This article contains information relating to features available in Actionstep's Practice Pro and Practice Pro + Accounting plans.
The Actionstep Webform builder allows you to create webforms which connect your public-facing website with your Actionstep system.
Submitted forms are transmitted directly from your website into a webform data queue that allows you to review the data and decide whether to "junk" the form or use it to populate matter and contact info in Actionstep.
In this article, we will take you through how to create a webform so that it can be placed on your companies website.
Creating a Webform
Go to More > Webforms > Form Manager to see a list of any existing webforms. You nare able tlick on the name of an existing webform to be able to edit it.
To create a new webform, select "New Webforms" in the top right of the screen to launch the form manager.
The form manager is divided into three easy steps which we will review below.
Form Settings
On the first step of the Webform Manager, you will set some of the basics for how the webform will work. This includes the name and what matter type to use.
NOTE You can only create one matter type from one webform that you set up. You can create multiple webforms if you want to be able to create multiple matter types from webforms. |
An explanation of the fields on this page are below.
Form Name | This will be the name of your webform. When users are prompted to process the results of a webform, this name will define the type of webform they are processing. |
Status | In this field, you can indicate whether this form is active. Disabled forms will not receive data submitted from your website. |
Matter Type | Webform data is based on a specific Matter Type. The Matter Type you select will dictate the fields that you have available. This field cannot be changed once saved. |
Success URL | This will be the page of your website that someone submitting a webform will see when their data is successfully submitted. Some web designers choose to display a message letting the submitter know that the information has been successfully submitted and they should expect a prompt response. This page should be created outside of Actionstep and linked to the form using this field. |
Failure URL | This will be the page of your website that someone submitting a webform will see when their data is not successfully submitted. Some web designers choose to display a message letting the submitter know that the information has not been successfully submitted and asking that they try again or attempt to contact the firm in some other manner. This page should be created outside of Actionstep and linked to the form using this field. |
Alert Email | Designate an address at your firm where an alert email will be sent when a webform is submitted. This ensures that you will get notified of each submission even if you are not logged into Actionstep at the time. |
Theme | Choose one of three preset styles for your webform. If you want to further customize the look and feel of your webform you can make changes to the HTML once you extract the HTML block from Actionstep. You may need to work with a web designer to do this. |
Once you have filled in the details you want on this page, click the green Next button at the bottom of the page to progress to the next step where you set the fields in the webform.
Field Settings
On the field setting screen, you can define which fields will be included in your webform and how they will be labelled on the customer-facing form.
The screen is broken down into the left part which defines what field will be in the form and the right which will be the field in your form.
Creating a new field for your webform
There are three types of information that you can capture through an Actionstep webform:
- Participant - Details about the contacts on your matter, such as "Client", or "Benefactor".
- Matter Data - the customized fields that appear on your matters
- Marketing - allowing you to capture how this lead came to you
When creating a new field in your webform you choose firstly, the data source from the three options above. Once you select an option, you will be able to select the field that you can display. For example, if you choose Participant from the Data Source, you will be able to choose which participant type on your matter you want to capture, then the field for that participant type, like the first name or email address.
You can choose to customise the label for the field, give a description to help the person filling out your form understand what they should enter and make it required so they need to fill in the form to save it.
Data Source | The name of the table the data field you are adding to the webform is in. Once a data source is selected you will be prompted for additional details on the field that you would like to include in your form. |
Label | This will be the field label that will appear alongside your field in the webform. |
Description | This field allows you to add a description field which offers anyone submitting the webform more information on what is expected in a field. |
Required | Indicate whether a specific field needs to be populated prior to submitting the webform. |
You can create new fields by clicking the Add Field button in the bottom right of the screen.
Managing the order of your fields
Once you have created one field, you can choose to create a new field that will appear either before or after the existing field. Hover your cursor over the existing field and you will see a plus icon above the field, between it and the field immediately above. Click on the appropriate one to create a new field.
You are also able to drag and drop your fields to change their order.
You can also click on and existing field to change a detail about it.
Generate Form Code
Once you have all the fields then click the box with 3 Generate Code in the top right. You then use this code for your webform on your own website.
*Remember you can test your webforms at any time by using a html editor there are various free html testing sites not the internet.
*Remember that a form can use a URL from your website but may not be linked to your website and you can instead send clients the link to the form in an email template. For example, on the closed step of a matter you could send an auto-email with a link to a webform feedback form suggesting the client fill out a feedback webform on their experience with your firm.