Questions and supported input types
| Type | Input shown to user |
|---|---|
| Text | Single-line text box |
| Email address input | |
| Phone | Phone number input |
| Textarea | Multi-line text box |
| Amount | Currency amount |
| Checkbox | Tick box (yes/no) |
| Dropdown | Select from a list of options |
| Address | Structured address input |
| Date | Date picker |
| Hidden | Not shown to the user |
| Payment | Gift amount and configured Card or Direct Debit payment flow |
| Descriptive text | Paragraphs of explanatory text — collects nothing |
The current builder adds questions from What do you need to know?, rather than offering every underlying input type as a palette. Text, email, phone, dropdown, address, date, message, payment, and consent choices are in the catalogue. Amount, Hidden, and Descriptive text are supported stored field types but are not currently offered as new catalogue entries. Existing fields can still appear when editing an older form.
Where a submission is written
Each question decides where its own answer goes. Anything you add from What do you need to know? arrives already pointed at the right record and field, and you can change it in the question’s Where the answer goes setting. A CRM field can only be fed by one question, so two answers never overwrite each other.
The builder works out what a submission creates from the questions you chose. The After submission pane summarises it under What gets recorded:
- Contact: created, or resolved against an existing contact using the mapped email address. Include an email question when you need email matching. Whichever question feeds the email address is also used to attach the touchpoint, the gift and the organisation link.
- Organisation: resolved or created from the mapped organisation details, with linking through the mapped contact email.
- Touchpoint: when a touchpoint question is included, an inbound “Form Submission”, dated on submission and linked through the contact email.
- Payment: a confirmed card gift creates its payment record using provider-confirmed amounts and dates. Direct Debit starts a sign-up and records its outcome separately; see Submission processing.
- Consent: a decision against each purpose and channel you chose in the Permission pane. A tick records yes; an unticked or omitted checkbox records no for the configured purposes and channels. Choosing to record for everyone records yes without a checkbox.
Submitted answer values are retained on the submission record. Descriptive text submits no value. The summary describes configured actions, not a guarantee that all background processing has already succeeded.
A question with No home yet has nowhere to put its answer, and the form can’t be published until you give it one or remove it.
Notes on specific types
Amount — Displays a currency input. You can optionally configure preset amounts for the user to choose from (e.g. £10, £25, £50).
Dropdown — Needs a list of options. Enter them in the question’s Options setting, one per line.
Hidden — An underlying field type that is not shown to the supporter. The current schema and builder do not provide a fixed/default value setting, so it cannot be used here to silently attach a source or campaign identifier. It is not offered in the question catalogue.
Descriptive text — Shows explanatory prose on the form rather than an input: an introduction, a note about what you do with someone’s details, or a line of guidance between sections. Type the text in the question’s side panel and leave a blank line between paragraphs. It collects no data, never appears in the submission record, and has no destination.
Form name and heading
A form’s name identifies it in the forms list and sets its web address when the form is created. Supporters also see the name as the heading above the fields. Click the name at the top of the builder to change it.
Forms built with the original builder may also have a separate title. Where one exists, supporters see the title as the heading instead of the name.