1. How To Make Easysite Forms By Joshua Crawley Contact: j.crawley1@aston.ac.uk

2. Menu The Basics Text Boxes Text Areas Number Fields Drop Down Boxes Radio Buttons / Checkboxes HTML Areas Date Field File Upload Page Breaks Additional Forms Making The Form Active Editing Permissions Setting The Form Up On A Page

3. 1) Firstly you need to log in via www.aston.ac.uk/staff then from here there is a bar which allows you to edit the website, you will need to click on administration to get to the correct area to make forms.www.aston.ac.uk/staff

4. 2) From here you will need to expand the modules pane and select forms.

5. 3) Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page, and select create new form.

6. The Form Name and Legend Name allow you to identify your form. Form Name is what the form will be listed under in the form manager. Legend Name is the title the form will receive when placed on the website. Make sure to take note of the “Form Name” as you will be needing to find this later on to edit said form. Limiting submissions allows you to stop the form after a certain number of submissions, this is good for example when building forms that allow people to sign up to events, if there are only 30 places at your event you may want to limit the form to 30 submissions. You can also set dates for limits to come into place and a recycle period for the form to empty and start again. Preventing the form from sending emails means the form data will only be sent to the administrati on section in easysite, you probably don’t want to click this. 4) Next you will most likely only need to set the Form Name and the Legend name, refer to the section above, make sure the form type is set to standard and then save the form.

7. Building The Form 5) From here you can begin to build the form, you do this by dragging template elements over into the area on the right, whilst hovering it will display the circled icon, this means it’s okay to place the element here and it will be added to the form. From here these elements can be edited by clicking the gear shaped icon. An explanation of the elements available and how to edit them follows.

8. Text Boxes Text boxes display like this and are one of the most common features of a form. Hopefully the corresponding are relatively self explanatory however: Field – Is what goes along side the text box so your question or desired information. Character Limit – Is how many letters or numbers can be put into that said box. Must Be Filled In – Sends the user an error message if they haven’t put anything in this box, use it for important things such as names. Email Address – Requires the information in this box to be in the format of an email address. Update element will save any changes you have made to this individual text box.

9. Text Areas Text areas are used for longer format questions asking for paragraphs of opinions or ideas. Hopefully the corresponding are relatively self explanatory however: Field – Is what goes along side the text box so your question or desired information. Character Limit – Is how many letters or numbers can be put into that said box. Must Be Filled In – Sends the user an error message if they haven’t put anything in this box, use it for important things such as names.

10. Number Fields Number field Boxes only accept characters which are numbers. Use these for things such as phone and credit card numbers. Hopefully the corresponding are relatively self explanatory however: Field – Is what goes along side the text box so your question or desired information. Default Value – presents the user with an existing number already placed in the box. Character Limit – Controls the number of numbers typed into this box, it can be excellent for universally formatted numbers such as credit card numbers. Must Be Filled In – Sends the user an error message if they haven’t put anything in this box, use it for important things such as names. Max and Min Values - Allow you to set the highest and smallest number which can be typed in this box.

11. Drop Down Boxes The classic drop down box should be self explanatory from a users point of view and is mainly used when you want a fixed answer. Define Question – Is identical to the field section on other elements. Add Answers – Allows you to place items into the drop down menu. Answer – This field allows you to input the text of each answer. Default Answer – This answer will be preselected for the user. Save Answer – This adds your answer to the list in the drop down menu.

12. Radio Buttons / Check Boxes Radio Buttons (Top) and Check Boxes (Bottom) are very similar however they do have one difference. Radio Buttons only allow for one choice where as Check Boxes allow you to select simultaneous options. Define Question – Once again is similar to field it is the question which is presented alongside the options. Use List – Allows you to use a pre-existing list of answers, constructed elsewhere. Add Answers – The manual and most common way of putting in questions, it takes you to the menu on the right.

13. HTML Areas HTML areas are used to input code to use external widgets and other content, however odds are you won’t need to use this element. It’s quite an advanced function however, you may want to use it to create some space in the layout of the form, if that is that case paste in the following:

14. Date Field A date field allows you to present the user with a calendar layout, or they are able to input it manually. Field – Is used once again for your question e.g. which date do you wish to attend. Default Value – Allows you to select a default date which will be entered as a standard.

15. File Upload This allows users to send a file, this is brilliant if you wish someone to submit their CV, or want to circumvent making a form and just give them a word document to fill in. Question – Use this to list the type of file you want and possibly put what format in brackets. Allow Add Another – Allows a user to attach multiple files. Send Uploads As Secure Links In Email – A security feature allowing you to store important documents on the main server than your email account, only bother if you’re dealing with sensitive information.

16. Page Break A page break is pretty simple, it moves the form information to a new page, this is very useful if you have a very long form or different sections.

17. Additional Form Additional form allows you to add a pre-existing form into the form you are building. This is very useful if you need something such as equal opportunities information, however currently Aston doesn’t do this, but you can use it for your own personal form building.

18. Making Forms Active You also must make sure you make your form active by clicking the box next to it. Make sure you took note of the form name you selected as there are a lot of forms to go through. Using ctrl+f on your keyboard should help speed the process up. Finally once this is done and save you must click on the form name and edit the permissions.

19. Editing Permissions Once you have clicked on the form from the form menu you will come to the above page, from there go to edit permissions. This will take you to the menu on your right, make sure to select read and write for all. Click saved and finished.

20. Setting Up The Form On A Page 6) Find the appropriate page you wish to place the form on, then edit the page and enter the structure view, drag in a form element from the left hand module list. Then click the cog and select your form from the dropdown menu, I hope took note of your form name.

21. 7) Make sure to untick exclude form data, this is ticked at default for some reason and prevents sending any of the information to the email recipient attached to the form. Also allow save gives the user the option to save their form via cookies, this may be useful for a longer form.

22. 8) Scrolling further down allows you to select who the information will be sent to this will be done under “add recipient” the above box will appear, there is a search tool which allows you to look for the specific user in the system, once you find them tick add and add selected users and groups.

23. Message Upon Submission This allows the user to see all the information will be sending and review it for mistakes a useful feature for longer forms. This allows you to leave a message upon submission, you may wish to change it and put your contact details or email in there for any follow up questions. With the amazingness of easysite I believe ticking this box totally negates the submission preview box. I’ll get around to testing this at some point.

24. Congratulations! Your Form should be up and running. If you have any further problems or need support shoot me an email at j.crawley1@aston.ac.uk and we will either arrange a face to face session or if it’s a small matter I might be able to help you via email. j.crawley1@aston.ac.uk