Smart linking form fields to people's profile fields

Introduction to smart links

While the fields on a form typically collect isolated data, smart links allow you to map the fields on a form to the appropriate fields on a person's profile. For example, you can link an Email field on a form to the contact Email field in the Address Book. Smart linked fields have several advantages:

• Invited respondents will see their existing smart-linked details pre-populated in their form, making completion of your form a simpler experience.
• For a public form being completed by a non-invited respondent, smart-linked field responses can be used to:
  • Update a linked person's existing details or
  • Add new people to your Address Book or Children module using the smart-linked response data.

Consider the following Public form example:

• Form 1 is created using only standard fields with no smart link fields. It includes fields for First & Last Name, Email, Mobile and Address
• Form 2 is created using smart linked fields for First & Last Name, Email, Mobile and Address.

Both forms collect the same data, but each behaves differently, as follows:

• Anyone using the public form page URL to complete the form will see no visual difference between Form 1 and Form 2 - the form will show empty, ready to be completed by the respondent. However, unlike Form 1, Form 2 responses can be used to update a person's existing details when the response is later linked to a person in ChurchSuite or to add a new person using the smart-linked response data.
• Invitees to Form 1 would also see an empty form with no pre-filled data because there are no smart links.
• Invitees to Form 2 will see their smart-linked personal details pre-populated into their form. They can make changes to the data or leave the pre-filled details as they are.
• If the fields on Form 1 are subsequently edited and smart links are added, Form 1 will then behave like Form 2, and new and existing invitees who have not previously responded will now see their smart-linked personal details pre-filled in the form.
• In the same way, subsequently editing Form 2 to remove the smart links would prevent previously smart-linked personal details from being pre-filled in the form for those invitees who have not yet responded.

How to smart link fields on a form

Smart links are established when adding or editing items on a form. When a Standard field is added to a form, no smart linking is assumed. The linking options available will depend on the field type and the form's Primary Response Type. Where the primary response type is Contacts, the smart linking options are contacts fields, and where the primary response type is Children, the smart linking options are child fields and parent/carer fields. For example, a Name field could be smart-linked to the Child Name field or the Parent/Carer Name field.

When a Person field, Contact field, Child field or Custom field is added to a form, the appropriate smart link is pre-selected, and the field Name defaults to the smart-linked field name, but you can customise the field Name if you wish. You can also add Help text to give further instructions for those who will be completing your form.

Standard fields often have more than one smart linking option, or you can choose not to smart link a field if you wish.

Most fields can only be added to a form once. Validation prevents the addition of more than one instance of the same smart-linked standard field. For example, you can only add one smart-linked Mobile field for an Address Book form because Address Book contacts only have one Mobile field on their profile. Used smart-linked fields are disabled in the list on the left to prevent re-use.

Finally, smart linked fields are distinguished with a link icon: