Launched: Forms

tl;dr - You can now use Coda to make forms! Just type /form to get started in a new doc. :partying_face:
Existing docs will gradually have this feature enabled over the next few days.
Read on for more details & helpful background on how forms work.

Tables can assume many shapes in CodaăƒŒcard views, timelines, calendars, and charts. And now, forms! We’ve applied all of the great feedback from our Beta, and I’m excited to share that all Coda makers can create forms starting today.

Forms are a new way to collect data to be reviewed, analyzed, and managed in Coda. Just like with any table or view, you have the option to view and manage your form in the context of the rest of your doc, and to connect it with other building blocks like buttons, automations, and packs. Or, if you prefer, you can publish your form to a unique URL so that it can be shared with other people who may then complete your form without ever seeing the rest of your doc.

Creating & Editing your form

To build and customize a form, access the ‘Form Options’ menu by either typing /form to create a new form, or by hovering to expose the ‘Options’ menu, and then clicking ‘More’ (next to the Calendar view option) and selecting ‘Form.’

From the ‘Form Options’ Menu, you select ‘Layout’ to open the editing mode for your form. From the Layout Menu, you can take several actions for various components of your form.

Make Form

Form details

Update your form’s title, add a description, and add a cover photo by clicking on the options at the top of your form in the main panel.

Questions & layout

Click on any column “block” to update it.

  • Change the column name to update the name of the column in the results table
  • Add a unique question to show people who fill-out your form a different prompt than the column name. For example, if your table has a column called “Discussion Topics,” you could add a long name so that people who fill-out your form see the question as, “What would you like to discuss?” (If you do not add a long name, the question will display as the column name by default)
  • Add a description or help text for the question
  • Click in the upper right corner of the column block to change the column type. For example, you could change a text column to a select list to display the input options as radio buttons or a drop-down in the form.
  • From the column type menu, you can also open the column options menu, or choose style options for some question types
  • When you click the icon in the upper right corner of the column block, you can also set a question as required.
  • “Grab” the toggle handle on the left of any column block to drag it to a new location in the form and to customize your layout

Form settings

From the layout options panel, you can publish your form (more on this feature below), adjust privacy settings, rearrange and edit columns and their visibility, add new columns, and manage confirmation settings.

Published forms vs. Forms in your document’s context

Forms can “live” in two different environments.

Sometimes, you’ll want a form that your entire team can see, fill-out and manage. You might even want to place the form directly above the results table. This is especially helpful for things like bug trackers or ticketing systems, where everyone with access to the doc should have access to the form and its results for confirmation and collaboration. This is the default mode for forms in Coda.

If you want a traditional form where users only ever see the form itself (and not the results), you’ll want to create a published form. Published forms are assigned a unique URL, and can have cover images and additional privacy settings. For example, if you build a form to gather external user feedback in a doc shared with your entire team, you can make sure all of your teammates are not selectable in a form field built from a people column.

Note that published forms are not considered published docs, and as such, will not show up in Coda’s Doc Gallery. However, if you publish a doc that has a form and/or a results table in its pages, those items will be included in the published doc. When viewers copy the doc, they will get new template versions of the form and/or table, which will not be linked to your form nor its results.

Publishing your form

To publish your form to a unique URL so that it can be shared with people who can complete your form without accessing its results:

  1. Select ‘Published Forms’ from either the Table Options or Form Options menus
  2. Select an existing form or click the ‘+ Create new’ button
  3. From the published form layout menu, click ‘Create link’ under the Sharing section to generate your URL

Publish Form.gif|771.5555555555555x434

You can also hover over a form in your doc and select “Sharing” to access the option to create your unique URL.

Applying your results

At the end of the day, if you can add data in a certain format or style to a table in Coda, you should be able to collect that same data and information via forms. This means you can manage form inputs as you would any other table, so if you want to have multiple views of the same results, you could maintain a base table and copy a chart view of results to another page in your doc. Or cross-doc form input results to share with other teams. Or set-up an automation to notify you on Slack every time a new form response is submitted.

For more details on forms in Coda, please see this set of FAQs in our Help Center.

We can’t wait to see what you build with Coda forms!

66 Likes

This is like Christmas!! Forms and Attachments in the same day!!! :christmas_tree:

20 Likes

Exactly! Codans: how do you do it?

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This is lovely update! Thanks guys! Opens so many doors.

I have a question - how can I combine the two worlds and have a form with pre-filled or dynamically changing information while only some fields are optional to fill in before submission?

Here is a case - I want people to select if they want to adopt a cat or a dog. A cards table with 2 cards - dog image and cat image. I imagine a person clicking on one of the cards and when it opens they select from a dropdown a name of a cat. Images of the specific cat display and when they are happy with the selection, they fill in their name and submit.

Cases like this would be my most needed scenarios for using a form.

Is something like that achievable? :slight_smile:

9 Likes

Lovely. Thanks!

Now, how can I specify which form to use on “add row” buttons? For example, collecting different data when entering a check versus a deposit – both of which are stored in the same transaction table.

Also, not to look the gift horse in the mouth, what with two announcements in one day, but please allow a “page” or “rich text” field type that when lots of data is entered into it, doesn’t make the row 2 miles tall. Thanks!

5 Likes

Here are a few templates that might help you get started with some simple scenarios :slight_smile:

  1. https://coda.io/@heljar/feature-request-form
  2. https://coda.io/@heljar/contact-us-form
  3. https://coda.io/@heljar/job-application-form

Curious to see how else you’re using forms, too! We continue to be inspired by our community.

7 Likes

Awesome!!!

By the way, where’s the Clear Form button? :wink:

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Can we request a form field that allows uploading of files? I need to collect data files from my clients in an organized way.

1 Like

Absolutely fantastic :partying_face: :star_struck: !!!
You are spoiling us :yum: !

Thank you so so so so very much :partying_face: !!!

2 Likes

Uploading docs already works if you include a file field on the form. I guess there is a small bug which makes the filename not show, but the file icon is in the table after uploading a file with a published form.

1 Like

I have been using this for a little while and although it is not the equivalent of a full-scale forms program, it is the quickest way to publish a form. It allows for lookup fields, free text fields, file uploads and you have some freedom in adding text and pictures.
You will receive the response in your table and you can make formulas (like the number of yes or no answers) before or after you publish your doc. For me, it allowed for setting up some ad hoc meeting participation forms in a hurry.
Very nice addition to Coda!

2 Likes

Game changer.

Post must be at least 20 characters long.

3 Likes

Loving forms but have noticed a potential serious issue.

Anyone else notice that when your cursor is still inside of an input field, that field will submit as blank, even if it’s full of text?

Am I doing something wrong here?

UPDATE: this is for public-facing forms! seems to not be an issue for inline forms inside of a doc.

2 Likes

Hi Michael -

Sorry to hear about this. Do you happen to know what browser this is happening on? If possible, do you think you could DM me details about the form (URL) and perhaps share it with support (using the Advanced link in the form sharing details?

Thanks,
alex

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This happens with me as well with a published form using Safari on Mac.

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AHMAZING, thank you!

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Thanks. We were able to reproduce this problem and a fix for this should be going out shortly.

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Hi. Is there any size limit for creating forms?
I have a table with more then 3000 rows and 46 columns. It works just fine for me. I didn’t include a single button column in it to keep it slick.
I’m trying to create a form view of this table but it just doesn’t work.
I’ve had no problem creating forms so far, including in this Doc. Only this one is broken.

Breno

1 Like

Hi there - sorry about that. Can you reach out to support and share the source / form docs with them? They’ll send it over to me.

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You already know how much I love you all Codans, but now with forms, I love you all even more! Glad to see this :slight_smile: - Awesome work in 2020 and cant wait to see what comes out in 2021 (dont tell me this is like 20 days of xmas and there would like this until christmas - but TBH I wouldnt be surprised - I know how hard you all work :)) Happy Holidays!

9 Likes