Introducing Sitecore Forms
You use Sitecore Forms to build web forms that record and report information provided by visitors to your website. The data collected lets you personalize content in a meaningful way. In the following example, a visitor activates a fitness tracker by completing the registration form. In the form, the visitor indicates an interest in cycling. The next time the visitor views the site homepage, a tile appears with information about cycling workouts.
With Sitecore Forms, you can:
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Create forms from scratch or use a predefined template.
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Create new forms by dragging custom elements from the Form elements pane onto the form canvas.
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Apply form validation.
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Customize form functionality and form styling.
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Run reports on form performance.
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Export data from forms to Microsoft Excel.
The Sitecore Forms dashboard
You open Sitecore Forms from the Sitecore Launchpad.
The applications available on the Sitecore Launchpad depend on the user role and permissions you have been assigned.
From the Sitecore Forms dashboard, you can see:
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All available forms.
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All the forms you created (My forms).
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All available form templates.
The right pane of the Forms dashboard contains two tabs. The Overview tab includes details about the form, such as the creation date, as well as information about the pages that use the form. The Performance tab contains details about form performance.
From the menu, you can click Create to create a new form. After you create your form, you add the form to a website page and then track the contact activity around it.
Form elements
You use the elements in the Form elements pane to quickly build your forms by dragging elements onto the form canvas directly where you need them. There are default elements available for form fields, such as Text, Email, Dropdown list, and so on.
To make it easier to find elements, they are organized into categories:
You can collapse or expand these element categories, so you do not have to scroll through a lengthy list of all the available elements.
Multipage forms
If you want to create a long form with multiple sections, you can use the Page element to break the form up into multiple pages so that it is more user-friendly. Ultimately, this could lead to a higher success rate for your form.
Multipage forms also enable you to create a conditional scenario. For example, the form displays a different page based on the visitor's selection, or you could show different versions of a form to different people based on their role in the organization.
To see how to create a multipage survey go to the Discover Sitecore channel.
Styling
You can add styling to your forms. For example, you can use the colors and fonts of your company branding. As well as the HTML styles that you can add to texts, in the Styling section of the Form elements pane, you can set CSS styles for form elements.
We recommend that you preview your form before publishing it on the website. The way that the form displays in Sitecore Forms might not reflect the actual styling of the form on the webpage.
Reporting
The Performance tab in the right pane of the Forms dashboard provides information about the interaction with contacts. The reports have a number of fields providing detailed information about a specific form. You can also export form data to a CSV file.
Prefilling
Prefilled field values saves time and improves consistency. For example, you can prefill the fields of a survey with the logged-in user's contact data. In general, the fewer fields a visitor has to submit, the higher your conversion rate will be. To be able to work with prefilled fields, you must implement a value provider.