just below it, asking the user to confirm their entry. This option is mainly used to confirm a password or an e-mail address.

Pre-fill: You can choose to automatically pre-fill the field with information about the logged-in user: Last name, First name, Full name, Email or Login.
Please note that the field will only be pre-filled if the form is on a restricted-access page and a user is logged in to the site.

Rule: You can choose a predefined rule by selecting an entry from the list:

Integral
Decimal
Email
Phone
Date
Time
Date and time
Personalized

Then fill in the min and max values as required (depending on the rule selected).

If you choose"Custom", you can specify a regular expression. (See Mozilla's dedicated guide for more information on regular expressions)

Text area

Check the"Mandatory" box to make this field mandatory.

Drop-down list

Check the"Mandatory" box to make this field mandatory.

Check the"Multiple choice" box to authorize multiple selection (using the CTRL and SHIFT keys).

The"Share in the cost" box is available from version 2.11 onwards.

Check the"Contributes to cost" box if the field contributes to the total cost calculation.

The"Select list" button is used to populate the list with values.

If the "Share in the cost" box is unchecked :

If the "Share in cost" box is checked, you can enter a cost for each option:

Check box

Check the"Mandatory" box to make this field mandatory.

Check the"Checked by default" box so that the box appears checked when the form is loaded.

Selection boxes

Identical to "checkbox", except for the"Group" property, which defines groups of checkboxes. Only one "choice box" can be selected per group.

Password

Characters are replaced by * on the screen.

Check the"Mandatory" box to make this field mandatory.

Check"With confirmation": a second password field is added just below, to confirm the entry.

As with the "Simple text" field, you can specify"min","max" and"regular expression" rules.

File

Check the"Mandatory" box to make this field mandatory.

Maximum size (in MB): Maximum file size that the visitor can send via the form.

The total size of the form is limited by the server: for example, if the server limits file uploads to 10 MB per form, all the files on the form must not exceed this value.

Hidden field

Defines a hidden field.

Cost

This Cost field is available from version 2.11 onwards.

This read-only field displays the total number of options selected (and costed) by the user.

You can choose the unit displayed after the cost:

Example of using cost :

Captcha

Insert a Captcha in the form to protect against robots.

Field group

A field group allows you to group several fields together.

Validate button

Cancel button

Illustrated example

The webmaster or a contributor wishes to add a form to a page, for example a contact form.

Create and edit the article containing the form.

We know that a form is one of the elements that can make up content.
The first step is to create or modify a page, and then add content to it:

Open or create the page containing the form
select the zone containing the form
insert an article: in the Page tab, click on Add content and choose Article
in the Content tab (since the new item is automatically selected), click on the Modify content button

A tab is displayed with the Article in edit mode. The Edit tab is displayed.

As with any Article content edition, the contributor can enter an introductory text, an image, etc...

Setting up the form

Once editing the content, the contributor can insert a form in any rich-text area of the content. For our article, we'll add the form to the Rich Text field entitled Content.

Position cursor where form is to be placed
in the Editionclick on the arrow to the right of Form

click on Form CMS
a new zone is added to the content, representing the form's boundaries

a new Form tab CMS is opened:

This ribbon lets you define form parameters and build the form.

Here's an example of a contact form in edit mode:

Here's the front-office rendering.