14 - Adding a form to the workspace

Forms can be created in Backstage and shared with app users in the workspace for them to fill in. 

They can, for example, be used to evaluate users on a topic, capture their feedback or opinions, or simply to create engagement during a session.

Forms can be tailored to their specific use thanks to a variety of form components and behaviors, scheduled to be sent out at a specific time, and also targeted to specific users.

In this section we will take you through the basic steps for creating a form.

You can access the Forms module through the Content category in the Backstage main menu.

Tip: We strongly recommend that you test your forms prior to sending them out to your audience. Testing the form can help you avoid any errors in the form configuration. This can include: How the form looks and works, how it is delivered and received, how your attendees can submit their responses, how the response data is collected, and how you can access or extract the data.

Note: For testing purposes, Backstage users (workspace team members) can always preview forms, even if the form is not yet available to participants. Likewise, delivered forms in the app are visible to Backstage users (workspace team members) even after they expire.

Creating a form

Go to the Content category in the Backstage main menu, and click on Forms.

Click on the New form button.

Here you can enter the below initial information for the form you are creating:

Form name (mandatory)
Enter the title of the form that you wish to create.

Send at (mandatory)
This is the time at which the form will become accessible in the app. At this time a notification will be sent to the app user to complete the form.
For testing purposes, Backstage users can always preview forms, even if the form is not yet available to participants.

Expire at (optional)
This is the time when the form will no longer be visible in the app, regardless of whether the app user has submitted a response or not. If no time is entered here the form will remain available in the app.
For testing purposes, Backstage users (workspace team members) can always preview forms, even if the form is not yet available to participants. Likewise, delivered forms in the app are visible to Backstage users (workspace team members) even after they expire.

Is visible after submitting
Enabling this will keep the form visible in the app even after a response has been submitted.

Disable notification
Enabling this will deliver the form in app, but no push notification will be sent to the app user.

Hide in forms list
Enabling this will ensure that the form is not visible in the list of forms in the app.

Hide toolbar
Enabling this removes the tool bar from the form, which is used by the app user to close the form. If you use this option with the Full Screen option below enabled, you will need to add the Close after submit behaviour to the form, otherwise the app user will not be able to close the form. More information on form behaviors is available in the Form behaviors article.

Fullscreen
Enabling this will open the form in full screen in the app.

Display template
Here, the form you are creating will be linked to a display template. The display template will determine the structure of the form, and can be saved and re-used when creating additional forms.

When creating your first form, the display template will be created automatically and associated with the form. You can edit or create a new display template by following in section Editing the form display template below.

Targeting
Here you can configure which app users within the workspace will be able to see the form. More advanced information on this is available in the Targeting article.

Icon
Here you can add an icon to the form you are creating. You can select an existing icon in Backstage or upload a new one.

Click on Save to save the form.

Click on the Forms tab, the created page will now appear there:

Editing the form display template

In the Forms tab, you can now see the form that you just created.

Click on Edit to open the Edit form template tab and begin adding content to the form:

The edit template tab is divided into three parts:

• The left pane lists out all the components that can be used in your form, and what they are used for.
• The central pane is the body of your form, where added content will be displayed.
• The right pane is the configuration panel, where you will configure the content and settings of the components added to the form.

When a new form is created, the central pane of the form template (by default) contains some "example content" that can either be re-used or deleted by clicking on the bin icon in the top right corner of the content.

Previewing the form in the web app

As you follow the below steps to add content to your form, you can at any time preview how the form will look via the web app, by clicking on the Preview as name button at the bottom of the Edit form template tab.

Adding a header to the form

In the central pane, at the top of the screen there is a Section header component that by default contains the text (Example content - replace!) Session form:

Click on this section header component and add the form name that you wish.
For this example we will reuse the title of the form added when previously creating the form: Session 1 feedback.

Add a rating scale question to the form

In a form, you can gather the app users' feedback by asking them to rate something.

Here, we will ask the app users to rate a session that they attended.

1. From the left pane, drag and drop a Rating scale component into the central pane.
   
   
2. Enter the question for the app users, in the Question field. Here we will ask them to rate the session.
   
   
3. Configure the scale by entering the Scale start and Scale end values (maximum end value is 5).
   
   
4. In the Appearance field, select whether the rating scale should use stars or radio buttons. Here we will use stars by selecting Star rating.
   
   
5. Click on Save.

You can add start and end labels when the rating scale question is using radio buttons.

Labels will explain to the app user what a lower ranking or higher ranking will mean in their response, for example: "I did not enjoy this session" could be added to the left, and  "I loved this session" could be added to the right of the rating for this question.

Adding a free text question to the form

You can add free text questions to a form. This will allow app users to provide their feedback using there own words.

1. From the left pane, drag and drop a Text input component into the central pane.
   
   
2. Enter the question for the app users.
   
   
3. Choose the type of response you wish to receive.
   Short form is for one-line answers. Long form will allow the app users to provide a more lengthy response.
   
   
4. You can add a Placeholder text, which if added will be displayed in the text field in grey until the app user starts to their response.
   
   
5. You can enter a Default value here. This will be the app user's default response should they not add their own response into the text field.
   
   
6. You can select the Is required option to make this a mandatory question for the user.
   
   
7. Click on Save.

Adding a multiple choice question to the form

You can add multiple choice questions to a form.

The user will have multiple choices to choose from, and you can decide whether you would like the user to choose only a single answer, or multiple answers.

1. From the left pane, drag and drop a Choice component into the central pane.
   
   
2. Enter the question for the app users, in the right pane.
   
   
3. Select Single answer if you would like the user to choose a single response, or Multiple answers if you wish to allow the user to choose multiple answers.
   If you select Multiple answers, you can choose the maximum number of answers that the user can provide, by adding a number to the Maximum number of selections field.
   
   
4. Fill in the Possible answers fields with the available answers you would like the user to choose from. Simply enter the text in each field and press Enter on your keyboard.
   To the right of the answers, the number 0 means that the answer will be considered incorrect, and any positive number (such as 1) will mark the response as a correct answer. Please see step 7 below for more information on this.
   
   
5. You can randomize the order of the answers displayed to the user by selecting the Random order of possible answers option.
   
   
6. You can also add an Other answer to the question by selecting the Add "Other" text field option. If the user selects Other as a response, an open text field will be displayed where the app user can enter an open text response to the question.
   The text for the "other" answer as well as the placeholder text in the displayed open text field can be personalised in the Advanced options at the bottom of the right pane.
   
   
7. Based on the answer(s) provided by the user, you can chose to provide immediate feedback by entering text in the Correct answer feedback or Wrong answer feedback fields.
   This is based on the numbers entered above in step 4 for the possible answers, and will provide feedback to the users one their responses once they have submitted the form.

So how does this form look in the app?

Below is a preview of the form created above as seen in the app:

Additional default form components and behaviors

Many other options are available by default for creating forms, including:

• Form budget
• Date
• Matrix
• Rank
• Slider

For more information on using these components, pleas refer to the Forms section of the knowledge base.

Likewise, more advanced options are also available for your forms, and can be obtained by adding new behaviors to the form template. For more information on this please refer to the Form behavior article.

 

NEXT STEP
For the next steps in this Getting started series, please continue to the Adding documents to the workspace article.