Form Container Component

Base component for a form (required).

The UBCMS is not an appropriate place for ANY regulated private data, such as bank credit/debit card numbers, government-issued ID numbers, health information or computer passwords.

Planning to store form data?

Delete the default path and click 'OK. A new and correct path will automatically be generated by the UBCMS.

If the default path is not removed, your data will not be stored correctly and will be lost.

On this page:

Last reviewed: December 18, 2024

Do not build forms in shared content

Keep your forms on regular webpages. Building them in shared content can interfere with normal functionality, such as validation.

Note: all form field names must be unique

For example, if you build your form by copying a component (e.g. to add a second Text Field), be sure to change the ID.

Using This Component

This has two segments, Start of Form and End of Form, each represented by a bar, thet bracket the additional form components 

Start of Form has two tabs: Form and Advanced.

End of Form has one, un-named tab.

Click the wrench icon to configure these settings.

Spam Prevention

This component includes an effective method of spam prevention. See the advanced properties.  

CC the Submitter

To automatically send a copy back to the person submitting the form, see Advanced Use.

Technical Restrictions

  1. The UBCMS is not an appropriate place for any regulated private data, such as bank credit/debit card numbers, government-issued ID numbers, health information or computer passwords.
  2. We discourage building forms in shared content -- this practice may interfere with normal functionality, such as validation.
  3. When the form is set to generate an email notification, it is quite strict.
    • Each address field (From, Mailto (To), and each CC and BCC value) require a correctly formatted email address or the form will fail to complete the submission process.
    • Only one email address can be set in each field, with no extra spaces or text.
    • If you wish the output to reach several people, consider using an admin ('exception') account that multiple people can log into, or an email alias that automatically redirects to several people.

Configure - Main Settings

Start of Form: Form Tab

Action Type: Use this dropdown menu to choose how you want the results of the form made available. The options are:

  • Mail Content: Sends the form results in an email to specified recipients.
  • Store Content: Stores the form submission data in the UBCMS. 
    • Form data will be stored in a special location (Storage path).
    • Delete the default path from the box and click 'OK.' A new and correct path will be automatically generated by the UBCMS. (If the default path is not removed, your data will not be stored in the correct place and may be lost.)
    • The results can be viewed later by visiting this URL, or by pressing the View Data... button. *
  • Mail and Store Content: Sends the form results in an email to specified recipients and also stores the results in the UBCMS. See details immediately above.

* Note: Only someone with permissions for your page can view this data (at least Viewership). There is no physical limit to how much data is stored for each form, but the data display will take longer to load as the volume of data grows. There is no way to purge unwanted entries, or old data -- you can change or let the UBCMS reset the storage path, which will hide existing data. For further analysis, or to retain an archival copy, you can copy (select-all) and paste the data into a program like Excel.  

When choosing 'Store Content,' if the default path is used, your data will be hidden and may be lost.

Delete the default path from the box and click 'OK.' A new and correct path will be automatically generated by the UBCMS. 

Be careful changing the storage path for a live form

Once you start storing data, changing the path (e.g. by clearing the field and letting the UBCMS save a new path) will hide your previous data. If this happens to you, contact us--we may be able to retrieve it.

Viewing Form Data

If you are doing more than just browsing the data, we recommend downloading into Excel or even Google Sheets where you can then clean it up. (Select all, copy and paste. Columns will be retained.)

If this is not desirable, please consider getting a Formstack.com account, which provides more advanced features. Read more about Forms in the UBCMS.

Stewardship Tip

You can artificially set a new storage path (e.g. add the year) to break your data up into more manageable segments. For example, change /etc/forms/www/eub/about_ub/contact-us to /etc/forms/www/eub/about_ub/contact-us/2024 and then next year to /etc/forms/www/eub/about_ub/contact-us/2025.  You can even set this in Author to Publish Later on Dec. 31 at midnight. Then you can temporarily switch back and forth to view, and download, sets of submissions.  Changing the path does not impact the live set (or what submitters use) unless you republish the change.

  • Action Configuration: This area will request additional information from you based on which Action Type has been selected, such as email recipients.
    • If you select one of the Mail options,enter:
      • Subject - Required. Type something that will make sense in your Inbox.
      • From - Required. Enter the email address form emails will come from. Usually this is one of your office's admin accounts (not a personal account).
        • This must be a single, valid email address.
        • No other information, such as a name or other characters (including spaces) is permitted.
        • Whenever possible, use a buffalo.edu address, otherwise the email may be flagged as potential spam and end up in the recipient's junk folder.
      • Reply-To - Optional. Enter the email address that will receive any replies to the original email.
        • This must be a single, valid email address.
        • No other information, such as a name or other characters (including spaces) is permitted.
        • To support access by multiple people, consider using an admin account or email alias.
      • Mail to - Required. Enter the email address(es) to receive form submissions.
        • Each row must be a valid email address and a row cannot be empty.
        • Click "+" to add one or more addresses.
        • No other information, such as a name or other characters (including spaces) is permitted.  
      • CC - Optional. Add additional address(es) to be copied on form submissions.
        • Each row must be a valid email address and a row cannot be empty.
        • Click "+" to add one or more addresses.
        • No other information, such as a name or other characters (including spaces) is permitted.
      • BCC - Optional. Add additional address(es) to be blind copied on form submissions.
        • Each row must be a valid email address and a row cannot be empty.
        • Click "+" to add one or more addresses.
        • No other information, such as a name or other characters (including spaces) is permitted.

Use a buffalo.edu email as the From address to avoid the email being flagged as potential spam and landing in the recipient's junk folder.

* For any of the From, Mailto, CC, or BCC fields, you can automatically pull in the address of the submitter -to send them a copy -- see Advanced Use.

If you select a configuration that includes Store, enter:

  • Storage path - A location in the UBCMS where form entries will be saved for future collection through the View Data... button.
    • Delete the default path from the box and click 'OK.' A new and correct path will be automatically generated by the UBCMS. (If the default path is not removed, your data will not be stored in the correct place and may be lost.)
  • View Data... -- Provides access to your stored form data. (Please be warned, this interface is slow.)

Note: this stored data can only be edited by us (CRXDE).

Before using the UBCMS form container to store important data, please consider switching to Formstack.com. It is a much safer and more powerful tool. > read more about advanced use of forms

When choosing 'Store Content,' if the default path is used, your data will be lost.

Delete the default path from the box and click 'OK.' A new and correct path will be automatically generated by the UBCMS. (Do not change this path going forward or data may be lost.)

  • Thank You Message: This text will be displayed on a refreshed view of this same page after the user submits the form.
  • Thank You Page: Instead of a thank you message, enter the path to a UBCMS page where the user will be taken when they submit the form.  (This trumps the Thank You Message option.)

Start of Form: Advanced Tab

  • Form Identifier: This identifies your form in the UBCMS. The default will suffice.
  • Client validation: Select to invoke jave-script client code for form validation. (Not usually needed.)
  • Load path: Set a path to preload form values. (Not usually needed.) Alternately add a User info Loader component and pull in LDAP data for buffalo.edu users.

Spam Prevention

Use these settings to reduce the amount of spam clogging up your email inbox through the use of forms. There is also a reCAPTCHA component that you can add to your forms.

  • Anti-spam: check to activate the hidden field filter.
    • Only a spam bot will attempt to complete the hidden 'spam' field and human submissions will be unaffected.
  • Anti-spam time value: We recommend using 5 (five seconds). 
    • Only spam bots can submit the form in less time than it will take most pages to even load. Five seconds is also the default.

End of Form Settings

For the End of Form box, click Edit to create the buttons that your visitor will use to submit or clear (reset) the form.

You may alternately choose to use the Submit Button component for a customized submit button.

See an Example

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