With Questetra, you can create public web forms and accept data input from users outside your organization.
We have already introduced the following topics about public forms.
- “Let’s Create a Public Form (Basic)”
Form settings and publishing - “Let’s Create a Public Form (Input Check)”
Validating values entered into a field of a form, such as an email address, and setting the processing deadline for the waiting form - “Multilingual Support for Public Forms”
Setting the display language of the form and points to make it multilingual
This article introduces a method for opening a form with initial input values set by adding parameters with specified values to the URL of the public form. This method is useful for the following purposes
- You can add links to the public inquiry form on multiple product pages. By adding parameters to each page’s link, you can open the form with the information specific to that product page already entered. This reduces the number of errors made when selecting product categories or product names.
- You can send customers who have purchased customized products or services a URL that opens a contact form with the customized information already entered. This prevents inconsistencies in inquiries and reduces the number of times you have to communicate with the customer.
- You can issue a URL for each outsource employee by adding their name or ID as a parameter to the URL of the form that they repeatedly submit. This eliminates the need for each of them to enter their own unique information each time, reducing typos and time spent entering information.
By adding parameters with input values to the URL, you can set initial values based on how the form is opened, such as according to the page from which the link was opened.
The initial input values for forms can also be set as the initial values for data items, but here we will explain how to specify the initial input values for published forms using query parameters. For more information about query parameters, please refer to “Make Public Forms Multilingual”.
Specifying Initial Input Values Using Query Parameters
For public forms generated by the [Message Start Event (form)], you can specify the values that are entered in the input fields when the form is displayed. Specify the target input fields and their initial input values in the form display URL in the form of query parameters. When the form is opened via the URL with the added query parameters, the values are entered into the target input fields.
Specification Method
Add ?<field name>=<setting value> to the end of the form URL.
To specify multiple parameters, concatenate <field name>=<setting value> with “&”. The language specification, locale=<language code>, can also be used in combination with this.
The format of the setting values for each data type is the same as the parameter specification for HTTP communication.
URL encoding (percent encoding) is required to specify a string containing non-ASCII characters.
Specification example
When specifying the numeric data item q_exampleNumeric with the numeric value “1234”,
https://<your workflow platform domain>/System/Event/MessageStartForm/<app ID>/<node number>/view?q_exampleNumeric=1234URL encoding example
(query parameter section only)
?title=竹製コースターに関するお問い合わせ
⇒
?title=%E7%AB%B9%E8%A3%BD%E3%82%B3%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%81%AB%E9%96%A2%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B%E3%81%8A%E5%95%8F%E3%81%84%E5%90%88%E3%82%8F%E3%81%9BNotes
The initial input value cannot be specified for File-types. In addition, Organization-type, User-type, and Discussion-type cannot be displayed in public forms.
The entered values can be deleted or changed in the same way as normal input/selected values. The initial values of data items defined in the app are overwritten by the input values specified by query parameters.
Examples of using initial input values in public forms
Here are three examples of using query parameters to set initial input values in public forms
- Using a common form to handle inquiries about multiple categories
- Sending a link to a form with customized information about a sold product
- Providing a personalized URL and opening the form with the relevant information already entered
1. Using a common form to handle inquiries about multiple categories
For inquiry forms that handle multiple products or content categories, it is possible to prepare a form for each category. However, if you want to add a common question, you must modify all the forms.
By swapping the initial input values for each category, it is possible to use a single common public form to handle inquiries for multiple categories.
The parameters are specified in the link that opens the form. If you add query parameters to the URLs of the buttons for each category on the web page, when the link is opened, the form will open with the initial values specified by the query parameters.
You can also specify text so that you can enter a template for the information to be entered that matches the type of inquiry. Entering a template for the text makes it easier for users filling in the form to notice any errors in selecting a category, and it also helps to reduce incorrect entries.
2. Sending a link to a form with customized information about the sold product
You can send a customized inquiry form with the customized information to the customer who purchased the customized product. Since the correct information is already entered, the customer does not have to re-enter it, and the support staff can respond accurately.
3. Providing a personalized URL and opening the form with the relevant information already entered
When multiple guest members repeatedly enter information associated with each individual on a common form, you can open the form with the information already entered by adding IDs, names, etc. as query parameters to the URL. This reduces the risk of typos and the time required to enter the information.
In this case, the information remains on the device, so please open the form on a device that is managed by the person entering the information, or on devices that have been set to not save to the history.
You can use query parameters to set initial values for input fields. You can use public forms in a wider range of situations, such as allowing each outsourced employee to open a form with identifying values, or allowing your customer to fill out a single generic form in a style that matches to the content of the link source page. In addition, setting default input values can reduce the amount of data users have to enter and the number of input errors they make.