Form actions

Automated. How automated?

Automated actions set to run Always or Conditionally will only run for Auto-linked responses. A response is auto-linked if:

The response is to a form invitation - see the related support article on Sending form invitations
It's a non-invitation response to a public form, and there is a definitive match between the smart-linked response data for Name, Email and Mobile and an existing person in the Address Book or Children module***. If there is no definitive match, the response will fail safe and be set as Unlinked. To increase the chances of a definitive match, we encourage you to have Name, Email and Mobile fields present and smart-linked on your form. For further information, read the related support articles on Smart linking form fields to people's profile fields and How 'person detection' works when a form is submitted.

Actions for Unlinked responses can still be run manually, but a module user must first Link a response to an existing person or add the respondent as a new person to the Address Book or Children module. For further information on response linking and adding new people from a form response, see the related support article: Managing form responses.

***Person detection and auto-linking only apply to responses to forms with a Primary Response Type set to Contacts or Children. Automated person detection for non-invitation responses is not compatible with a form that has a Primary Response Type set to People.

Adding form actions

Actions are defined on the Actions tab on a form View. Click Add action.

The Add action pop-up shows the available actions for the module in which the Form is being viewed. For example, a Form in the Children module will show child actions. The example below is for an Address Book form, so contact actions are shown. Selecting certain actions may reveal further options related to the action.

Next, choose when the action should Run - automatically (always or conditionally) or manually.

Conditional actions Run when any or all conditions are met. Click Add condition.

When adding conditions, select whether the action is conditional on the Person to whom the response is linked or to a response Field on the form:

For example, you might choose to conditionally assign a key date based on their response to a particular field on the form. In the following example, the key date is assigned if the "Hosting" option is selected for a certain Field on the form.

Continue adding further conditions as appropriate. Conditional actions are explored further in the next section. When finished, click Save to add the condition. Continue adding other Actions as needed. Finally, note the Actions to Duplicate, Edit and Delete a form action. Clicking View changes opens a pop-up showing the historical change logs for that action.

Conditional actions

As explained previously in this article, actions can be set to run automatically (always or conditionally) or manually. Automated actions will only run for responses that are auto-linked; however, actions can still be run manually by a module user for responses that are received "Unlinked". Let's consider the behaviour for the four Run options:

Always—the action will run automatically for auto-linked responses; otherwise, it is a suggested (pre-selected) manual action once an unlinked response is linked to a person.
When all conditions are met—the action will run automatically for auto-linked responses where the linked person meets all the conditions; otherwise, it is a suggested (pre-selected) manual action once an unlinked response is linked to a person and if that person meets all of the conditions.
When any conditions are met— the action will run automatically for auto-linked responses where the linked person meets any conditions; otherwise, it is a suggested (pre-selected) manual action once an unlinked response is linked to a person and if that person meets any of the conditions.
Manually— the action can be selected to run, but it is not pre-selected as a suggested action, meaning a user can selectively choose the actions to run for the person on a response-by-response basis.

The example below shows a typical Run actions workflow. Suggested actions are pre-selected, but actions set to run manually are not pre-selected; however, they can be optionally selected and run. Actions can only be run for Active form responses (not Archived responses) that are linked to a contact in the Address Book or a child in the Children module.

System-imposed conditions

The following system-imposed conditions must be met for certain actions to run:

Archive Person - a person must be active
Send Preset Email - a person must have an email address
Send Preset SMS - a person must have a mobile number
Add Key Date/Add Tag/Add to Flow/Remove Tag - Address Book - a person must be an active contact
Add Key Date/Add Tag/Add to Flow/Remove Tag - Children - a person must be an active child
Add to Flow - Address Book - the person must be an active contact and not already be in the flow
Add to Flow - Children - the person must be an active child and not already be in the flow
Move to Flow Stage - Address Book - the person must be an active contact already in the flow
Move to Flow Stage - Children - the person must be an active child already in the flow

System-imposed Conditions are shown in italics when viewing the Actions tab. In the following example, the action will only run if action conditions are met AND the person is a contact in the Address Book (the system condition).

Making changes to fields linked to action conditions

It is entirely possible to make certain changes to the fields on a form; however, care should be taken as some changes may cause breaking changes to the form's actions.

Deleting a field from a form (or deleting a field option) - If a field or a field option is deleted, any conditions that relate to the deleted field or option will be removed. If there are no remaining conditions for an action, the action's Run settings are changed from conditional to Manually.

Archiving a field option - When a field option is Archived, respondents will no longer see that option when completing the form. Similarly, module users cannot add new conditional form actions referencing an archived field option. Any pre-existing actions conditional on an archived field option will no longer be suggested or pre-selected, and a warning will be shown on the "Run actions" pop-up to alert the user that the option linked to the conditional action has been archived.

Running actions manually

Actions can only be run for linked responses. Actions can be set to run automatically (always or conditionally, for auto-linked responses only) or manually.

To manually run one or more actions for any linked response, and working from the Responses tab, select Run Actions:

Run actions are also accessible on the response View pop-up when viewing a linked response pop-up:

Clicking 'Run Actions' opens a pop-up showing Suggested actions to run based on the person, their form response, and the action conditions defined for the form, including any system-imposed conditions that have been met. Suggested actions are pre-selected, but any action, including conditional actions that the person may not meet, can be selected or deselected. System-imposed conditions (explained earlier) must always be met for any action to be run; otherwise, the action is disabled in the list and cannot be selected or run. Action conditions are displayed with green text to indicate that the conditions are met, and the action can be run if selected. Actions shown in strikethrough suggest that the action conditions have not been met and can be run if selected.

Any actions previously run are highlighted. Click History to view the action tracking data. Previously run actions are shown unselected but can be reselected and run again without constraint if you wish.

Top Tip! Get your actions in order!

The order of actions is important. Actions are run in the order shown on the Actions tab. For example, if you want to send respondents an email and then archive them, the Send Preset Email action must be ordered before the Archive action; otherwise, the email action will fail because you cannot send emails to archived people. Click on any Order control to change the action order.

Click Save to run the selected actions.