Field Settings
Overview
Every field on a Wufoo form has multiple properties associated with it. You can view these properties in the form builder by clicking on a field in the form preview on the right side of the page, or clicking the “Field Properties” tab located in the top left.
The field properties pane changes for each field type. For example, a currency field will have a currency type property, which allows you to toggle between dollars, pounds, euros, etc. The currency type property is not available for any other field. Also, once you save a form certain properties will become disabled. For example, you can no long change the field type after the form has been saved.
Finally, should you need assistance when building your form, you can reference this page, or you can click on the (?) located next to each field property. Clicking on the (?) will not cause you to leave the page and lose unsaved information — it will simply pop up a blue box on your screen with the relevant information.
Properties
Field Title. A field’s title is the most direct way of telling your user what kind of data should be entered into a particular field. Field titles are usually just one or two words, but can also be a question. In a Wufoo form, Field Titles are always placed directly above the field.
Field Type. This property determines what kind of data can be collected by your field. In addition to your standard fields, Wufoo provides pre-made structures of the most common data types like addresses and dates. This property can only be changed on newly added fields. After you save an added field to a form, the field type cannot be changed.
Field Size. This property only affects the visual appearance of the field in your form. It does not limit nor increase the amount of data that can be collected by the field. On most fields, this property affects the field’s width. On Paragraph Text fields, the Field Size determines the height of the field.
Required. If you want to make sure that a user fills out a particular field, use the Required validation to have Wufoo check if the field is empty before submitting the entry. A message will be displayed to the user if they have not filled out the field. A red asterisk will appear to the right of the Field Title if the field is required.
No Duplicates. Checking this validation will have Wufoo verify that the information entered into this field is unique and has not been submitted previously. Useful for mailing lists and registration forms, where preventing the users from entering the same information more than once is often needed.
Public Access. Set the field to ‘Public Access’ if you would like the field to be accessible by anyone when the form is made public.
Admin Only. Set the field to ‘Admin Only’ if you would like the field to ONLY be accessible via the Wufoo Admin interface. Fields that are set to ‘Admin Only’ will not be shown to users when the form is made public. Useful for forms that need to collect public submissions but then need to be ranked or added to privately in the Admin interface.
Randomize. Set the field to ‘Static Order’ if you would like the options to always be displayed in the order you have created them in. If you create the options ‘One’ and ‘Two’, in that order, then anyone filling out your form will always see them appear in that order. Set the field to ‘Random Order’ if you would like the options to be shuffled around each time someone views your form.
Currency Format. Change between Dollars, Pounds, Yen, and Euros. The visual appearance of the field will change as well to match the selected currency
Choices. This property shows what predefined options the user can select for that particular field. Use the plus and minus buttons to add and delete choices. Click on the star to make a choice the default selection. Multiple Choice fields will automatically select the first choice as default if none is specified.
Allow Other. For a multiple choice field, you may also allow the user to type in their own choice. Checking this box will add a new choice at the end of your existing choices. This is the label for the alternative text input for your multiple choice field. It allows your user to enter their own value if none of the other choices are appropriate. Note : If this choice is selected, but no value is entered by the user, this label will be submitted instead.
Non Applicable. For a likert field, you can check this option if you would like to add an additional column which allows the users to flag a choice as non applicable.
Hide Numbers. For a likert field, each option may have a numerical label underneath it. These labels represent the score of the option. Checking this box will toggle the labels on and off.
Formatting Options. Certain fields, such as date and phone, allow for different formatting options. Date, for example, allows MM/DD/YYYY or DD/MM/YYYY formatting. Change the format of a field by selecting your desired formatting option.
Predefined Value. By setting this value, the field will be pre-populated with the text you enter when a user comes to visit your form.
Instructions for the User. This is an optional property that displays the text specified to your users while they are filling out that particular field. While the instructions do now show on the Live Preview in the Form Builder, but they do appear off to the right side of the field when the form is published.
Duplicate and Delete
At the bottom of the field property pane, there are two buttons labeled “Duplicate” and “Delete.” Pressing “Duplicate” will create an exact copy of the field directly underneath it. Pressing “Delete” will delete the active field. If the field had been previously saved (meaning data may have been submitted to it) then you will be prompted to confirm the deletion. Otherwise, the field will just be deleted.
Field Position
Each field has a position in the form. You can find out the position of a field by referencing the number located in the top right corner of the field properties. In the screenshot at the top of this page you will see a “1.” That means that field is located at position 1, or in other words it is the very first field of the form. You do have the ability to reorder fields, and when doing so this number will update to reflect the new position. To learn more about reordering, please read the form builder documentation.
Admin Only Fields
Admin only fields are used when you would like a field on your form that only you, the Wufoo admin, can see. This means that the field will not appear on the form when the form is viewed through the public URL. The field will only appear when the form is viewed from the Entry Manager. Here are a couple of examples in which an admin only field may be useful:
You are holding a conference, and each applicant requires manual approval. You would make a registration form with Wufoo with the typical information (name, email, etc) and then you would also add an admin only multiple choice field titled “Accepted.” This field would have a default value of “No” and another value of “Yes.” This way, everyone who registers for the event will not see the “Accepted” field, but it will still be submitted with a value of no. Then, at a later time, the Wufoo admin can go to the entry manager and change that value to “Yes” if they would like to accept that person.
You are a teacher and make a homework upload form. The form has name, email, and a file upload field for the assignment. You can add an admin only text field titled “Grade.” While you are grading the papers, you would go through and populate this field with the proper grade.
Encrypted Fields
When adding a Single Line Text to your form, you will notice that one of the Options is Encrypted. To understand why you would need an encrypted field, a brief overview of security is in order.
- The SSL on our $24+ plans ensure that the transmission of data to and from our servers is secure.
- Likewise, our hardware level security protects the data from someone trying to connect directly to us to read it.
- But there is a third case: What if somehow the data were to leak out? Encryption protects against this event by making the data unreadable by humans.
Encrypted data can only be read by a machine with a specific key and password that we keep hidden and protected, so if the data were to be compromised it could not be read. That sounds great, so why don’t we encrypt all data? Well, it isn’t quite feasible to do so due to the resources involved. Additionally, the following limitations are in place within our system that applies to encrypted fields:
- You are allowed a maximum of 5 encrypted fields per form.
- Once you encrypt a field, you cannot remove the encryption later.
- They are NOT sent in notification emails (because emails are not secure).
- They CANNOT be searched/filtered in the Entry Manager — only viewed.
Based on these limitations, it is important for you to decide which fields deserve encryption. An example of a field deserving encryption would be Student ID. A Student ID is a unique identifier that you do not want stolen. A good rule is that if it is unique and can encourage fraud, then the field probably deserves encryption.
