Web forms

A web form is web content with input fields: an email field, fields that save answers to tags, a consent checkbox, and a submit button. Show it in a Popup or Inline web campaign to subscribe visitors to email and store what they tell you in their profiles, with no separate subscription form to set up.

How a web form works

When a visitor submits the form, Pushwoosh does these things in order:

1. Writes each filled-in answer from a Tag input field to its tag on the visitor’s browser device right away, even if the visitor isn’t subscribed to web push. An empty answer leaves the tag’s current value as it is.
2. Subscribes the email address to email and creates an email device with the same tag values, if the form has an Email input. If double opt-in is on, the visitor first gets a confirmation email.
3. Shows the form’s Success page once Pushwoosh accepts the submission.

If your plan doesn’t include the web platform, the tags aren’t saved, and the submission is still accepted. A form without an Email input only saves tags to the browser device, for example to ask visitors about their interests.

Build a web form

To build a form, create it, add the fields, design the Success page, and save it. Split the form into pages if it is long.

Create a web form

1. Go to Content → Web content.

2. Click Create and choose the Web form type.

   

3. Pick a template:

   • Email subscription: a signup form with a heading, an email field, a consent checkbox, a Submit button, and a “Thank you!” Success page.
   • Blank form: an empty form with a title and a Submit button.
   

4. Click the name in the top bar and enter a name for the form. Visitors don’t see it. Until the form has a name, Save is unavailable, and hovering it shows Enter a popup name first.

Add form fields

A web form has the Text, Button, and Icon blocks and four form blocks: Email input, Tag input, Consent, and Submit.

1. Open the Elements tab on the right.

   

2. Drag a block onto the form, or click it to add it to the current page.

3. Select the block on the form. Its options open in the Settings tab.

   • To move the block up or down, use the POSITION arrows.
   • To remove the block, click the delete icon.

A form can have only one Email input and one Submit, so their tiles become unavailable once the form has them.

Undo and redo work the same way as in web content. See Undo and redo.

Before you save the form

• Add at least one Email input or Tag input. The Blank form template has none.
• If the form has an Email input, enter a Privacy policy URL in the Consent block. The Email subscription template has a Consent block with an empty URL.

Learn more about setting up each block in Blocks.

Design the Success page

Every web form ends with a Success page, which the visitor sees after Pushwoosh accepts the submission. You can’t delete it or make it the start page.

1. Click the Success tab, the last tab after + Add page.

   

2. Edit the page like any other. Use Text, Button, and Icon blocks, for example for a thank-you message with a discount code. A Submit button can’t be placed here.

Split a long form into pages

Add pages to ask fewer questions at a time.

1. Click + Add page. The new page is added after the current page, and never after the Success page.
2. Add a button with the Go to page action to move the visitor forward.

A button that goes straight to the Success page submits the form. See Multiple pages for how to add, duplicate, and delete pages.

A duplicated page is copied without its form blocks. A form has only one Email input and one Submit, and each tag can be used once.

How a multi-page form is submitted

The form’s one Submit button sends all pages together.

Before the form is sent:

• The visitor can’t go forward while a field on the current page is invalid. Going back is always possible.
• Pressing Enter in a field moves to the next page, or submits the form on the last page.
• On submit, the form first checks every page in the browser. If a field on another page is invalid, the form switches to that page and shows the field’s error text there, and nothing is sent.

After the form is sent:

• If Pushwoosh rejects the email address, the form switches to the page with the Email input and shows its Invalid email text there.
• If Pushwoosh rejects the submission for another reason, for example because the fields no longer match the saved form, the visitor stays on the current page and sees the Submit error text.

Save the form

To see the form at full size before you save, click Preview. Preview doesn’t send anything, so test the form on your site.

1. Click Save in the top bar.

2. If the The form can’t be saved yet banner opens, fix each problem it lists. See If the form can’t be saved.

   

3. Click Save again.

If the form can’t be saved

The The form can’t be saved yet banner lists every problem that stops the save. Find your message in the table and do what it says.

Message in the banner	What to do
Add an Email input or a Tag input	Add at least one field.
The form needs exactly one Submit button, not on the success page	Keep one Submit button, on a page other than Success.
A form with an Email input needs a Consent block with a privacy policy URL	Add a Consent block and fill Privacy policy URL.
The privacy policy URL must start with https:// or / — otherwise the site shows no link	Enter the URL as https://… or as a path on your site that starts with /.
Keep only one Email input	Delete the extra Email input.
Choose a tag in every Tag input	Choose a tag in each Tag input, or delete the empty field.
Tag “…” is chosen in more than one field	Choose a different tag in one of the fields.
“…” is a reserved tag — a form can’t write PW_FF_* tags	Choose another tag.
The form needs exactly one success page	Keep one Success page.

When you save, Pushwoosh also checks each chosen tag. If a tag was deleted or hidden, or its name starts with PW_FF_, the form isn’t saved, and an error message names the tag, for example Tag "City" must be an existing, non-hidden tag, not PW_FF_*, used once. Choose another tag in that field.

Show the form on your site

A form appears on your site only inside an active web campaign. You can use one form in several campaigns. A Popup campaign shows it over the page, and an Inline campaign shows it as a block inside a page element.

Before you start, ask your developer to:

• Check that your site runs Web SDK 3.99.0 or later. An older Web SDK shows the form without its fields.
• Add the page element the campaign is placed into, if you plan an Inline campaign. See CSS selector.

Then create the campaign:

1. Go to Campaigns → Web campaigns.
2. Click Create campaign and choose Popup or Inline.
3. In Web content, choose your form. Forms show Web form under their name.
4. Set up the audience and display settings.
5. Launch the campaign.

See Create Web popup campaigns for every step.

Confirm emails with double opt-in

When double opt-in is on for the project, a visitor who submits an email gets a confirmation email and is subscribed only after clicking its link. The confirmation link is valid for 24 hours. Pushwoosh saves the form’s tag values for the email address when the visitor confirms.

• If the visitor submits the same address in the same campaign again while unconfirmed, Pushwoosh sends the confirmation email again, at most once every five minutes. Only the link in the newest email works.
• An address already confirmed through any web campaign of the project is subscribed right away, without another confirmation email. A confirmation through a subscription form from Audience → Subscription forms doesn’t count here.
• The confirmation email needs a verified sending domain. While your account has none, Pushwoosh rejects every submission that would send a confirmation email, and the visitor sees the Submit error text.
• If your plan doesn’t include email, the address isn’t subscribed when the visitor clicks the link, and it stays unconfirmed. This failure doesn’t appear in the campaign’s failed submissions.

Double opt-in is one setting for the subscription forms and the web campaign forms of a project. See Confirm subscribers with double opt-in.

Track form results

Open the campaign’s statistics from Campaigns → Web campaigns to see how many visitors submitted the form, why submissions failed, and to export the subscribers.

Web campaign statistics Visits, impressions, submits, failed submissions, and the subscriber export.