- Examining the Contact Form on the Trial Site
- Accessing Form Data in the Dashboard of the Admin Console
- Understanding Workflows
- Editing Web Forms
- Adding Web Forms to Web Pages in Dreamweaver
- Using the Module Manager to Insert Web Form Module Tags
- Creating Web Forms with the Web Form Builder
- Adding Web Forms to Pages with the 1-Click Insert Menu
- Overview of Working with Web Forms
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Understanding Workflows
Web forms collect the submission data and store it so that the interaction history and customer records are easily retrieved and managed by the business team in the Admin Console. But that isn't all that is happening behind the scenes.
Web forms can be configured to trigger workflows every time the form is submitted. A workflow is a process that you can set up to help automate and streamline business operations. For example, when a form is submitted, your client can receive a notification via e-mail and SMS. Workflows can also be configured as a reminder system with escalation rules to ensure that every case incident is resolved and nothing slips through the cracks.
Workflows are assigned to web forms as they are created. You can see the workflow assigned to the Contact Us form by viewing the form itself. To see the form elements and view the configuration of the form, you'll access the Web Form Builder.
Choose Modules > Web Forms to see the list of existing web forms displayed. Click the Contact Us form link to open the form in the Web Form Builder. Directly below the form's name, use the Click To Edit link to access the Web Form Details window (FIGURE 5.8).
Figure 5.8 Workflows are set in the Web Form Details section of the Web Form Builder.
Review the options in the Use Workflow? menu. You'll see that two pre-created workflow options are available:
- Content Approval Workflow
- Customer Inquiry Workflow
Leave the option set to Customer Inquiry Workflow; this option generates an automatic notification whenever a new form submission is received. Next, you'll take a look at the workflow section of the Admin Console to see how workflows can be configured.
In the Admin menu at the top of the page, choose the option Manage Workflows (FIGURE 5.9).
Figure 5.9 Access the workflow administration area by choosing Manage Workflows.
The two pre-created workflows that are included with the trial site are designed to help the business team approve content and respond to customer inquiries. These are the same options that were available as settings in the Web Form Details.
- The list of workflows is displayed in the Workflows List page (FIGURE 5.10).
Figure 5.10 The two included workflows are displayed as links in the list of workflows.
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Click the Customer Inquiry Workflow link to open the Workflow Details page.
Click Next to access the Workflows configuration page (FIGURE 5.11).
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Figure 5.11 Set up notification steps in the Workflows configuration page.
Notice that the Customer Inquiry workflow currently includes two steps:
- Notify Via SMS
- Notify Via Email
Click on the workflow step Notify Via SMS. The Workflows configuration page includes fields to control several settings, but the most important is the first one: Role Responsible.
The Role Responsible menu is used to define which role (set of users—which may only consist of one person) will receive the notification for the selected workflow step. In this example, the SMS and e-mail notifications are sent to the Administrators role. Because you created the trial site, you are automatically added to the Administrators role.
Since your user account is added to the Administrators role, this means that the Customer Inquiry workflow is currently configured to send you notifications whenever the Contact Us form receives a submission.
NOTE
When you set up user accounts for your clients and enable them to access the Admin Console, you can also create roles and add users to roles. This feature allows you to have unlimited flexibility in defining which person or sets of people receive workflow notifications and have permissions to access specific features within the Admin Console. You'll learn more about this process in Chapter 11, "Upgrading Sites and Managing Domain Names" which is available as a free download from peachpit.com.
If you used a valid e-mail address when you set up the trial site as described in Chapter 1, "Creating Your First Free Trial Site," check your Inbox to see the workflow notification message (FIGURE 5.12).
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Figure 5.12 The workflow generates a notification and the form details are sent in an e-mail message.
Depending on your e-mail client, you may not see the message appear in your Inbox immediately. If you don't see the message, be sure to check your spam folder to see if the message was routed there.
TIP
To receive the SMS notification of the workflow, you must provide a valid cell phone number with text capabilities in your account information. To update the contact data for your user account, choose Home > My Details. Be sure to save the updated account information and then access the live site and submit the form again to trigger the workflow. Use your cell phone to check your text messages to see the SMS notification appear. As of this writing, the standard Pro Partner account includes 10 SMS notifications per month. So you may want to reserve SMS usage for workflows that require immediate attention.