Web forms: turn enquiries into records

A web form turns each enquiry into a record in Mesy. A record is one entry, such as one customer or one deal. The form can be a page Mesy hosts for you, a Google Form or your website’s own form.

The quickest way is a page Mesy hosts. Add a form, tick one box, then share the link or put the page on your website.

Each time someone sends the form, Mesy calls it a submission.

Managers and admins add and change web forms. Members can see the forms and their recent submissions.

Web forms are on the Marketing page. It shows in the sidebar only when your admin has set up a list for campaigns. See The Marketing page.

Add a web form

Each question on the form fills one field on a record. A field is one piece of information on a record, such as a phone number.

Each question also has a name, such as parent_name. Visitors to a Mesy page see the field’s name, not this one. If you use a Google Form or your website’s own form, use the same names that form uses. Not sure of the names? Ask whoever built your form.

To add a form:

1. Open Marketing in the sidebar.
2. Under Sources, click Add web form.
3. Type a Name, such as “Programme enquiry”.
4. Under Creates records of type, pick the kind of record each enquiry becomes, such as Contact. Mesy picks the one for people to start with.
5. Under Field mapping, type the name of your first question, such as parent_name.
6. In the box beside it, pick the field the answer fills.
7. Click Add field for each further question.
8. To get a page on Mesy, tick Host a page for this form on Mesy.
9. Click Create form.
10. In the window that says your form is ready, copy the secret. It works like a password for the form.
11. Click Done.

The form now shows as a card under Web forms, with the badge On.

A Mesy page doesn’t need the secret. A Google Form or your website’s form sends it with each submission, so Mesy knows it’s really from you. You can see it again later under Details.

When you add questions:

• Each field can take only one question.
• Fields marked (required) need an answer before Mesy can create a record, so add a question for each one.
• Link fields aren’t in the list. A link field points to another record, such as a deal’s company. To fill one, see Create linked records from one form.
• Changing Creates records of type clears the questions you added.
• A question name can use letters, numbers, spaces and _ . - : / ( ), up to 80 characters.

To change a form later, click Edit on its card.

Let Mesy host the form for you

Mesy can put the form on its own web page, so you don’t need any other form tool. If you didn’t tick the box when you added the form:

1. On the form’s card, click Edit.
2. Tick Host a page for this form on Mesy.
3. Click Save.

The card now shows a Hosted page badge and a Preview button. Preview opens the page in a new tab.

The page shows the form’s name, one question per field and a Send button. Each question shows the field’s name. Required questions have a * beside them. Anyone with the link can fill it in. Mesy screens out spam bots for you.

To share the page, click Details and copy the link under Hosted page.

To put the form on your own website, click Details and look under Embed on your website. Send the first piece of code to whoever runs your website. It puts the form on your page. If your site builder doesn’t accept it, send the second piece of code instead. The form on your website leaves out the form’s name and shows “Powered by Mesy” at the bottom.

After sending, the visitor sees “Thank you.” and “We have received your details and will be in touch.” Below that, the page lists each record the submission created or updated, such as “primary” (the main record) with “contact · created”. If Mesy matched an existing record, it shows “reused and updated” instead of “created”.

Answers from the Mesy page and from your website both show under Recent submissions.

Check recent submissions

1. On the form’s card, click Details.
2. Scroll to Recent submissions.

You now see the latest 50 submissions. Each shows its time, a Created, Updated or Rejected badge and its first few answers. A rejected one shows the reason.

Each submission shows a small label for every record it created or changed, such as primary for the main record. Click a label to open that record.

An updated submission lists what changed, such as “Phone 9123 → 9876”. Blank values show as “empty”. If nothing changed, it reads “Nothing changed: the answers matched the record.”

See when a form updates a record instead of creating one

Mesy checks whether the person is already in Mesy, using the list’s identity fields. Identity fields are fields that should be different on every record, such as email or phone. Your admin chooses them; see Find and merge duplicates.

• If there’s no match, Mesy creates a new record.
• If one record matches, Mesy updates it. Blank answers never erase what the record already holds.
• If more than one record matches, Mesy rejects the submission. Recent submissions shows why.

If the list has no identity fields, every submission creates a new record.

New records belong to the form’s owner, the manager or admin who created the form.

Connect a Google Form

Each question title in your Google Form must match a question name in your Mesy form. If a title has a question mark or an apostrophe, remove it from the title first.

Mesy gives you a short script, a piece of code, to paste into your Google Form. It lists the names it expects.

1. On the form’s card, click Details.
2. Under Secret, click Reveal secret.
3. Under Google Forms, click Show Apps Script.
4. Click Copy script.
5. In your Google Form, open Extensions › Apps Script.
6. Paste the script.
7. Save the script.
8. In Apps Script, open Triggers.
9. Click Add trigger.
10. Under the function to run, choose onFormSubmit.
11. Under the event source, choose From form.
12. Under the event type, choose On form submit.
13. Click Save.
14. Fill in your Google Form once as a test, then check Recent submissions.

Change the secret

1. On the form’s card, click Details.
2. Under Secret, click Rotate.
3. Click Rotate again to confirm.

Forms using the old secret stop working. For a Google Form, copy the script again and paste it in. For your website, send the new secret to whoever runs it.

Set rules for a question

On the form’s card, click Edit. Under Field mapping, click the sliders button beside a question to open its rules:

• Required makes the question compulsory, even when the field is optional. If the record needs the field anyway, the box is already ticked and reads Required by the record.
• Choices gives a fixed list of answers, separated by commas, such as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur. The Mesy page shows them as a drop-down list.
• Allow “Other” with a typed answer adds Other… to that list, with a box for the visitor’s own answer. It works only once Choices has text.

If you set choices without “Other”, Mesy rejects any answer that isn’t on your list.

If the field already has a drop-down list in Mesy, your choices must come from that list. “Other” isn’t allowed there.

Record email consent

A consent box is a tick box where someone agrees to get emails from you.

1. On the form’s card, click Edit.
2. Under Consent boxes, click Add consent box.
3. Type a name for the tick box, such as marketing_consent. If you use a Google Form or your website’s form, use the name that form sends.
4. Leave the channel as Email updates.
5. Click Save.

If the form has a Mesy page, the page now shows a “Keep me updated by email” tick box.

When someone ticks the box, Mesy records them as opted in to email. It keeps the submission as proof. On the Mesy page, leaving the box unticked records nothing.

A Google Form or your website’s form counts as ticked only when it sends “yes”, “y”, “true”, “on”, “checked” or “1”. Any other answer, including a blank, records that the person said no to email. If the form doesn’t send the box at all, Mesy records nothing.

To download everyone who opted in, see Export your audience.

Link a form to a campaign

A campaign is a marketing effort, such as an open day. Linking a form lets the campaign count the deals it brought in. A deal is a sale your team tracks from first contact to done.

1. On the form’s card, find the Feeds row.
2. Click Link one.
3. Pick the campaign.

The card now shows the campaign, with Change and Unlink beside it. You can also set it under Feeds after you click Edit on the form’s card.

When a submission creates a new deal, Mesy fills the deal’s campaign link field with the form’s campaign. Your admin needs to add a link field on deals that points to one campaign. A field that can hold several campaigns doesn’t count. Without the right field, Mesy fills nothing.

Mesy never fills a campaign field that already has a value. If your form creates contacts, add a linked deal so Mesy has a deal to tag. See Create linked records from one form.

Those deals then count in the campaign’s Sourced deals line on the Marketing page. If your business calls deals something else, such as Enquiries, the line uses that name. See The Marketing page.

Start a workflow from a form

A workflow is a rule that does routine work for you, such as creating a task for each new enquiry. To run one for each submission, pick A web form is submitted under When in the workflow builder. See Build a workflow.

Create linked records from one form

One submission can create several records that point to each other. For example, a parent fills in one form, and Mesy creates the parent, a child and an enquiry, all linked. This works when the form’s main record is a person, such as a Contact.

1. On the form’s card, click Edit.
2. Under Linked records, click Add linked record.
3. In the Record key box, type a short name for it, such as child.
4. In the drop-down beside the name (it reads Choose a type), pick the list it goes into.
5. For each field, choose where its value comes from.
6. Click Save.

If the form has a Mesy page, the linked record’s questions now show after the main ones.

Start the name with a lower-case letter, and use only lower-case letters, numbers and underscores. Each name must be different, and primary is taken.

A link field offers Link from this submission or Not supplied. Link from this submission fills it with Primary person (the main record the form creates) or another linked record. Primary person shows only when the link field points to the same list as the form’s main record.

Any other field offers these choices:

• Form question adds a question to the form. Mesy names it for you, such as child_name. You can change the name.
• Configured value fills the same value every time, such as the deal stage “Lead In”.
• Not supplied leaves the field empty.

Each linked record must link to at least one other record from the form. Its required fields each need a question, a fixed value or a link.

A linked question has its own rules: Required answer, a box for choices, and Allow another answer. On the Mesy page, its label starts with the record type, such as “Child: Name”.

A linked deal is always created new. For other linked records, Mesy reuses an existing record only when both of these are true:

• It’s already linked to the same records from this submission.
• It matches on every one of its identity fields.

Otherwise Mesy creates a new one. A list with no identity fields always gets a new record.

Switch off or delete a form

• Click Switch off on the card to stop new submissions at once. The badge changes to Off. Click Switch on to start again.
• Click the bin button on the card, then Delete. Its address stops working, and its Recent submissions list is deleted. Records it created stay.

If something doesn’t work

• An enquiry from your website doesn’t show under Recent submissions. Check that the form’s badge reads On and that your website uses the current secret.
• A submission is rejected with “none of the form’s mapped fields were in the submission”. The names your form sends don’t match your question names.
• A submission is rejected with “this answer is required” or “not one of the offered choices”. The answer broke a rule you set on that question.
• The badge reads Off · owner left, or submissions are rejected with “the form’s owner is no longer an active member”. The person who created the form has left. Add a new form, and give your website its new address and secret.
• The Mesy page says “This form is not available.” Check that the form is switched on and Host a page for this form on Mesy is ticked. If it still fails, ask your admin whether a field the form fills was removed.

On the Mesy page, a required question left blank is marked under it: “This answer is needed.” Other messages show above the form:

• Another broken rule shows the reason.
• If more than one record matches their details, it says Mesy couldn’t match them and asks them to contact you directly.
• If the form can’t take submissions, it says “This form is not accepting submissions.”

For whoever builds your website

Use this if your website already has its own form. You’ll need whoever runs your website to set it up.

Connect your website’s own form

1. On the form’s card, click Details.
2. Under Post address, copy the address.
3. Under Secret, click Reveal secret.
4. Copy the secret.
5. Send the address and the secret to whoever runs your website.
6. When they’re done, send a test enquiry.

Your test submission now shows under Recent submissions.

Your website sends each answer as JSON to the post address, with the secret in the X-Mesy-Form-Secret header. It uses the question names from Mesy.