Form in Coda with 2-way Cross-doc (with some limitations)

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Here’s an implementation of a survey form that’s hosted in a separate doc. It can be filled in play mode (while embedded) without having to sign in to Coda unfortunately no, you must be signed into Coda, but no need to open this doc in a separate tab, copy it, or have editor access I stay corrected once again, this doc must be shared with you as an editor :slightly_frowning_face:. Turns out you cannot trigger cross-doc actions if you’re not an editor. And of course you cannot fill it in View mode.

The setup prevents attackers from reading answers submitted by the others (although for this demo purposes I’m also sharing the “private” doc with you).

Please fill in the survey: don’t bother, the Submit button won’t work

Actually, please do fill it here, but don’t open it in a separate tab. I made this doc editable by all, because editor rights are required to be able to use shared cross-doc account and submit the form to the private doc. But only as long as you’re using this doc in embedplay mode, values you enter and the is submitted flag are not saved.

For implementation details and the “private” doc see here:

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This is a scenario I also looking after as I want a “Play view” doc but then just a submit button which save (in my case) feedback ratings to another doc. That’s just not possible. Generally, despite the recent improvements, access and security is still a big issue for me with Coda. Basically, Coda is good for anything internal but still very far from the app experience.

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Hi @Stefan_Stoyanov,

I think right now your use-case is pretty unique, but that it’s also one that can become more popular as people experiment with it. It is tough to find a permissions setup that will allow for this to work, and we haven’t reached that point of granularity yet, but I’ll keep this in mind when these conversations come up.

Until then, one option might be to use a form that takes URL parameters. Typeform has this feature with their Hidden Fields, it’s a pro feature, but might be worth it if it saves time and headaches. This with Zapier and you could send the info over to Coda. I know it’s not the magic bullet you’re looking for, but an option as our feature set grows.

https://help.typeform.com/hc/en-us/articles/360029114712-How-to-use-Hidden-Fields

I think this might be possible with Google Forms as well, and there are several “How to” posts here about setting up the API to pull in a Google Sheet.

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Hi Ben,

I guess a fill-in form type of content would do the trick too.

Not too unique because all the elearnings require exactly that - (in Coda terms) play mode + some records.

There are so many posts about forms in the community but I guess we all want to avoid third-party options.

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