There are two options available for rendering a form.

Rendering Using a View Component

To display a form in your view, you can make a call to a view component. You can use a forms GUID directly or add a form dynamically by referencing a form selected via a Forms Picker.

When selecting a theme, it can be added directly as a string or dynamically by referencing a theme picked via a Theme Picker.

@await Component.InvokeAsync("RenderForm", new { formId = @Model.Form, 
                                                 theme = @Model.Theme,
                                                 includeScripts = false })

@await Component.InvokeAsync("RenderForm", new { formId = Guid.Parse("<form guid>"), 
                                                 theme = "default", 
                                                 includeScripts = false })

Six parameters can be provided:

• formId is the GUID of a form.

• theme is the name of a theme. If not provided, the default theme is used (see Themes).

• includeScripts indicates whether scripts should be rendered with the form (see Rendering Scripts.

• recordId is an optional existing record GUID, used if editing records via the website is enabled in configuration

• redirectToPageId is an optional GUID for a content page that, if provided, is redirected to once the form has been submitted. It will be used in preference to post-submission behavior defined on the form itself.

• additionalData is an optional dictionary of string values. When provided it will be used as a source for "magic string" replacements. The data will be associated with the created record and made available for custom logic or update within workflows.

The following example shows how the additionalData parameter is used:

var additionalData = new Dictionary<string, string> { { "foo", "bar" }, { "buzz", "baz" } };
@await Component.InvokeAsync("RenderForm", new { formId = @Model.Form, theme = @Model.Theme, includeScripts = false, additionalData })

Rendering Using a Tag Helper

If you prefer a tag helper syntax, you can use one that ships with Umbraco Forms.

Firstly, in your _ViewImports.cshtml file, add a reference to the Umbraco Forms tag helpers with:

@addTagHelper *, Umbraco.Forms.Web

Then in your view you can use:

@if (Model.Form.HasValue)
{
    var additionalData = new Dictionary<string, string> { { "foo", "bar" }, { "buzz", "baz" } };
    <umb-forms-render form-id="@Model.FormId.Value" 
                      theme="@Model.FormTheme" 
                      exclude-scripts="true" 
                      additional-data="@additionalData" />
}

Forms output some JavaScript which is by default rendered right below the markup.

In many cases, you might prefer rendering your scripts at the bottom of the page. For example, before the closing </body> tag. This generally improves site performance.

In order to render your scripts where you want, you need to add a snippet to your template. Make sure you add it below your scripts, right before the closing </body> tag.

By default, Forms uses TempData for tracking the forms rendered on a page. The stored values are used when rendering the form scripts and associated data.

The following snippet should be used.

@using Umbraco.Forms.Web.Extensions;

@if (TempData.Get<Guid[]>("UmbracoForms") is Guid[] formIds)
{
    foreach (var formId in formIds)
    {
        @await Component.InvokeAsync("RenderFormScripts", new { formId, theme = "default" })
    }

    TempData.Remove("UmbracoForms");
}

If you have changed the configuration value TrackRenderedFormsStorageMethod to use HttpContext.Items, the snippet is:

@if (Context.Items.TryGetValue("UmbracoForms", out object? formIdsObject) && formIdsObject is IEnumerable<Guid> formIds)
{
    foreach (var formId in formIds)
    {
        @await Component.InvokeAsync("RenderFormScripts", new { formId, theme = "default" })
    }
}

Read more about this configuration option in the configuration article.

If you prefer to use a tag helper, that's an option too.

Firstly, in your _ViewImports.cshtml file, ensure you have a reference to the Umbraco Forms tag helpers with:

@addTagHelper *, Umbraco.Forms.Web

Then instead of reading from TempData and invoking the view component directly, you can use:

<umb-forms-render-scripts theme="default" />

This will use the appropriate storage method that you have configured.

Enabling ExcludeScripts

If you do not want to render the associated scripts with a Form, you need to explicitly say so. You need to make sure ExcludeScripts is checked/enabled, whether you are inserting your Form using a macro or adding it directly in your template.

To enable ExcludeScripts:

• Using the Insert Form with Theme macro:
• While inserting Forms directly in your template:

  Copy

  @await Umbraco.RenderMacroAsync("renderUmbracoForm", new {FormGuid="6c3f053c-1774-43fa-ad95-710a01d9cd12", FormTheme="bootstrap3-horizontal", ExcludeScripts="1"})

Umbraco Forms is a commercial product. You have a 14-day free trial to try out the product. After your trial expires, you'll need to have a valid license to keep using the product on your site.

How does it work?

Licenses are sold per domain and will also work on all subdomains. With every license, you will be able to configure two development/testing domains.

Let's say that you have a license configured for your domain, mysite.com, and you've configured two development domains, devdomain.com and devdomain2.com.

The license will cover the following domains:

• localhost

• *.mysite.com

• www.mysite.com

• mysite.com.local

• devdomain.com

• www.devdomain.com

• devdomain2.com

• www.devdomain2.com

What does a license cover?

There are a few differences as to what the licenses cover:

• A single license covers the installation of Umbraco Forms in 1 production domain, as well as in 2 development domains.

• The production domain includes all subdomains (e.g. *.mysite.com), as well as the .local extension (e.g. mysite.com.local).

• The development domains work with or without the www subdomain.

• The license allows for an unlimited number of forms.

• The license also includes localhost as a valid domain.

Configuring your license

When you've bought a license you need to configure it with your domains. You can either configure your license right away or you can do it later by visiting your account on Umbraco.com.

2. Navigate to the Manage Licenses section.

3. Locate your unconfigured Forms license and choose Configure / Add domain.

4. Define the primary as well as up to two development domains for which the license will be used.

Add additional domains

Once you have a configured Umbraco Forms license, you can add additional domains. This is relevant if you need your forms to be available on multiple public domains.

2. Navigate to the Manage Licenses section.

3. Locate your configured Forms license.

4. Choose Configure / Add domain.

1. Select Click here to buy at the bottom of the configuration page.

2. Configure the additional domain after completing the purchase, or do it later via your account.

Reconfiguration of domains

Installing your license

Once you've configured your license with the correct domains, you are ready to install the license on your Umbraco installation.

1. Download your license from your Umbraco.com account - this will give you a .lic file

2. Place the file in the /umbraco/Licenses directory in your Umbraco installation

The .lic file must be placed in the /umbraco/Licenses directory to be registered by Umbraco Forms. If the file isn't placed correctly, the application will automatically switch to trial mode.

Alternative license location

If you can't include the license file in the /umbraco/Licenses directory for any reason, it is possible to configure an alternative location for the file.

It can be configured in the Umbraco installation's appSettings.json file by adding the following configuration:

The value contains the path of your custom license directory relative to the root of your Umbraco installation.

Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Compliant Environments

The algorithm used to decrypt Forms licenses is not supported on locked down FIPS compliant environments, such as those used in the defense industry.

If you are in this situation and unable to resolve it via configuration of the environment, please reach out to Umbraco support.

We have the possibility of generating and providing Forms licenses using alternate algorithms.

Apply the following configuration with the appropriate algorithm - DES (the default), TripleDES, or AES:

Umbraco Forms is a tool that lets you build forms of all shapes and sizes and put them on your Umbraco websites. Build forms using a long list of elements like multiple choice, dropdowns, text areas and checkboxes. Choose between a series of different workflows and control what happens once a form has been submitted.

Purchase Umbraco Forms or sign up for an Umbraco Cloud project where Umbraco Forms is part of the package.

Quick Links

This documentation platform covers only major versions of the Umbraco Forms since Umbraco 9+. If you are using an older version of Umbraco Forms, you will need to go elsewhere.

The documentation for Umbraco 7 and 8 lives on our.umbraco.com.

Umbraco contains the Forms section, by default. You will see a similar interface, when you click on the Forms section in the Umbraco Backoffice.

Video Tutorial

To install the Umbraco Forms package (Umbraco.Forms), follow these steps:

1. Run the following command on a command prompt of your choice:

   Copy

   dotnet add package Umbraco.Forms

2. Restart the web application using the following command:

   Copy

       dotnet run

Start Building Forms

Once the installation is successful, you will see a similar screen in the Forms section:

Using Forms

For details on using Forms, see the Editor Documentation.

In this article, we'll take a look at the basic steps of creating a Form and adding the Form to your Umbraco site.

Accessing the Forms Section

You can manage the Forms in the Forms section of the Umbraco backoffice. You need to have access to the section in order to see it.

If you do not see the Forms section, you might need to request access from the site Administrator. An Administrator can give permission to view the Forms section. This is done from the Users section of the backoffice.

Creating a Form

To create a Form, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Forms section.

2. Click ... next to the Forms folder.
3. Select Create > New Form.
4. The Form Designer opens in the editor.
5. By default, there is a page, a fieldset, and a container available. The rest of the Form has to be added using the interface.

6. Enter a Name for the Form. Let's call it Our first form.
7. [Optional] Enter the Page Name. We'll call it The first page. Click Add new page at the bottom of the Forms designer to add more pages.
8. [Optional] Enter the Group Name. Click Add new group to add another group.
9. Click the Add Question button to add a new field.
10. The Choose field type dialog opens.
11. Select Short Answer. Enter the following details in the Edit field window:

    Field Name

    Value

    Enter question

    Name

    Enter help text

    Enter your name here

12. In the Sensitive data field, choose if the field stores sensitive data. Once selected, the data from this field will be prevented from being downloaded and viewed by users who do not have permission to do so. Only members of the sensitive data user group will see this option of downloading.

13. Enter a Default Value for the field.

14. Add a Placeholder to make it easier for the user to fill in the Form.

15. Select if the field is Mandatory and customize the message.

16. Add a Validation to the field. There are some predefined validations available but it is possible to add your own custom validation as well.

17. Some form fields allow you to show or hide the label that's associated with the field when it is rendered within the form on the website. The default is always to show the field, but if you prefer to hide it, untick the Show label option.

18. Set Conditions for the field. For more information on Conditions, see the Setting-up conditional logic on fields article.

    Some of the additional settings are dependent on which answer type was chosen. For example, since we selected Short Answer as our answer type we got two additional settings (Default Value and Placeholder).

19. Once the configuration is completed, click Submit. You will see that the field has been added to the Form designer.

To edit a field, click the cog icon next to the field to open the dialog. To copy the field and its properties, click the copy icon. To delete a field or a group, click the Recycle Bin icon.

Structuring the Form

Ordering Fields

Once you've added a few fields to your Form, you might want to change the order of questions. To do so, click Reorder in the top-right corner of the Form designer.

When reordering your Form, you can drag and drop the fields to make it look the way you want. Click I am done reordering to get back to the Form designer.

Form Pages

Forms can be grouped into pages. When rendered, each page will be presented one at a time to the user. They will need to complete the first page before moving onto the second and can navigate back and forth between pages.

To add a new page at the start or end of the form, use the buttons in the top right corner of the editing view.

You can also add a new page directly to the bottom of the form via the Add new page button. This will appear below other pages when at least one exists.

Form Groups

With a page, form fields can be arranged into groups. These will display all together on a single page but can be styled so the fields are appropriately grouped in fieldsets.

New groups are added via the Add new group button.

Form Columns

The last level of structure are columns that can be created within a group. To set the number of columns, click the cog icon next to the Group Name. You can now add or move fields to the new columns created.

Saving the Form

Once have created the Form, save the design by clicking the Save button.

Importing a Form

Import Form Definition allows you to import a form into your Umbraco site using a predefined JSON file. This file contains the form’s structure, fields, validations, workflows, and settings.

When you import a form definition, Umbraco uses the JSON structure to recreate the form as it was defined, enabling you to:

• Reuse existing forms across multiple projects or environments.

• Migrate forms between development, testing, and production environments.

• Restore forms from backups or previously exported definitions.

Using the Import Form Definition option, you can manage your forms without having to recreate them.

Organizing Forms in Folders

If the product installation is set up to store form definitions in the database, you will be able to store forms within folders. This can help with organization and makes it easier to locate the forms for modification, especially if you plan to create many Forms.

To create a folder:

1. Go to the Forms section.

2. Click ... next to Forms folder.

3. Select Create.

4. Select New Folder.
5. Enter a Folder Name.

6. Click Create Folder.

You can create folders within folders, rename, move, import folders, or delete them.

To move or copy forms into folders, click the ... next to the Form and select Move.

Adding the Form to the Umbraco Site

To add the Form, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Content section of the Umbraco Backoffice.

2. Select the content page where you want to insert the Form. The page you choose should have a form picker which you can add in the Settings section under Document Types.
3. Click Choose and select the Form you want to insert. You will be able to select from the full list of forms. If available on your installation, you will also be able to select using a folder based view, which can be quicker to navigate when many forms have been prepared.
4. Click Choose.

5. The Form is inserted on your page. Click Save and publish.

In this article, you will find information about accessing the Form Settings and the options available to customize your Form.

To access the Form Settings:

1. Go to the Forms section.

2. Open a Form you wish to customize.

3. Click Settings in the top-right corner of the screen.

Settings Options

The following options are available in Forms Settings:

Store Records

By default, all submitted records are saved in the database. This option allows you to view and export the saved records from the queries overview. If you do not want to store data (due to policies in your organization), you can uncheck the box.

Disabling this option will prevent database records from being stored, but any file uploads made as part of the form submission will still be retained. If you do not want the files to be stored, ensure that any process or method used to process, move, or copy them to a different location also removes the file.

Captions

Customize the labels of the Submit, Next, and Previous buttons used in your Form.

Styling

Set a stylesheet to give your Form custom styling. You have an option to disable the default styling. Enabling the Disable default stylesheet option will prevent a default stylesheet to be added to the pages where the Form is placed.

Validation

Define a message that is displayed when a field is mandatory, when a value is not supplied, or when the value is invalid.

The following Validations are available:

Autocomplete

The autocomplete setting for the overall form can be changed from the default of "None" to "On" or "Off". Setting this explicitly will control how the browser offers automatic prompts to the user when completing the form.

Multi-page forms

The settings available in this section allow you to customize how multi-page forms are presented to site visitors.

Moderation

Enabling this feature allows the moderator to manage the approval status of a form. This can be used in a number of scenarios. For example, if the form submission will be publicly shown, you can control which are published.

Fields Displayed

By default, a constant set of fields are displayed when form entries are shown in a list. You will see the first three fields in the form, plus some system information like the record state and the date it was created.

To customize this, turn off the "Display default fields" option and select the ones you wish to display.

Data Retentions

To help protect site visitor privacy, rules can be configured in this section for the automatic deletion of submissions. You can set how long to retain records for each state (submitted, approved or rejected).

A background service that carries out the actual removal of records needs to be enabled in configuration. If that is not running, a notification will be displayed.

This article shows how to manually upgrade Umbraco Forms to run the latest version.

When upgrading Umbraco Forms, be sure to also consult the version specific upgrade notes to learn about potential breaking changes and common pitfalls.

Get the latest version of Umbraco Forms

To get the latest version of Umbraco Forms, you can upgrade using:

• NuGet

• Visual Studio

NuGet

• NuGet installs the latest version of the package when you use the dotnet add package Umbraco.Forms command unless you specify a package version: dotnet add package Umbraco.Forms --version <VERSION>

• After you have added a package reference to your project by executing the dotnet add package Umbraco.Forms command in the directory that contains your project file, run dotnet restore to install the package.

Visual Studio

1. Go to Tools -> NuGet Package Manager -> Manage NuGet Packages for Solution... in Visual Studio, to upgrade your Forms:

2. Select Umbraco.Forms.

3. Select the latest version from the Version drop-down and click Install.

1. When the command completes, open the .csproj file to make sure the package reference is updated:

<ItemGroup>
  <PackageReference Include="Umbraco.Forms" Version="xx.x.x" />
</ItemGroup>

In this article, you will find information about accessing the Forms Advanced Options and the features available to customize your Form.

To access the Form Advanced Options:

1. Navigate to the Forms section.

2. Open a Form you wish to customize.

3. Click Advanced in the top-right corner of the screen.

Validation Rules

When creating forms you can add validation to individual fields, making them mandatory or applying a regular expression pattern. You can provide validation rules for the entire form via the advanced options. This allows you to validate expressions based on multiple fields. For example, "these two email fields should be the same", or "this date should be after this other one".

To add new rules, you need to provide the rule definition, an error message and select a field to which the message will be associated. Once created you can click to edit or delete them from the list.

Crafting the rule definition itself requires use of JSON logic along with placeholders for the field or fields that are being validated.

Examples

One example use case would be ensuring that two fields match each other, perhaps when asking for a user's email address. Given two fields on the form, one with the alias of email and the other compareEmail, the rule would be:

{
  "==": [
    "{email}",
    "{compareEmail}"
  ]
}

A slightly more complex example could be with two dates, where, if provided, you want to ensure the second date is later than the first. So given fields with aliases of startDate and endDate a rule would look like this:

{
  "or": [
    {
      "==": [
        "{startDate}",
        ""
      ]
    },
    {
      "==": [
        "{endDate}",
        ""
      ]
    },
    {
      ">": [
        "{endDate}",
        "{startDate}"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Rules can be nested too. In this final illustrative example, we have two fields. One with the alias choose is a drop-down list with two values: A and B. The second field with alias test we want to be completed only if the user selects B. So we create a rule that is valid only if A is selected OR B is selected AND test is completed.

{
  "or": [
    {
      "==": [
        "{choose}",
        "A"
      ]
    },
    {
      "and": [
        {
          "==": [
            "{choose}",
            "B"
          ]
        },
        {
          "!=": [
            "{test}",
            ""
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Overall, you can create rules of varying complexity, using comparisons between fields and static values.

When the form is rendered, these validation rules will be applied on both the client and server-side. In this way, you can ensure the submission is only accepted if it meets the requirements.

You can view the System information of the form in the Info tab.

To access the Form Information:

1. Go to the Forms section.

2. Open a Form you wish to customize.

3. Click Info in the top-right corner of the screen.

General

The "General" panel displays system information about the form. The date the form was created and last updated are shown. Also available are the integer and GUID identifiers that are useful when referring to the form in code.

References

Information about which pages a form is hosted on is tracked by Umbraco every time a content item is saved.

The list of pages where the form is hosted is shown in this section.

Umbraco Forms comes with a bunch of default Field Types also known as Answer Types. You can choose from different field types when adding new fields to your Forms.

By default, the following Field Types are available:

• Short Answer: A textbox allows up to 250 characters.
• Long Answer: A bigger text field that allows multiline text and more than 250 characters.
• Date: Displays a picker that allows the user to select a date.
• Checkbox: Displays a single checkbox that can be checked or not.
• File Upload: Allows user to select and upload a local file.
• Password: Allows to type a password. The input is not visible when typing.
• Multiple Choice: Displays a list of items with a checkbox for each item where the user can select multiple options.
• Data Consent: A field for the purpose of asking for data consent. By default, this field is added to all new Forms.
• Dropdown: Displays a list of items in a drop down box where the user can select a single option.
• Single Choice: Displays a list of items with a radio button for each item where the user can select a single option.
• Title and Description: Displays a read-only title and description for a set of form fields.
• Rich Text: Displays read-only formatted text that can be used to provide additional information and links within a form.
• Hidden: A hidden field allows developers to include data that cannot be seen or modified by users when a Form is submitted.
• Recaptcha V2: The field displays a single checkbox for the user to select in order to validate the Form.
• Recaptcha V3 with Score: This field returns a score for each request without user interaction. The score is based on user interactions with the site and enables you to take an appropriate action for your site based on the score.

The date picker uses a front-end library called Pikaday to display a UI to pick dates.

Pikaday date picker can be localized based on the page the Form is rendered on.

The date picker displays the picked date in the required locale. Using JavaScript, a hidden field is updated with a standard date format to send to the server for storing record submissions. This avoids the locale mixing up the dates.

To achieve localized date, a Razor partial view is included at /Views/Partials/Forms/Themes/default/DatePicker.cshtml.

The DatePicker.cshtml includes the moment-with-locales.min.js library to help with the date locale formatting and the appropriate changes to Pikaday to support the locales. If you wish to use a different DatePicker component, edit the DatePicker.cshtml file as per your needs.

Configure the date picker

The Date picker has configuration settings to control the number of years shown in the picker and the date format.

There are multiple built-in Workflow Types that can be used to extend the functionality of your form. Do you want to post the submitted form as XML, send the data as an email, or send a notification through another messaging system? These are a few of the options you can choose when working with Umbraco Forms.

Video Tutorial

Change Record State

Used to automatically Approve Record, Reject Record or Delete Record once it is submitted. Configure words that you want to match and select whether these words should trigger an approval or deletion of the record.

Post as XML

Used to post the Form as an XML to a specified URL. The following configuration can be set:

• Workflow Name

• URL (required)

• Method

• XsltFile - used to transform the XML

• Headers - map the needed files

• User

• Password

Save as an XML file

Saves the result of the Form as an XML file by using XSLT. The following configuration can be set:

• Workflow Name

• Path (required) - where to save the XML file

• File extension (required)

• XsltFile - used to transform the XML

The path needs to point to a folder, not a file name. The files are then stored locally, and relative paths are resolved to the content root.

Save as Umbraco Content Node

Saves a submitted Form as a new content node. You need to choose a Document type and match the fields in the Form with the properties on the selected Document Type.

You can also choose to set a static value to fill in the properties:

In the example above, a Document Type called Blogpost is selected for creating the new Content node.

The value from the Name field will be added as the Node Name property in the new Content node. The value from the Email field will be used as the Content property.

The following configuration can be set:

• Workflow Name

• Publish - choose whether to publish the node on submission

• Where to save - choose a section in the content tree where this new node should be added

Send Email

Sends the result of the Form to the specified email address. The following configuration can be set:

• Workflow Name

• Message (required)

• Attachment - specify whether file uploads should be attached to the email

• Recipient Email (required)

• CC Email

• BCC Email

• SenderEmail

• Reply To Email

• Subject of the email (required)

For fields that accept multiple email addresses (Recipient Email, CC Email, BCC Email), you can separate addresses using semicolons (';') or commas (','). For example:

person@umbraco.dk; person@umbraco.com, person@umbraco.de

If the Sender Email field is not populated, the address used will be read from CMS configuration.

The Content Settings value configured at Umbraco:CMS:Content:Notifications:Email will be used if provided.

    "Umbraco": {
         "CMS": {
            "Content": {
                "Notifications": {
                    "Email": "person@umbraco.dk"
                }
            }
        }
    }

If that is not set, the Global Settings value configured at Umbraco:CMS:Global:Smtp will be used.

    "Umbraco": {
         "CMS": {
            "Global": {
                "Smtp": {
                    "From": "person@umbraco.dk"
                }
            }
        }
    }

The fallback behavior also applies to the other email workflows.

Send Email with Template (Razor)

Uses a template to send the results of the Form to a specified email address.

You can create your own custom Razor templates to be used to send out emails upon Forms submission. Read more about how to create these templates in the Email Templates article.

The following configuration can be set:

• Workflow Name

• Email Template (required) - specify which template you want to use

• Header text - formatted text that will be rendered above the form entry details

• Footer text - formatted text that will be rendered below the form entry details

• Attachments - specify whether file uploads should be attached to the email

• Recipient Email (required)

• CC Email

• BCC Email

• SenderEmail

• Reply To Email

• Subject of the email (required)

Send Form to URL

Sends the Form to a URL either as a HTTP POST or GET. The following configuration can be set:

• Workflow Name

• URL (required)

• Method (required) - POST, GET, PUT or DELETE

• Standard Fields - optionally include and map standard form information such as name and page URL

• Fields - map the needed fields

• User

• Password

When mapping fields, if any are selected, only those chosen will be sent in the request to the configured URL. If no fields are mapped, all will be sent.

The receiving endpoint extracts form fields and values using GET for querystrings and POST for form collections.

As an illustrative example, the following code can be used to write the posted form information to a text file:

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;
using System.IO;

namespace RequestSaver.Controllers
{
    [ApiController]
    [Route("[controller]")]
    public class SaveRequestController : ControllerBase
    {
        private const string _filePath = "c:\\temp\\request-save.txt";

        private readonly ILogger<SaveRequestController> _logger;

        public SaveRequestController(ILogger<SaveRequestController> logger)
        {
            _logger = logger;
        }

        [HttpPost]
        public string Save()
        {
            using (StreamWriter outputFile = new StreamWriter(_filePath))
            {
                foreach (var key in Request.Form.Keys)
                {
                    outputFile.WriteLine($"{key}: {(Request.Form[key])}");
                }
            }

            return "Done";
        }
    }
}

Send XSLT Transformed Email

Sends the result of the Form to an email address with full control over the email contents by providing an xslt file. The following configuration can be set:

• Workflow Name

• XSLT File - specify which file should be used to transform the content

• Recipient Email (required)

• CC Email

• BCC Email

• SenderEmail

• Reply To Email

• Subject of the email (required)

Slack

Allows to post the Form data to a specific channel on Slack. The following configuration can be set:

• Workflow Name

• Webhook URL (required)

Prevalue sources are a way to pre-define and/or retrieve a list of items from a certain source. They can be added in any field types that include some kind of list like Dropdown and Multiple/Single Choice lists.

Setting up a Prevalue Source

Prevalue sources can be managed in the Prevalue sources folder available in the Forms section.

To set a prevalue source:

1. Go to the Forms section.

2. Click ... next to the Prevalue Sources folder.

3. Click Create.

4. The Choose prevalue source type pane opens in the right-side of the editor.

5. Select the type of prevalue source. For more information on the different default types, see the Overview of the Prevalue Source Types article.

Configuring the Prevalue Source

Depending on the prevalue source type you choose, you'll need to provide some additional settings. For this article, we will select Get values from textfile.

2. Enter a Name for the prevalue source type. Let's call it My Prevalue Source.

3. Now, create a file containing the list to use as prevalues. For example: a .txt file containing the following values:

   Copy

   example value 1
   example value 2
   example value 3
   example value 4
   example value 5

4. Select Click to upload in the Text File.

5. Choose the text file you created. Click Open.

6. Select your preferred Cache option for caching the list of prevalues when rendering in a form.

7. Click Save.

If you would like to have different values presented to your users from the value stored, you can provide two values per line, separated with a vertical bar (|), e.g.:

1|example value 1
2|example value 2
3|example value 3
4|example value 4
5|example value 5

In this case the user would pick from a list showing the captions, but the single integer values would be stored with the record.

This can be useful if the recorded entries are used in any subsequent workflows or business processes, where particular values, that aren't appropriate for the user to select from, are required.

Defining Cache Options for the Prevalue Source

Sometimes retrieving the list of options for a prevalue source can be an expensive operation. If the source depends on data from external systems, it could be that the list changes regularly or rarely.

Given the variation here, we allow you to select an appropriate level of caching for the list of options.

You can choose between:

• No Caching - no caching will be applied and the list of options will be retrieved from source on every request. You will likely only want to choose this option if the information changes frequently and it's important that the latest is presented to website visitors.

• Cache For Specified Time - the list will be cached for the period of time provided.

• Cache With No Expiry - the list will be cached on first request and not retrieved again until either the prevalue source is edited or the website is restarted. This ismost appropriate to use for information held within the prevalue source data itself (such as when uploading a text file).

Attaching a Prevalue Source to a Field

Once a prevalue source has been created, it can be used while building Forms in the Forms designer.

Example: Let's add a Multiple Choice field type in our Form.

If there is at least one prevalue source defined in the project, the Prevalues source will contain a dropdown from where you can choose the predefined value.

Once you have selected the prevalue source, the values are rendered in the Forms designer from the attached source.

There are some default prevalue source types that can be used. In this article, we will give a quick overview of them:

Get values from textfile

Upload a textfile that contains the prevalues. Each prevalue should have its own line in the file. Once the file has been uploaded, you can find it in ~/wwwroot/App_Data/UmbracoForms/Data/PreValueTextFiles/{GUID} where the {GUID}is replaced with the pre-value ID.

Umbraco Documents

Allows to use content nodes from a specific source as prevalues. You can apply the following settings in the Details section:

• Select which Value field should be used for the value of the prevalue.

• You can define the root node by either

  • Choosing a node directly from the Content tree or

  • Using XPath

• Enable Use current page as root instead of choosing a specific root node. The preview is not available when this setting is enabled.

• Select a specific Document type, if the selected root node contains a different Document Type.

• Enable List all Descendants of the selected root node to list all levels of descendants.

• Select Order by from the drop-down list to display how the prevalue list should be ordered.

• Select your preferred Cache option for caching the list of prevalues when rendering in a form.

SQL Database

You can provide the following details in the Details section:

Connect to a OleDB compatible database table and construct a prevalue source from it. Once selected, it will be editable from the Forms interface.

The following configurations need to be set in the Details section:

• Connection string (either choose one from your web.config or add another from a textfield).

• Connection String from configuration

• Table Name

• Key Column

• Value Column

• Caption Column

• Select your preferred Cache option for caching the list of prevalues when rendering in a form.

Umbraco Data Type Prevalues

Choose an Umbraco Data Type to use its configured prevalue collection.

In the example below, the prevalue collection from a Data Type called Home - Font - Radio button is used:

We include a Workflow Send email with template (Razor) that allows you to pick a Razor view file that can be used to send out a pretty HTML email for Form submissions.

Creating an Email Template

If you wish to have one or more templates to choose from the Send email with template (Razor), you will need to place all email templates into the ~/Views/Partials/Forms/Emails/ folder.

The Razor view must inherit from FormsHtmlModel:

You now have a model that contains your Form fields which can be used in your email HTML markup, along with the UmbracoHelper methods such as Umbraco.TypedContent and Umbraco.TypedMedia etc.

Below is an example of an email template from the ~/Views/Partials/Forms/Emails/ folder:

Umbraco Forms includes some helper methods that return records of a given Form, which can be used to output records in your templates using razor.

Available Methods

The methods can be found by injecting the Umbraco.Forms.Core.Services.IRecordReaderService interface. For performance reasons, all these methods are paged.

GetApprovedRecordsFromPage

Returns all records with the state set to approved from all Forms on the Umbraco page with the id = pageId .

GetApprovedRecordsFromFormOnPage

Returns all records with the state set to approved from the Form with the id = formId on the Umbraco page with the id = pageId as a PagedResult<Record>.

GetApprovedRecordsFromForm

Returns all records with the state set to approved from the Form with the ID = formId as a PagedResult<Record>.

GetRecordsFromPage

Returns all records from all Forms on the Umbraco page with the id = pageId as a PagedResult<Record>.

GetRecordsFromFormOnPage

Returns all records from the Form with the id = formId on the Umbraco page with the id = pageId as a PagedResult<Record>.

GetRecordsFromForm

Returns all records from the Form with the ID = formId as a PagedResult<Record>.

The returned objects

All of these methods will return an object of type PagedResult<Record> so you can iterate through the Record objects.

The properties available on a Record are:

In order to access custom Form fields, these are available in the RecordFields property. Furthermore there exists an extension method named ValueAsString on Record in Umbraco.Forms.Core.Extensions, such that you can get the value as string given the alias of the field.

This extension method handle multi value fields by comma separating the values. E.g. "A, B, C"

Sample razor script

Sample script that is outputting comments using a Form created with the default comment Form template.

In this section, we have summarized the changes to Umbraco Forms released in each version. Each version is presented with a link to the showing a list of issues resolved in the release. We also link to the individual issues themselves from the detail.

If there are any breaking changes or other issues to be aware of when upgrading they are also noted here.

Release History

This section contains the release notes for Umbraco Forms 15 including all changes for this version.

(December 20th 2024)

• Rendered a hidden submit button on multi-page forms. Ensures that a default button to go forward is used when submitting a form via return key press or a mobile "Go" button .

(December 20th 2024)

• Used the name and description defined on the setting attribute for backoffice labels when no client-side localization is available .

• Resolved minor backoffice issues when creating and saving prevalue and data sources.

• Resolved issue where maximum length check on input field was applied to incorrect field .

(December 17th 2024)

Validation rules across form fields

When creating forms you are able to add validation to individual fields, making them mandatory or applying a regular expression pattern. With the 13.4 release we are looking to make this more powerful, by allowing the addition of validation rules for the entire form. The idea is that this will allow you to validate expressions based on multiple fields. For example, "these two email fields should be the same", or "this date should be after this other one".

Crafting these rules requires use of so is considered a "power user" feature. They also require an additional front-end dependency for the rendering of forms on the website. As such they are surfaced on a new "Advanced" tab and only visible and used if enabled in configuration. We don't have, and it seems difficult to provide, an intuitive user interface for rule creation taking into account all the flexibility available. Nonetheless, having the ability to use more complex validation rules seems a valuable addition.

When the form is rendered, the validation rules will be applied on the client, where we support both the aspnet-client-validation and jquery.validate libraries. They are also verified server-side. In this way you can ensure the submission is only accepted if it meets the requirements.

Feedback on this feature in particular is welcome.

Tracking editor activity

Copy of workflows

File upload validation messages

Other

Other bug fixes included in the release:

• Fixed Forms dashboard form title and icon alignment.

• Fixed issue with creation of folder for forms.

• Rendered file upload previews in the backoffice.

• Fixed issue with saving the "Hide field validation labels" value when editing form settings.

• Fixed issue with selection of Document Type on the "Save as Umbraco node" workflow type.

• Compatibility with Umbraco 15.0.0

• Compatibility with Umbraco 15.0.0-rc4

• Compatibility with Umbraco 15.0.0-rc3

• Preview of features and bug fixes due in 13.3 and 14.2:

  • Added Umbraco Flavoured Markdown component for the rendering of form names within a block list

• Compatibility with Umbraco 15.0.0-rc2

• Preview of features and bug fixes due in 13.3 and 14.2:

  • https://github.com/umbraco/Umbraco.Forms.Issues/issues/1304

  • Improve cross-platform check when exporting to Excel.

• Compatibility with Umbraco 15.0.0-rc1
• Preview of features due in 13.3 and 14.2:

  • Option to display paging details for multi-page forms.

  • Form picker with allowed forms managed via folders.

  • New "form details picker" providing a single property editor for the selection of form, theme, and redirect.

Forms Deploy

This Deploy add-on adds support for transferring, restoring, exporting and importing (including migrating between major versions) of Umbraco Forms data.

• Update Forms and Deploy dependencies to 15.0.0

• Update Forms and Deploy dependencies to 15.0.0-rc4

• Update Forms and Deploy dependencies to 15.0.0-rc3

• Update Forms and Deploy dependencies to 15.0.0-rc2

• Update Forms and Deploy dependencies to 15.0.0-rc1

Legacy release notes

Umbraco Forms supports Themes, allowing forms to be customized in a much simpler manner.

Creating a Theme

To create a theme, you need to create a folder at /Views/Partials/Forms/Themes/. The name of the folder is the name of theme that will be visible in the backoffice when choosing it.

Copy the explicit files you wish to override in your theme, it may be a single file or all files from the default theme folder. Make the necessary changes you desire to CSS class names, markup etc.

Obtaining the Default Theme Files

For Umbraco 9 and previous, it's straightforward to copy the files you need from the default theme folder. We highly recommend that you never customize any files found in the default themes folder. There is a risk that any customizations to these files will be lost with any future upgrades you do to Umbraco Forms.

Umbraco 10+ distributes these files as part of a Razor class library, so you won't find them on disk. Instead you should download the appropriate zip file for your Forms version and extract the ones you need.

You can obtain the latest versions of the default theme for each Forms major version from the following links:

• (for 10.5.5 and above)

• (for 11.1.0 and above)

• (for 12.2.4 and above)

• (for 13.2.2 and above)

• (for 14.1.4 and above)

If you are using a lower minor version of Forms than those listed, you should download an older version of the default theme.

The default theme for minor versions are available from the "Source Code" tab available at the bottom of . Only versions where changes were made are available.

You should use the theme available for the highest version that's less or equal to the version of Forms you have installed.

For example, when using Umbraco Forms 10.4, and no file for that version is available use version 10.3 instead.

Amending Theme Files

If adding or amending client-side scripts, you need to copy the Script.cshtml file from the default themes folder. In your copy, amend the .js references to reference your own script files.

Shipping Themes in a Razor Class Library

Umbraco Forms provides it's built-in themes as part of a Razor Class Library for ease of distribution. This can be useful for custom themes, particularly those used in multiple solutions or released as an Umbraco package.

It is also possible to do this for custom themes.

1. Create a new Razor Class Library project to hold the theme.

2. Create the necessary Partial Views for your theme within Views\Partials\Forms\Themes\<my-custom-theme>.

3. Provide the names of the files in your theme via an implementation of ITheme.

• For example, if only overriding a single file, your class would look like the code snippet below:

1. Register the themes you want to use via a composer:

Your theme will now be available in the Theme Picker and the partial view files will be used when rendering forms.

Email Templates

Email templates provided for the send email workflow can be provided in a Razor Class Library similar to the Theme files.

The partial view will be created in Views\Partials\Forms\Emails.

It's made available via an implementation of IEmailTemplate:

And registered with:

Removing the Default Email Template

If providing custom email templates, you may want to remove the one provided with Forms. You can do that via the same EmailTemplates collection.

Using a Theme

When rendering a form in a view file, you can specify which theme to use with the form.

Theme Fallbacks

When using a theme, Umbraco Forms will try to use a view from the theme folder, but then fallback to the same view in the default theme folder if it can't be found. This allows you to create a theme by only modifying the files necessary to make your customizations.

Files which can be overridden:

• Render.cshtml (overrides the entire form - usually not needed)

• Form.cshtml (overrides the generation of the fields on the current page)

• Script.cshtml (overrides the way files are included with the form)

• /Fieldtypes/FieldType.*.cshtml (overrides a specific view for a field)

Helper Methods

SetFormThemeCssFile

Sets the primary form theme stylesheet path. This overrides an already assigned stylesheet and will be rendered out when inserting the form into the page

AddFormThemeScriptFile

Add a JavaScript file path to include on form render

SetFormFieldClass

Adds a class to the form field HTML element of a given type. If no type is given, it will add the class to all fields

GetFormFieldClass

Retrieves all classes for a given field type, used when rendering form fieldtype partial views

SetFormFieldWrapperClass

Adds a class to the div element wrapping around form fields of a given type. If no type is given, it will add the class to all fields

GetFormFieldWrapperClass

Retrieves all wrapper classes for a given field type, used when rendering form fields. This class wraps both label, help-text and the field itself in the default view

In Umbraco Forms, it is only possible to store Form data in the database.

If you are upgrading to Umbraco 9 or later and using Forms, you should first migrate the Forms to the database using Forms 8. As of Umbraco Forms version 8.5.0 it is possible to persist all Forms data in the Umbraco database. This includes definitions for each Form and their fields, as well as workflow definitions and prevalues.

Enable storing Forms definitions in the database

To persist Umbraco Forms definitions in the database, follow these steps:

1. Upgrade to at least Umbraco Forms version 8.5.2.

2. Open the configuration file App_Plugins\UmbracoForms\UmbracoForms.config.

3. Locate the StoreUmbracoFormsInDb key in the <settings> section, and make sure it has the following value:

4. Save the file.

If you are working with a Umbraco Cloud project, make sure you follow the migration steps outlined in the article.

When you save the file, the site will restart and run a migration step, migrating the files to the Umbraco database.

Migrating Forms in files into a site

You can force Forms to rerun the migration of the file-format Forms if you have a Umbraco 8 site storing Forms in the database.

First of all, you should ensure that you have enabled the setting that persists Forms in the database, as the migration requires this (StoreUmbracoFormsInDb) key. We highly recommend testing this on a local setup before applying it to your live site.

1. Copy over the Forms, workflows, prevaluesources, and datasource files to the site into ~\App_Data\UmbracoForms\Data.

2. Go to the database and find the [umbracoKeyValue] table.

3. Find the Form's row and check that the value is 1d084819-84ba-4ac7-b152-2c3d167d22bc (if not you are not currently working with Forms in the database, changing the setting should be enough).

4. Change that value to {forms-init-complete}.

5. Restart the site.

The site will now try to migrate the Forms files into the database. In the umbracoTraceLog, you can follow the progress. It will throw errors if anything goes wrong. Additionally, it will log out "The Umbraco Forms DB table {TableName} already exists" for the 4 Forms tables before starting the migration.

Umbraco Forms functionality can be extended in different ways. In this section we focus on techniques available to a back-end/C# developer.

For front-end extensions, specifically via theming, see the section.

Developing Custom Providers

Although the Forms package comes with many fields, workflows and other built-in types, you can still create and develop your own if needed.

Many features of Forms use a provider model, which makes it quicker to add new parts to the application.

The model uses the notion that everything must have a type to exist. The type defines the capabilities of the item. For instance a Textfield on a form has a FieldType, this particular field type enables it to render an input field and save text strings. The same goes for workflows, which have a workflow type, datasources which have a datasource type and so on. Using the model you can seamlessly add new types and thereby extend the application.

It is possible to add new Field types, Data Source Types, Prevalue Source Types, Export Types, and Workflow Types.

A field type handles rendering of the UI for a field in a form. It renders a standard ASP.NET Razor partial view and is able to return a list of values when the form is saved.

The concept of provider settings, common to the field and other types, is also discussed in this section.

Data Source Types

A data source type enables Umbraco Forms to connect to a custom source of data. A data source consists of any kind of storage if it is possible to return a list of fields Umbraco Forms can map values to. For example: a Database data source can return a list of columns Forms can send data to. This enables Umbraco Forms to map a form to a data source. A data source type is responsible for connecting Forms to external storage.

A prevalue source type connects to 3rd party storage to retrieve values. These values are used on fields supporting prevalues. The source fetches the collection of values.

A workflow can be executed each time a form changes state (when it is submitted for instance). A workflow is responsible for executing logic which can modify the record or notify 3rd party systems.

Export types are responsible for turning form records into any other data format, which is then returned as a file.

When creating a text field in Umbraco Forms, a validation pattern in the form of a regular expression can be applied. Default patterns can be removed or re-ordered, and custom ones created and added.

Handling Forms Events

Another option for extension via custom code is to hook into one of the many events available.

Form events are raised during the submission life cycle and can be handled for executing custom logic.

When a new form is created, the default behavior is to add a single workflow. This workflow will send a copy of the form to the current backoffice user's email address.

A single "data consent" field will also be added unless it has been disabled via configuration.

It's possible to amend this behavior and change it to fit your needs.

Responding to State Values

In the course of submitting a form, Umbraco Forms will set values in TempData and/or HttpContext.Items, that you can use to customize the website functionality.

Customizing Post-Submission Behavior

Whether displaying a message or redirecting, a developer can customize the page viewed after the form is submitted based on the presence of TempData variables.

One variable with a key of UmbracoFormSubmitted has a value containing the Guid identifier for the submitted form.

A second variable contains the Guid identifier of the record created from the form submission. You can find this using the Forms_Current_Record_id key.

For example, using an injected instance of IHttpContextAccessor:

In this article, you can learn how to add extra functionality to your Form by attaching workflows.

Workflows are a way of defining actions after your Form is submitted like sending an email or creating a content node.

Default Workflow

By default, when a Form is submitted the record data is stored in the database. This can be configured in the of the Forms settings.

The behavior to display a message to the user who submitted the form can be configured by clicking on the built-in first workflow step. This step is labelled Submit message/Go to page, and it can also configure the redirection to another page.

If a value is selected for Go to page, it will be used to redirect to that page once the form has been submitted.

If no value is selected, the message in Message on submit is displayed to the user on the same page, instead of the form fields. This is implemented via a redirect to the current page, ensuring that the form can't be accidentally resubmitted.

By default, the message is created and rendered in plain text. If you need to add formatting to the message, toggle the Format message in rich text button.

Video Tutorial

Adding a Workflow

At the bottom of your Form, a default workflow is already attached to the Form, as well as an option to configure the workflows.

Clicking Configure workflow will give you the option to configure existing workflows, as well as setup new ones.

Choose a Workflow

Update Type-specific Settings

Once the Workflow Type has been selected, you will need to configure the workflow. There are different settings depending on the type that has been selected.

Configuring Condition on a Workflow

You can apply conditions to a workflow that trigger it only under specific circumstances. After adding the desired workflow type (for example, sending an email), you can add a condition to the workflow.

Select Enable conditions to open the condition editor. In the condition editor, you will see options to create logic that determines when the workflow should run. The condition is generally based on the values of the form fields.

For example: You have a form with a dropdown field labeled Preferred Contact Method with options such as Email and Phone. You can set up a workflow that sends an email notification only when the user selects Email.

Now, this email notification will only be sent when the user selects Email as their preferred contact method.

Fill in the rest of the settings and click Submit. The workflow is added to your Form and displayed at the bottom of the page.

Workflow Processing

When a form is submitted, any workflows associated with the "submit" stage of the form will run sequentially in the configured order. The record is stored after these workflows are completed, and as such they can make changes to the information recorded.

Similarly, approval of a form entry, whether automatic or manual, will trigger the execution of the workflows associated with the "approve" stage.

Rejection of an entry will trigger the execution of the workflows associated with the "reject" stage.

If a workflow encounters an unexpected error, it will silently fail from the perspective of the user submitting the form. The exception along with the other details of the failed operation is recorded to the log.

From Umbraco Forms versions 8.13.0 and 10.1, an audit trail has been made available. In the list of entries for a form, a summary is presented that shows how many workflows were executed, and how many were successful:

For each entry, in the backoffice a table can be viewed that shows each of the workflows and the success, or otherwise, of the operation.

For any workflows that did not complete successfully, a "Retry" link is available to trigger the workflow again. This is useful for example if there was a temporary infrastructure issue that perhaps prevented an email going out. You would be able to retrigger the workflow once the issue is resolved.

With Umbraco Forms, it is possible to customize the output markup of a Form, which means you have complete control over what Forms will display.

Customizing the Default Views

The razor macro uses some razor views to output the Form:

• 1 view for each fieldtype

• 1 view for the scripts

• 1 view for the rest of the Form

You can find the default views in the ~\Views\Partials\Forms\Themes\default folder.

To avoid your custom changes to the default views from being overwritten, you need to copy the view you want to customize into your theme folder, e.g. ~\Views\Partials\Forms\Themes\YourTheme, and edit the file in YourTheme folder.

Form.cshtml

This is the main view responsible for rendering the Form markup.

The view is separated into two parts, one is the actual Form and the other will be shown if the Form is submitted.

This view can be customized, if you do so it will be customized for all your Forms.

Script.cshtml

This view renders the JavaScript that will take care of the conditional logic, customization won't be needed here.

FieldType.*.cshtml

The rest of the views start with FieldType, like FieldType.Textfield.cshtml and those will output the fields. There is a view for each default fieldtype like textfield, textarea, checkbox, etc)

Contents of the FieldType.Textfield.cshtml view (from the default theme):

Umbraco Forms uses ASP.NET Unobtrusive Validation which is why you see attributes like data-val and data-val-required.

This can be customized but it's important to keep the ID of the control to @Model.Id since that is used to match the value to the Form field. For fields that are conditionally hidden, without an ID of @Model.Id the control won't be shown when the conditions to show the field are met. An ID needs to be added to text controls such as headings and paragraphs.

The view model for the partial view for a field is FieldViewModel. This defines properties that may be useful when creating new themes or custom fields, some of which are shown in the code samples above. Others include:

• AdditionalSettings - a dictionary of the settings keys and values populated for the form field. These can be retrieved in typed form by key using e.g. Model.GetSettingValue<int>("MaximumLength", 255);.

The following are available on the model but only populated for fields that support file upload:

• AllowAllUploadExtensions- a boolean indicating whether all file extensions are permitted for upload.

• AllowedUploadExtensions- a collection of strings indicating the file extensions that are permitted for upload.

• AllowMultipleFileUploads- a boolean indicating whether selecting multiple files for upload is allowed.

Customizing for a Specific Form

It is also possible to customize the markup for a specific Form.

You will need to create folder using the ID of the Form: ~\Views\Partials\Forms\{FormId} (find the id of the Form in the URL when you are viewing the Form in the backoffice.)

As an example if your Form ID is 0d3e6b2d-db8a-43e5-8f28-36241d712487 then you can overwrite the Form view by adding the Form.cshtml file to the directory. Start by copying the default one and then making your custom changes: ~\Views\Partials\Forms\0d3e6b2d-db8a-43e5-8f28-36241d712487\Form.cshtml.

You can also overwrite views for one or more fieldtypes by adding the views to the Fieldtypes folder: ~\Views\Partials\Forms\0d3e6b2d-db8a-43e5-8f28-36241d712487\Fieldtypes\Fieldtype.Textfield.cshtml.