Forms

Forms collect the same information the same way every time: a purchase request, an IT intake, a supplier application. You build the questions once, publish the form, and every answer arrives as a submission with its own reference number, such as REQ-42, that you can filter, search and work through. Unlike a chat message or an email, a form decides in advance what has to be answered before anything is accepted.

Where to find it#

Open Forms from the sidebar. The page has three tabs:

• Forms: every form, with its type, number of fields and status.
• Templates: ready-made forms you can start from.
• Requests: a quick view of the requests your forms have produced. The full queue, with filters, is Requests in the sidebar.

Select a form to open its page, where you build, publish and share it and read its submissions.

Key concepts#

Field

One question. It has a key (how the answer is stored, which never changes), a label (what people read, which you can reword at any time), a type and a Required flag.

Page

An optional step in a long form. A form with no pages is a single page. Once a form has pages, every field must belong to one.

Version

Publishing takes a snapshot of the fields. Each answer stays attached to the version it was given on, so later edits never rewrite what someone said.

Submission

One completed form, with a reference number made from the form’s prefix and a counter, such as REQ-42.

Request

What a submission becomes once it enters your intake queue, with a type, priority, status and assignee. See Requests.

Who can use it#

Create a form#

1. Start a new form

   On the Forms tab, select New form, enter a Name and select Create. The form opens as a draft.

2. Or start from a template

   On the Templates tab, select Use template on a template. A new form is created with the template’s fields and opens straight away.

Build the form#

Add fields#

1. Enter a key and label

   Under Fields, enter a Key such as full_name and a Label such as “Full name”. Keys must be unique within the form. Choose the key carefully, because it is what reports, automations and placeholders like {{full_name}} refer to.

2. Choose the type

   Pick a Type (see the field types below). Depending on the type, more boxes appear:

   • Options (comma-separated) for dropdown, radio, status and checklist fields. At least one option is required, or publishing will fail.
   • Minimum and Maximum for a slider. Both are required.
   • Page, if the form has pages. Every field must be on one.

3. Mark it required, if it is

   Tick Required for questions that must be answered.

4. Add it

   Select Add field. The field appears in the list with its type and a Required badge. Select Remove to take a field out.

Split a long form into pages#

Under Pages, enter a Key (letters, digits, hyphens and underscores, such as about_you) and a Title (such as “About you”), then select Add page. Pages are shown as Step 1, Step 2 and so on. Use Up and Down to reorder them and Remove to delete one. Respondents fill the pages in one at a time, and their answers are kept as they move back and forth.

Publish, pause and archive#

A form must be published before it accepts anything. The buttons at the top of the form page change with its status, so only the actions that make sense are offered.

• Publish checks the fields and pages and creates a new version. If something is wrong, such as a choice field with no options or a field not on any page, the message says what.
• Pause stops new submissions without archiving the form. Resume reopens it.
• Archive retires the form. Restore brings it back as a draft, not to the status it had before. Publish it again to reopen it.
• Duplicate creates a copy and opens it.
• Export shows the form’s definition as plain JSON in a “Form definition” dialog, so you can keep or share the structure.

Changing a question after people have answered it is fine: edit the field, then publish again. The new version applies from that moment, and earlier answers keep their original version.

Work through submissions#

1. Find the submission

   In the Submissions section of a form, search by reference (for example REQ-42) or filter by status. Use Previous and Next to page through.

2. Read the answers

   Select a submission to expand it. Each answer is shown with its field label. Answers to questions that no longer exist are shown with their key.

3. Set a status

   With form.manage, choose a new status from the list under the answers.

The person who created a form is notified of each new submission, unless they submitted it themselves, which is what happens when you test your own form.

Field types#

Every answer is checked against its field type when it is submitted.

Good to know#

• Conditional rules (show, hide or require a question, or skip a page based on earlier answers) are checked again by UnitX when a form is submitted, so hiding a question in the browser never makes a required answer optional. Rules can be set up through the API or by importing a form definition; the form page doesn’t have an editor for them yet.
• A page that a rule skipped collects nothing, even if answers are sent for it.
• Submission limits (a total cap, a per-person cap and a deadline) and the reference prefix can be set through the API. When a limit is reached, the form refuses new submissions with its closure message.
• The web app has no screen for members to fill in a form. Members submit through the API or integrations, and people outside your organization use a public link.
• A file question stores the file’s ID; UnitX doesn’t yet check that the ID names a file you uploaded.

Questions#

Related pages#

• Public forms
• Requests
• Automations
• Approvals