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How to create a "Contact us" custom form

The following example will create a Contact us custom form page on your web site. This form will contain a security CAPTCHA field. It will automatically send an email to both the user who completed the form and the site administrator.

Setting up the custom form

  1. Right-click on your site asset and select New Child  Pages  Custom Form

  2. Name the custom form Contact us and select Create and then close the create asset dialog box.

  3. Right-click on the Custom form asset in the asset tree and select the Contents screen.

  4. On the Form contents screen:

    1. Enter Personal information in the Add sections field.

    2. Select Save.

A new section asset will appear in the asset tree, as shown in the figure.

The *Personal information* section

Adding the form fields

  1. Right-click on the Personal information section asset in the asset tree.

  2. Select the Details screen.

  3. In the Form fields section, select Add field and configure the following values:

    Field name

    Type Question 1 as the value.

    Type

    Select "Text" from the options.

  4. Repeat step three twice more to add a total of three Question Text form fields, incrementing the question number each time.

  5. Select Save.

Three question assets will appear in the asset tree and be added to the current form fields list, as shown in the figure above.

The text question assets

Add a Select type question to the form:

  1. Click the Add field button.

  2. In the Field name field, type Question 4 as the value.

  3. Choose Select in the Type list.

  4. Select Save.

A fourth question asset will appear in the asset tree and be added to the current form fields list.

Repeat these steps to add three more form fields:

  • Two Numeric type form fields

  • One Email Address address type form field.

Seven question assets now appear in the asset tree and are listed in the current form fields list:

The form fields for the form in the current form fields list

Add another question to the form outside of the Personal information section:

  1. Right-click on the Form contents asset in the asset tree and hover over the New child entry.

  2. Select Form field - Text from the options presented.

  3. In the dialog box that appears, type Question 8 for the field title.

  4. Select Create.

  5. Close the details window that appears.

A "Question 8" asset will appear in the asset tree and be added to the current form fields section beneath the Personal information asset group.

The unattached question in the current form fields list

Setting up each question

First name question

To set up the First name question:

  1. Right-click on the Question 1 (text type) asset under the Personal information section of the asset tree.

  2. Select the Details screen and select Edit.

  3. In the Title field, enter First name.

  4. In the Maximum length field, enter 50.
    This setting will mean that users can only enter up to fifty characters in this field.

  5. In the Required entry? field, select the toggle to set the field as required.

  6. In the Custom required error field, enter Please enter your first name..
    This text will be displayed on the form if the user does not answer this question.

  7. Select Save.

The name of the asset in the asset tree will change to First name.

Surname question

To set up the Surname question:

  1. Right-click on the Question 2 (text type) asset under the Personal information section of the asset tree.

  2. Select the Details screen and select Edit.

  3. In the Title field, enter Surname.

  4. In the Maximum length field, enter 50.
    This setting will mean that users can only enter up to fifty characters in this field.

  5. In the Required entry? field, select the toggle to set the field as required.

  6. In the Custom required error field, type Please enter your surname..
    This text will be displayed on the form if the user does not answer this question.

  7. Select Save.

The name of the asset in the asset tree will change to Surname.

Address question

To set up the Address question:

  1. Right-click on the Question 3 (text type) asset under the Personal information section of the asset tree.

  2. Select the Details screen and select Edit.

  3. In the Title field, enter Address.

  4. In the Height field, enter 3.
    This setting will display a multi-line text field on the form for this question.

  5. Select Save.

The name of the asset in the asset tree will change to Address.

State question

To set up the State question:

  1. Right-click on the Question 4 (Select type) asset under the Personal information section of the asset tree.

  2. Select the Details screen and select Edit.

  3. In the Title field, enter State.

  4. In the Options field, enter the following options into the fields provided: QLD, NSW, ACT, VIC, TAS, NT, SA, and WA. Initially only two entries will be provided but more will appear as they are filled.

    The Options field for the state question

  5. Select Save.

The name of the asset in the asset tree will change to State.

Postcode question

To set up the Postcode question:

  1. Right-click on the Question 5 (numeric type) asset under the Personal information section of the asset tree.

  2. Select the Details screen and select Edit.

  3. In the Title field, enter Postcode.

  4. In the Width field, enter 4. This setting will mean that the question field will be four characters wide.

  5. In the Maximum length field, enter 4. This setting will mean that users can only enter up to four characters in this field.

  6. Select Save.

The name of the asset in the asset tree will change to Postcode.

Email address question

To set up the Email address question:

  1. Right-click on the Question 6 (email address type) asset under the Personal information section of the asset tree.

  2. Select the Details screen and select Edit.

  3. In the Title field, enter Email address.

  4. In the Required entry? field, select the toggle to set the field as required.

  5. In the Custom required error field, enter Please enter your email address..
    This text will be displayed on the form if the user does not answer this question.

  6. Select Save.

The name of the asset in the asset tree will change to Email address.

Phone number question

To set up the Phone number question:

  1. Right-click on the Question 7 (numeric type) asset under the Personal information section of the asset tree.

  2. Select the Details screen and select Edit.

  3. In the Title field, enter Phone number.

  4. In the Type field, select "Number" from the options.

  5. In the Width field, enter 10.
    This setting will mean that the question field will be ten characters wide.

  6. In the Maximum length field, enter 10.
    This setting will mean that users can only enter up to ten characters in this field.

  7. Select Save.

The name of the asset in the asset tree will change to Phone number.

Comments question

To set up the Comments question:

  1. Right-click on the Question 8 (text type) asset under the Form contents asset in the asset tree.

  2. Select the Details screen and select Edit.

  3. In the Title field, enter Comments.

  4. In the Height field, enter 3. This setting will display a multi-line text field on the form for this question.

  5. Select Save.

The name of the asset in the asset tree will change to Comments.

At the end of these steps, your Form Contents asset should have the following asset structure:

The default layout of the contact us form

Defining the layout of the custom form

Page contents layout

The default layout of the Contact us form is shown in the figure below.

The default layout of the contact us form

The comments question in this layout appears at the top of the form. There is no heading for the page. You need to change this layout to move the comments question to the bottom of the page, add a heading, and include additional features.

The page contents bodycopy

By default the Bodycopies folder you see in the figure is not present when creating a custom form. To change this layout you need to enable the Bodycopies folder on the Form contents asset:

  1. Right-click on the Form contents asset.

  2. Select the Details screen and select Edit.

  3. In the Formatting section, locate the Use bodycopy setting and select Page contents.

  4. Select Save.
    A bodycopies folder will appear in the asset tree, containing the page contents bodycopy.

    The Use bodycopy feature with the Page contents option selected

  5. In the Bodycopies folder, right-click on the Page contents bodycopy and select Contents.

  6. Enter the following text into the WYSIWYG component.

    Because asset IDs are different on each Matrix system, you must replace the 604 and 602 in each keyword with the corresponding asset ID in your Contact us form. 
    Please complete the form below.

%form_errors% (1)

%section_contents_604% (2)

%question_contents_602_q1% (3)

%submit_button% %reset_button% (4)
    1 The List of submission errors keyword replacement is added to the top of the form to display errors when the form is not completed correctly.
    2 This keyword adds the "Personal information" section first in the form.
    3 This keyword adds the "Comments" text field after the "Personal information" section.
    4 The Submit button is also added so that the user can submit the form.

The new layout of the contact us form is shown in the figure below.

The new layout of the contact us form

Thank you layout

The default layout of the Thank you page on the Contact us form shows the comments response at the top of the form. There is also no heading for the page. You need to change this layout to move the comments question to the bottom of the page, add a heading, and include additional features.

To change this layout you need to add the "Thank you" bodycopy:

  1. Right-click on the Form contents asset.

  2. Select the Details screen and select Edit.

  3. In the use bodycopy field, select Thank you.

  4. Select Save.
    The thank you bodycopy is added to the Bodycopies folder.

    The thank you bodycopy

  5. In the Bodycopies folder, right-click on the Thank you bodycopy and select Contents.

  6. Enter the following content into the WYSIWYG component.

    You can apply a H1 style to the first line. 
    Thank you for contacting us!

Thank you for contacting us %response_604_q1%.

Outlined below is the information that you have provided to us.

If this is not correct, please contact us and quote reference number %form_submission_id%.

Name: %response_604_q1% %response_604_q2% (1)
Address: %response_604_q3%
State: %response_604_q4%
Postcode: %response_604_q5%
Phone: %response_604_q6%
Email: %response_604_q7%
Comments: %response_602_q1%

Someone will contact you within two working days.
    1 Because asset IDs are different on each Matrix system, you must replace the 604 and 602 in each response keyword with the corresponding asset ID in your Contact us form.

The new layout of the Contact us page is shown in the figure below.

The new layout of the thank you page

Adding the CAPTCHA fields

To add the CAPTCHA field to the contact us form:

  1. Right-click on the Form contents asset in the asset tree.

  2. Select the Details screen and select Edit.

  3. In the Require CAPTCHA field, select Yes.

  4. In the CAPTCHA key length field, enter 6 to make the CAPCHA display six characters.

  5. In the CAPTCHA character zoom field, enter 3 to make the CAPTCHA characters randomly zoomed between sizes 1 and 3.

  6. Select Save.

  7. Add the CAPTCHA keyword replacement to the Page contents bodycopy, right below the %question_contents% keyword.

    Please complete the form below.

%form_errors%

%section_contents_604%

%question_contents_602_q1%

%form_captcha% (1)

%submit_button% %reset_button%
    1 This keyword adds the CAPTCHA field to the Contact us form.
The CAPTCHA field on the contact us form

Setting up the emails

Recipient email

The recipient email needs to be set up so that an email is sent to the site administrator.

To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Right-click on the Form contents asset in the asset tree.

  2. Select Email options.

  3. Navigate to the Recipient email options section of the screen.

  4. In the To field, enter the email address of the site administrator, for example, admin@example.com.

  5. In the From field, enter the 'from' email address.
    You can use the email address form field keyword replacement in this field (for example, %response_604_q6%). This replacement will use the email address that the user enters on the form.

  6. In the Subject field, enter a subject for the email. For example %response_604_q1% %response_604_q2% has contacted Squiz.

    In this step you are using the user’s responses to the first name and surname form fields in the Subject of the recipient email.

  7. In the body field, the content shown in the figure below is added to the email’s HTML version.

    The body content of the recipient email 
    %response_604_q1% %response_604_q2% has contacted Squiz.

Here are the details of their submission:

Name: %response_604_q1% %response_604_q2%
Address: %response_604_q3%
State: %response_604_q4%
Postcode: %response_604_q5%
Phone: %response_604_q6%
Email: %response_604_q7%
Comments: %response_602_q1%

  8. Select Save to add the recipient email options to the Contact us form.

You can find the keyword replacements for each question (with asset IDs relevant to your Matrix instance) in the Keyword replacements section. Click the list of keywords available for use in emails hyperlink to view all keyword replacements for the form.

Receipt email

The receipt email needs to be set up so that an email is sent to the form user.

To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Right-click on the Form contents asset in the asset tree and select Email options.

  2. Navigate to the Receipt email options section of the screen.

  3. In the Receipt recipient form field field, use the asset picker to select the Email address question.
    This option will send an email to the address that the user enters on the form.

  4. In the From field, enter the 'from' email address, for example, admin@example.com.

  5. In the Subject field, enter a subject for the email; for example: Thank you for contacting Squiz.

  6. In the Body field, the content shown in the figure below is added to the email’s HTML version.

    The body content of the receipt email 
    Dear %response_604_q1%

Outlined below is the information that you have provided to us.

If this is not correct, please contact us to correct your details.

Name: %response_604_q1% %response_604_q2%
Address: %response_604_q3%
State: %response_604_q4%
Postcode: %response_604_q5%
Phone: %response_604_q6%
Email: %response_604_q7%
Comments: %response_602_q1%

  7. Select Save to add the receipt email options to the Contact us form.

You can find the keyword replacements for each question (with asset IDs relevant to your Matrix instance) in the Keyword replacements section. Click the list of keywords available for use in emails hyperlink to view all keyword replacements for the form.

Final steps

Before making the Contact us form live to the public, check the following:

  • The layout of the Page contents is correct.

  • The required form fields are validated, and the error messages appear on the form.

  • That you can fill out and submit the form.

  • The layout of the Thank you layout is correct.

  • The recipient email is sent to the contact within the organization.

  • The receipt email is sent to the user who filled out the form.

  • The submission is logged to the database.

Once you are sure the custom form is working correctly:

  1. Load the Details screen of the Contact us form.

  2. In the Change status field, select Approve and make live.

  3. Click the Cascade status change button.

  4. Select Save to make all assets live.

  5. Check that the Contact us asset has public read permissions, and allow these permissions if not already inherited from your site asset.