Creating a web form involves three steps

·       Building the form - Drag and drop fields to build a form and format it easily with the WYSIWYG editor.

·       Specifying the form details - Add details such as form name, landing page URL (where the visitor needs to be redirected after the form is submitted) record assignment rule, notification details, etc.

·       Generating the code for the form - Embed the form using various code formats. Codes for some third-party sites (WordPress, Google Sites, Facebook, and Joomla) are readily available.

You can build web forms to generate records for the Leads, Contacts, Cases and any other Custom modules. While building a web form, the following elements are available in the form:

Generate Web Forms

To generate web forms for Leads, Contacts, and Cases

1.    Go to Setup > Developer Space > Webforms.

2.    In the Web Forms page, choose the Module from the drop-down list.
The existing web forms for the selected module will be listed.

3.    Click Create Web Form.

4.    In the web form builder, do the following:

·       Build a form

a.             Drag and drop the fields that you need in the web form.

b.             Insert captcha.

c.              Add the option to upload files.

d.             Mark fields as mandatory.

e.             Make fields hidden in the form.

f.               Provide hint or help links for fields.

g.             Set font and layout of the form.

h.             Change button names.

·       Specify form details and other options

 .      Add form details such as, form name, landing page URLs, form location URL.

a.    Set record assignment rule.

b.    Set notification options

·       Copy web form code and embed options

 .      Get code to embed in your site and other third-party sites.
The code is available in three different formats - HTML source code, Embed code and iFrame code.

Step 1: Build a Form

Drag & drop fields in the WYSIWYG editor, which also provides various other options to build a form.

Add Fields

Drag & drop the fields you need in the form and change the font style and size, background color, alignment of the fields, etc.

To add fields and set font and layout of the form

1.    Under the Fields List tab, click on a field and drag & drop it in the form builder.

2.    Make changes to the font, background color, field label alignment and form width.

Note

·       By default, some of the fields are already added in the form.

·       For Leads and Contacts - LastName, Email and Phone fields.

·       For Cases - Status, Subject and Description fields.

·       You cannot remove the following fields from the form, as they are mandatory for a record.

·       For Leads and Contacts - Last Name field.

·       For Cases - Subject field.

·       To have custom fields, you need to first create them in the particular module. See Also Custom Fields

·       When you add the Account Name field in the web form for Contacts and contact details are submitted, an account will automatically be created in Zoho CRM. If an account with the same name already exists in your CRM account, an account will not be created when the form details are submitted.

·       An Account will be created, even if certain mandatory field details are not provided. Later, when the account is edited, you need to provide the other mandatory details before saving the record.

Upload Files

Capture files through your web-to-lead/contact/case forms, such as screen shots of an issue, quote requests, photo of individuals, etc. The size of the file should be within 20 MB. If the file size exceeds the limit, the form will not be submitted and the record will not be added in Zoho CRM. This option is available only in the Paid Editions.

To add the option to upload files

1.    Click the Advanced Tools tab.

2.    Drag & drop the File Upload field.
Note that the visitor can upload a file not more than 20 MB. You can use the help link option in the Field Settings to provide this hint.

Insert Captcha

Add captcha to prevent unauthorized automated spamming programs from filling the web form. This option is available only in the Paid Editions.

To insert captcha

1.    Click the Advanced Tools tab.

2.    Drag & drop the Captcha field.

Mark Fields as Mandatory

Collect important information such as name, email address, mobile number, etc. from the visitors who fill up the web form by marking fields as mandatory.

To mark fields as mandatory

1.    Move your mouse pointer to the field that you want to mark as mandatory.

2.    Click on the Settings icon.

3.    In the Field Properties pop-up, select the Mark as required field checkbox.

4.    Click Done.

Mark Fields as Hidden

Add a hidden field and its value in the form. These hidden values are submitted along with the web form but are hidden to the visitors who fill the form. For example, if you have hosted the same form in various web pages, the hidden field will help you identify which record is generated form a web form hosted in a specific web page.

To make fields hidden in the form

1.    Move your mouse pointer to the field that you want to hide in the form.

2.    Click on the Settings icon.

3.    In the Field Properties pop-up, select the Mark as hidden field checkbox.

4.    Specify the value for the field and click Done.

Provide Help Link

A field you provide may require data to be filled in a specific format. For example, the date format may need to be specified in DD-MM-YYYY. For such requirements, you can use the option to add a tip or hint to help the visitor who fills the form.

To provide hint or help links for fields

1.    Move your mouse pointer to the field for which you want to provide hint or help link.

2.    Click on the Settings icon.

3.    In the Field Properties pop-up, select the Include help link checkbox.

4.    Choose one of the following:

·       Link & Text - Specify a text for the link and provide the link URL.

·       LinkOnly - Specify the help/hint text. For example, the date field can have - MM-DD-YYYY

5.    Click Done.

Change Button Name

By default, there are two call to action buttons - Submit and Reset. You can rename these buttons as per your requirements.

To change button names

1.    Move your mouse pointer to the field that you want to rename in the form.

2.    Click on the Settings icon.

3.    In the Field Properties pop-up, modify the field name.
The name of the field will be changed only in the form.

4.    Click Done.

Remove Field from the Form

Easily remove unwanted fields from the web form and add them whenever required.

To remove a field from the form

1.    Move your mouse pointer to the field that you want to remove from the form.

2.    Click on the Delete icon.

Preview the Web Form

Take a look at the web form before publishing it in your web site.

To preview the form

1.    In the form builder, click on the Preview link.
A preview of the form will be available.

Step 2: Specify Form Details

1.    Enter a Form Name (Example: Feedback, Contact Us, etc.).

2.    Specify Form Location URL. This should be the web page where the web form will be hosted. It should start with "http:// or https://". (Example: https://www.zylker.com/contact-us.html)
You can click Add to specify upto 5 location URLs. If you plan to host the web form in more than 5 web pages or you are not sure where the web form will be hosted, enter * in this field. This prevents Spam and allows only forms submitted through the particular domain to be captured as valid information.

3.    Specify a Landing page URL. The visitor who submits the form will be redirected to the URL specified here. It should start with "http:// or https://".
The length of Return URL should not exceed 255 characters. (Example: https://www.zylker.com/thank-you.html)

4.    Choose one of the following options to AssignOwner to the records that are submitted via web form.

·       Choose a User - Select from the drop-down list. All the records generated through the form will be assigned to the selected user.

·       Create or Choose [Module] Assignment rule to assign ownership - Select an existing assignment rule or create a new one. Based on the rule, records will be assigned to the users. With assignment rules you can implement the Round Robin method to assign records to the users. See Also Assignment Rules

5.    Add relevant Tags, if applicable, from the list of existing tags for the module. 
The chosen tag will be added to all of the records captured from the webform. 

6.    Toggle on the Enable Double Opt-in button.
Note that this option can be used only if the primary email field is added to the web form. When web forms with double opt-in is submitted, a confirmation email is sent to the visitor for additional verification.

7.    Enable Notify [Record] Owner, if required and select an email template that will be sent to the record owner. When the Email has to be sent to users in the organization, it is sent as a notification from the email address notifications@zohocrm.com.

8.    Enable AcknowledgeVisitor if you want to send an email to the person who submitted the web form. After you select the mail template, you will be prompted to enter the From and Reply to fields.
Here you can choose one of these option in the drop-down list:

·       your account email address

·       organization email address

·       email address of the record owner

·       other user's email address

·       Using AutoresponseRule - Use one of the existing autoresponse rules. Based on the details gathered using the web form, autoresponse rules can be triggered to send specific emails.
When details gathered through the web form does not satisfy the Auto Response Rule criteria, then the email template selected in the second option will be sent as an acknowledgment email.

·       Default response for all visitors- Choose an email template that will be used to send email to the leads generated via this web form.

9.    Enable VisitorTracking and select the portal from the drop-down list. If you have enabled the feature, this will automatically include the visitor tracking code in your web form's code (applicable only for the Source Code and Embed Code formats).

·       If you choose the iFrame code format in the Embed Options, you have to manually add the visitor tracking code along with the iFrame code in your web page. For the iFrame code format alone, the visitor tracking code is not automatically included along with the code. For the Source code and Embed code formats the visitor tracking code will automatically be included.
To find the Visitor Tracking code to embed, go to Setup > Channels  > Chat and copy the code from the Visitor Tracking page.

·       If you have not enabled the Visitor Tracking feature, you will be asked to create a portal here to start using this feature.

10. Select the RequestApproval checkbox if you want to submit the records for approval. See Also Approve Records
Note that users with the Approve Web-to-Leads/Contacts/Cases permission in the profile can approve the records.

11. Click Save.

Note

·       The RequestApproval option will help you validate the generated records manually, and then add them to the corresponding module in Zoho CRM. If this option is not selected, all the records generated through the web form are added directly to the corresponding modules.

·       If the domain name in the Location URL does not match with the URL where the web form is hosted, then the information will not be captured. Alternatively, you can enter [*] in the landing URL field to capture from other / multiple domains.

Step 3: Use Web Form Code to Embed

The code for the web form is available in 3 formats: Source Code, code to Embed, iFrame code. The code is also readily available for some third-party sites - WordPress, Facebook, Google Sites and Joomla. Please note that the Script and iFrame code is available only in the Paid Editions.

1.    Select Source Code, Embed or the iFrame code from the list as required.

2.    Copy the code and paste it in the website where you want the web form.

3.    Select the Track the records along with Google AdWords information through web forms checkbox, if required.
Copy the tracking code displayed and paste it at the bottom of every page of your website immediately before the </body> tag.
Note that this Google AdWords tracking code appears only if you are a Google Suite user and you have enabled Google AdWords integration.

4.    Click Done.

Note

·       In order to avoid Spam, the generated Web Form (HTML file) must be published in an active web server (Apache, Microsoft, IIS, etc.).

·       The web form will not work if you submit the form values from your desktop.

·       When the HTML code is generated for the web form, certain entities are hidden by default. If you remove those hidden entities, the web form will not work. Here is the code snippet that should not be removed from your web form code:

<input type="hidden" name="xnQsjsdp" value="" /> <input type="hidden" name="xmIwtLD" value="" /> <input type="hidden" name="actionType" value="" /

Enable Double Opt-in

Double opt-in is a process in which users confirm twice that they want to receive communication from you.It helps you get quality leads, and lets you dedicate time and resources on people who want to hear from you. So when you enable the double opt-in mechanism for webforms, customers who submit their information will have to confirm their submission before their data is pushed into Zoho CRM. 

The two steps involved in double opt-in are:

1.    A user fills in the email address and other details and submits the form in your website.

2.    A confirmation email is sent to the email address provided by the user. The user needs to click on the link in the email and confirm.

To enable double opt-in for your web form

1.    Go to Setup > Developer Space > Webforms.

2.    In the Web Forms page, choose the Module from the drop-down list.
The existing web forms for the selected module will be listed.

3.    Click Create Web Form or choose one of the existing web forms.

4.    In the web form builder, edit the form, if required and click NextStep.

5.    In the Form Details popup, toggle on the Enable Double Opt-in button.
Note that this option can be used only if the primary email field is added to the web form. When web forms with double opt-in is submitted, a confirmation email is sent to the visitor for additional verification.

6.    Click Save.

7.    Publish the new web form's code that is generated on your website.