Note: Due to attempts to hack sites through Brightspot forms, please make sure to add CAPTCHA to all forms that are created OR put forms behind CAS authentication.
A form is a content type built directly into Brightspot. Forms are useful for signing people up for an event, collecting a survey, or automatically setting up an event with the Event Forms.
Setting up a Form
A form must be set up on a page. To find the form, scroll down on the right side until you see the Content option. Click on the Add button, then in the window that comes up, find the three Form tabs.
Brightspot provides default form templates that can be customized. There are two types of default forms, Contact Form and Event Form.
Contact Form
This is the default contact form that Brightspot gives you. As shown, you can have a form for whatever text you would like. Contact forms are most useful for general information, e.g. a sign-up page or a place where someone can contact a department head.
Event Form
Event forms are more useful for planning events that are being used as a survey of some sort. If you would like something along these lines, use the event form as it will give you more relevant choices by default.
Form Details
While there are a few different form default options to choose from, all forms can use the same text boxes, checkboxes, long answer fields, and a few more.
Text Boxes
Text fields give a few options to choose from.
Date Field: This will give an option for the user to put in a date. When the box is clicked, a calendar will drop down and the user can select a specific date.
Email: This is used to collect and store a user's email. When using this field, the parameter name in the Advanced tab must be set to "email" to ensure that the reply address is stored correctly.
Long Text: This is used for short answer questions or paragraphs that the user needs to type out.
Phone Number: This is used to collect and store a user's phone number.
Short Text: This is the default option listed for most basic forms.
Within a text field, you can also specify Placeholder text and toggle the Required switch. The Placeholder text is displayed in the field before it is filled and the Required switch will not allow a form to be submitted until the field is filled.
Multiple Choice Boxes
Another option to have on the form is a multiple-choice box. There are a few options for this as well.
Checkboxes: These will allow the user to select multiple options when given a question.
Dropdown: Dropdowns will give the user a dropdown option to select from a list of options.
Radio Buttons: Unlike checkboxes, these will allow the user to only choose one of the provided options.
Advanced Options
There are a few more options that can be added to a form.
Captcha Field: A CAPTCHA prevents bots or scripts from running through and filling out a survey multiple times automatically. It verifies that a human user is actually the one filling out the survey. Please consult this article for CAPTCHA configuration steps.
File Upload Field: This will allow a user to upload a file and attach it to their form. You may choose the file type as well as enable multiple file uploading.
Group: A group will look similar to the actual form itself, but it allows for more organization throughout the form. You can give the group a name and organize questions within that particular group to help the form flow smoother.
Actions
Actions are what the form will do once it is completed by the user. Brightspot gives you four actions that can be taken.
Data Collection Action: This setting is the default and is typically the most useful. With this setting enabled, all information on a form can be saved to a single CSV file. This CSV file can be found in the Submissions tab in the form content.
Email Action: Email action will send an email to anyone and can be modified to include the form information. If you would like to include form information, you will need to use custom parameters. When creating the body you can use the results from the form to populate information. For example, in a survey, I have someone fill out their first name, and the text box is called "First Name". Brightspot will change that internally to a parameter called "first-name" (as will be seen in each forms item header). In my body I can say "Hello ${first-name}" and whatever the user typed for "First Name" in my form will be replaced by the parameter code ("${first-name}") e.g "Hello Susan". This can be used for all text boxes that were given in the form. The Forward Responses To Submitter switch will send a copy of the form response email to the email address stored in the email parameter and the Reply To Submitter switch will allow responses to the form email to be sent to the email address stored in the email parameter.
Employee Auto Action: Employee and Email actions are nearly identical. If Brightspot detects that a user is logged in, it will detect their email automatically and send the email you created to the connected email. Hence, that spot does not need to be filled out.
External Submit Action: This one is only applicable if there is another way your department collects data. It either will be through another source or an API. This is uncommon.
Create Event: Create Event will only show up on event forms but it will create an event instantly using the information provided.
Completion Messages
Completing a form and clicking the Submit button will trigger a popup. The text content of this popup can be configured based on the content of the form.
The Success Message is displayed when a form is submitted with no errors, e.g. all required fields have been filled and no other errors occur. The text content of this message can be configured in the associated text box.
The Error Message is displayed when a required field is left blank or other information causes an error. In this case, the form will not be submitted and the error message shown can be configured in the associated text box.
Receiving Data
Once your form is set up and published on your site, Brightspot will automatically save the results of the form for you as a CSV file that you can download directly from your page.
To find and export this data, go to the form in your page content. Side scroll until the Submissions option comes up. Under the Submissions tab, there will be an Export CSV option. This will download a CSV file on your computer to see all data that was taken from your form, assuming data collection was enabled.