Forms

This is Very Important

For each form published, ensure the form’s notification settings (under Settings > Notifications) are correct. Specifically, the “Send to Email,” “From Email” and “Reply To” email address fields must only contain active @boisestate.edu email addresses.

Do not use the default {admin_email} value in any of these fields.

If these fields do not contain @boisestate.edu addresses, your notification may bounce.

Within your form’s settings will be an option to require users to be logged in to access the form. This feature conflicts with our layered authentication and VPN. If you have a need to restrict access to a form, please use Google Forms.

When you add a form to a page, there will be a checkbox to ‘Enable Ajax.’ Do not use this feature, as it directly conflicts with the web standards styling that forms utilize in the Boise State environment and causes varying visual problems.

Within your form’s settings will be an option to use an anti-spam honeypot. This feature should not be activated, as it occasionally conflicts with your form’s confirmation messages. Instead, please use the “CAPTCHA” field on each form, located under “Advanced Fields.”

NOTE: In general, these fields can be difficult for screen reader users. To assist, we recommend adding the following description: “Please check ‘I’m not a robot’ to verify CAPTCHA.”

Do not collect SSN, passwords, transcripts, or financial data. For more information, visit the Information Security page.

Each field should include a field label, typically the first item on the general tab of each field. Without a field label on each field, a form is not considered web accessible.

The following setting recommendations are to improve overall accessibility of your form. Changing these settings before you add any fields to your form will ensure each field added to your form is following the default settings. Otherwise, you will need to change settings for each individual form field.

1. Select Settings, then select Form Settings from the menu at the top of the page.
2. In the Form Layout section, change Label Placement, Description Placement, and Sub-Label Placement to Top aligned or Above inputs.
3. Toggle on the Validation Summary
4. For Required Field Indicator select Text (Required)
5. Toggle off the Enable Legacy Markup option at the end of the settings list

Before you begin, we recommend outlining your form content and determining the types of fields you’d like to use to collect your information. Some field types are not recommended because they are currently inaccessible by screen readers.  Other fields require an additional accessibility statement. See Field Descriptions and Form Accessibility for more details.

1. Locate Forms, then select New Forms.
2. Fill in the Create a New Form pop-up with Form Title and Form Description, then click the Create Form button.
3. Select a field type from the Fields panels on the right. See “Field Types” section for more information about fields.
4. Once you’ve found the field type you want, click to add it to the form editor on the left side of your screen.
5. Click on the edit link to configure the various field options.
6. Drag the fields to arrange them the way you prefer.
7. When your form fields have all been added, click on the Update button to save.

There are several types of fields available in Gravity Forms to collect information:

1. Standard Fields provide basic form functionality and include fields like single line or paragraph text, checkboxes, and radio buttons. For more details and field descriptions see Gravity Forms Standard Fields.
2. Advanced Fields are for specific uses. They enable advanced formatting of regularly used fields such as Name, Email, Address, etc. For more details and field descriptions see Gravity Forms Advanced Fields.

We have completed accessibility testing on all the available fields and have the following recommendations. Use the following information as a guide for the types of fields available for use. Please make note of which fields are recommended for accessibility.

Regardless of the type of field you use on a form, always include a brief field label to describe the purpose of the form field. Leaving the field label blank results in accessibility errors and in some cases can make the form completely unusable for your users. To filter table content, use the search field.

After you finish and save your form, there’s still one more step. You have to insert the form into a WordPress Page. The address you’ll use to direct people to the form will be the address of this new page you’re creating.

1. Create a new page.
2. Give this new page an appropriate title (maybe similar to the name of your form).
3. It’s a good idea to provide some brief instructions for users so they know what to expect and if they need to retrieve any additional information prior to completing the form. You can add this as a brief paragraph immediately before your form. For example, let users know what fields are required, if they need any non-standard information like an ID number or payment details, how to submit the form, or an expected timeframe for follow up.
4. Insert your form into the page. To do so, open the Block Inserter and search on “forms”. Select the Gravity Forms block.
5. Use the dropdown menu to select the form you just created and the form will appear embedded on the page.

Note: Forms should not be used in the subheader section of the Section Main Page template because there is not enough contrast between the background and the form field descriptions. Forms should go in page content areas only.

Finally, create a link (or button) on your production site that will take the user to the page you’ve created. This page is the address for your form.

Create a text confirmation that will replace the form on your WordPress page once the user has submitted the form. The confirmation text should let the user know the form was successfully submitted and can point them to next steps if needed.

1. Edit the form you want to add a confirmation to.
2. Select Settings, then select Confirmations from the menu at the top of the page.
3. Edit the Default Confirmations.
4. For Confirmation Type, select Text (recommended), Page, or Redirect. Hover over the help tip to help you decide.
5. Enter text or select a page or enter a URL.
6. Click Save Confirmation to finish.

You have the option of setting up one or more custom email notifications, which will automatically send an email message when a submission has been received.

1. Configure notifications within a form by selecting Settings, then select Notifications.
2. Edit Default Confirmation or Add New
3. Enter Email(s) that you want the entry sent to. Note that using “admin_email” as the “Send To” email for the Notification will send all form notifications to the primary, default email address for the site (“Email Address” in Settings / General for the WordPress site). We don’t recommend this. Use the actual email address (or multiple addresses) that will receive notifications.
4. When configuring email notifications, be sure the From Email field contains a valid Boise State email address. This will ensure your notifications are received correctly.
5. Set up the Reply To field with the email address you would like to be used as the reply to address for the notification email. This should be a Boise State address; you should not use the form submitter’s email address in the Reply To field. If your form has an email field you can select that field in the drop down Merge Tag menu. This allows the notification to dynamically populate the information that is filled out from the form entry.
6. Ensure you are following Boise State web accessibility standards when drafting your email notifications.

Your form notifications are emailed from your WordPress site to the recipient via a service called WP Mail SMTP. This tool provides auditing tools to enable you to validate and troubleshoot emails being processed through the service. If you are noticing or suspecting issues with form notifications being sent to you or your users, you should review your email logs to verify what emails have and have not been sent, and for what reason. You can access the WP Mail SMTP logs in the left-hand toolbar within the backend of your site, or contact the Help Desk for WordPress Support to troubleshoot your issue.

It’s a good idea to test out your form and make sure it works correctly. Navigate to your form’s page, fill out the form, and submit it. You should be redirected to your confirmation page and, as the administrator of the form, receive an email at the address you entered into the configurations.

You should also be able to complete every step of your form using the keyboard alone. If you experience difficulty completing the form without a mouse your users will as well.

You can also check the accessibility of your form by using either the Optimize or WAVE browser extensions. Questions about form accessibility can be directed to the OIT Web Accessibility Team at OITAccessibility@boisestate.edu.

In addition to sending an email to the administrator when a form is submitted, Gravity Forms keeps a record of the submissions as Entries. You can access these entries by selecting the form you’re interested in and then clicking on the Entries option.

Depending on what information is useful for you, you can add, remove, or sort by fields in the list of entries.

Entries can be exported from Gravity Forms to a CSV file that is downloaded to your machine and opened in spreadsheet software like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. This can be found under Forms > Import/Export > Export Entries.

Gravity Form entries can be automatically exported and sent to Google Sheets. The WordPress Support team can help you install this functionality on your form, as it requires custom scripting. Please note that this functionality is not for use with Gravity Forms that may change over time. Any changes to the fields used in your Gravity Form or your the column headings, sheet name, sheet settings, or script in the Google Sheet may break the import process entirely.

For more information on automating Gravity Form exports to Google Sheets, please contact the Help Desk.

When a form is no longer in use, we recommend deleting it along with any related entries.

If a form is going to be used again but has finished for the moment (e.g. an annual conference registration), you may want to delete the existing entries to avoid confusion. You can also deactivate the form using the green toggle in the Forms screen or selecting “Mark as Inactive” in the Bulk Actions drop down menu. When it’s time to make the form available again, simply reactivate it and make sure users can find a link to its page.