Creating Forms

Information on creating forms in Umbraco

Creating forms requires that you know your way around .NET Core MVC. So if you are familiar with adding view models, views and controllers you are ready to make your first form.

You can also use Umbraco forms. It lets you and/or your editors create and handle forms in the backoffice. This includes setting up validation, redirecting and storing and sending form data. Great UI, extendable and supported by Umbraco HQ.

In this example we'll create a basic contact form containing a name, email and message field.

Creating the view model

First, we're going to create the model for the contact form by adding a new class to the /Models folder. If the folder doesn't already exist, create it at the root of your website. Let's call it ContactFormViewModel.cs

namespace MyFirstForm.Models;

public class ContactFormViewModel 
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Email { get; set; }
    public string Message { get; set; }
}

Build your solution after adding the model.

Creating the view

Next, we add the view for the form to the /View/Partials folder. Because we've added the model and built the solution we can add it as a strongly typed view.

Name your view "ContactForm".

The view can be built with standard MVC helpers:

@using MyFirstForm.Controllers
@model MyFirstForm.Models.ContactFormViewModel

@using (Html.BeginUmbracoForm<ContactFormController>(nameof(ContactFormController.Submit)))
{
    <div class="input-group">
        <label asp-for="Name"></label>
        <input asp-for="Name" />
    </div>
    <div>
        <label asp-for="Email"></label>
        <input asp-for="Email" />
    </div>
    <div>
        <label asp-for="Message"></label>
        <textarea asp-for="Message"></textarea>
    </div>
    <br/>
    <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit" />
}

Adding the controller

Finally, we're going to add the controller. Create a new empty class in the /Controllers folder (if the folder doesn't already exist, create it at the root of the website). Name it ContactFormController and make it inherit from SurfaceController. Inheriting from SurfaceController requires that you call its base constructor. If you are using an IDE: Integrated Development Environment, this can be done automatically.

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using MyFirstForm.Models;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Cache;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Logging; 
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Routing;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Services;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Web;
using Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Persistence;
using Umbraco.Cms.Web.Website.Controllers;

namespace MyFirstForm.Controllers;

public class ContactFormController : SurfaceController
{
    public ContactFormController(
        IUmbracoContextAccessor umbracoContextAccessor,
        IUmbracoDatabaseFactory databaseFactory,
        ServiceContext services,
        AppCaches appCaches,
        IProfilingLogger profilingLogger,
        IPublishedUrlProvider publishedUrlProvider) 
        : base(umbracoContextAccessor, databaseFactory, services, appCaches, profilingLogger, publishedUrlProvider)
    {}

    [HttpPost]
    public IActionResult Submit(ContactFormViewModel model)
    {
        if (!ModelState.IsValid)
        {
            return CurrentUmbracoPage();
        }
        
        // Work with form data here

        return RedirectToCurrentUmbracoPage();
    }
}

If the model state is invalid, CurrentUmbracoPage() will send the user back to the form. If valid, you can work with the form data, for example, sending an email to site admin and then RedirectToCurrentUmbracoPage();.

Adding the form to a template

You can add the form to a template by rendering the partial view:

@using MyFirstForm.Models;

@{
    Html.RenderPartial("~/Views/Partials/ContactForm.cshtml", new ContactFormViewModel());
}

Adding the form through the backoffice

To add the form to your site we'll make a macro. This also makes it possible to let editors add the form to a page using the rich text editor.

Creating a macro

Go to the Settings section and right-click the Partial Views Macro Files node. Choose "Create" and select New partial view macro. Name the macro Contact Form.

In the partial view, we're going to render our contact form using the view model we created earlier.

@inherits Umbraco.Cms.Web.Common.Macros.PartialViewMacroPage;

@using MyFirstForm.Models;

@{
    Html.RenderPartial("~/Views/Partials/ContactForm.cshtml", new ContactFormViewModel());
}

Adding the macro

The last thing to do before we can add the form to a page is to allow the Macro in a rich text editor. Expand the Macros node and select the Contact Form Macro. Check the boxes under Editor Settings.

If you don't see your new macro listed, right click Macros and select Reload.

Now you can add the form to a page that has a rich text editor.

More information

• Surface Controllers

• Custom controllers

• Routing