Enterprise FormBase - Managing Form Questions

Owned by Ali Duncan
Jan 25, 2022
4 min read

Table of Contents

Overview

This guide will demonstrate the steps to add and edit questions within a website form.

Required Permissions

  • Admin

Introduction

Questions are not created on a per-form basis. Rather, you create questions globally and use them on any form you create for the site.

Click Edit Questions on the main FormBase page to navigate to the questions page. Here you can search through, edit, or add questions.

Creating a New Question

Click Add New Question to open the dialog box where you can choose the question options.

The default question is a text box, but you can choose from the following options:

Option

Description

Text Box

Creates a question for storing generic text/numbers/symbols.

Can be adjusted to accept only certain input (e.g. numbers, zip codes, phone numbers).

Text Area

Creates a question for storing larger amounts of text/numbers/settings.

Date

Stores a date.

Question displays as a date picker.

Check Box

Creates a single Question that users can check or not.

Dropdown List

Creates a dropdown list full of options that users can select.

Options are added via question settings.

Users may select a single option.

Check List

Creates a list of questions with check boxes next to them.

Options are added via question settings.

Users can select multiple options.

Radio Button List

Creates a series of radio buttons.

Options are added via question settings.

Users can select a single option.

Single Select List Box

Creates a list box with the specified options.

Options are added via question settings.

Users can select a single option.

Multiple Select List Box

Creates the same as above, but allows users to select multiple options.

Template Question

Creates special questions that are used to capture certain information.

The most common example is email address. Email address must be collected as a template question on public forms if notifications are sent to the user.

Edit Existing Question

To edit questions, click on the pencil icon next to any of the questions. This will open up the dialog with the question settings.

Any of the question settings can be changed, including the question type.

Please note: Changing the question type will delete all existing answers for a question - from any form. Make sure that all of the data pertaining to the question is backed up in all forms that use the question before changing the question type.

Question Categories

To make browsing and sorting easier, questions can be assigned to categories by using the Category field in the question.

Use the dropdown list to choose an existing category, or click Edit Categories to add a new one.

Add Questions to Form

Once one or more sections have been added to the layout,

  1. Click Return to Questions to return to the interface for adding questions to the form.

  2. Select the section that you wish to edit by clicking on the dropdown next to Select the Section to Edit.

  3. Once you have it selected, you should see either a blank canvas (new form) or the existing layout (existing form).

  4. Click Add Row to create a single cell.

  5. Select a question from the Select a Question to Assign dropdown and click Assign to Row x, Column X in the desired cell.

  6. Optional: add a Mini-HTML Section to use as a placeholder for arbitrary HTML. You can insert any content that you wish in here.

Edit Question Settings

Each question can be customized after being added to the form. Click Edit in the question cell to edit the question properties.

You can edit the following options (for most question types):

Option

Description

Question Control

The default value for the question.

Can be either an absolute value (e.g.,
'jtowers@clubessential.com') or a snippet
(e.g., ##EMAIL1##).

This is useful for prepopulating forms for
members when the information appears in
their profile.

Click on the "View Snippets" link to view the
available snippets.

*This option is not available for template questions.

Question Style

CSS style to apply to the table that holds the question.

Horizontal Alignment

Sets the horizontal alignment for the cell that holds the question table.

Vertical Alignment

Sets the vertical alignment for the cell that holds the question table.

Cell Ratio

Sets the ratio of question text to answer field in the question table.

The default is 35/65, which means that the cell with the question text has a width of 35% and the cell with the answer field has a width of 65%.

This setting adjusts this ratio so you can make fields smaller or larger depending on the length of the question text.

*Set the question at 0/100 to hide the question text and show only the input.

*You can combine this with Mini-HTML sections for greater control over the question text's position and styling.

Best Practices

  1. Since questions are created globally for all forms, adding/editing questions requires special care/attention to avoid changing questions on all forms or removing data.

FAQs

Q; I added a question but I don’t see it in my list. Where can I find it?

A: Questions are sorted by the date added, so if you added new questions, they will be at the bottom of the list. If you assigned your questions to categories, you can use the "Question Category" dropdown to select a category and filter the "Select a Question to Assign" dropdown.