Forms & Actions > Forms - Recipient management > Forms > This is how forms work

This is how forms work

The forms concept follows a clear structure. A form definition always consists of a starting action, a success form, an error form and a concluding action.

The starting action prepares the OpenEMM for returning the success form to follow as a next step. The corresponding action is defined in the Actions section. The action may for instance be configured to fetch database entries for the user from the profile database after a change.
You can check or modify the selected action directly by clicking on the switch to action link.
The user will see the success form once the starting action was completed successfully. The form is a web page which the user sees in his or her browser. Its contents are specified using HTML tags and script commands.
Alternatively, you can also give a URL outside OpenEMM. To do so, click on Success URL and enter the address into the corresponding field.
If the starting action cannot be completed successfully – for instance, because that user is not in the database at all – the user will see the error form in the browser window. For configuration of an error form, there are mainly the same possibilities as for creating a success form. So it is also possible to refer to an external page. However, a customized form is usually not possible because this would mean the recipient would have to feature in the database in the first place. After returning the error form, processing is finished. The concluding action will not be carried out.
The concluding action will only be carried out by OpenEMM if the starting action was completed successfully and the user sends off the success form. In other words, this action is carried out after processing was completed.

Please note: Do not confuse forms and web forms. Within an OpenEMM form, HTML tags define web forms. For this reason, they are called HTML forms in this manual.

Fig. 8.1: A form consists of four elements. They will be used on a context base according to the system’s reactions and the user’s actions.

Fig. 8.1: A form consists of four elements. They will be used on a context base according to the system’s reactions and the user’s actions.

Access to the form is established using a link which is inserted into the mailing. The registration form may also be called up independently; otherwise, no new subscribers would ever be able to register. The link for calling up a user profile looks like this:

http://company.openemm.org/form.do?agnCI=1&agnFN=MyForm&agnUID=##AGNUID##

For new registration, please include the following:

http://company.openemm.org/form.do?agnCI=1&agnFN=RegistrationForm

The link for your form can be found in the URL field below the Name.

The following chapters explain in detail how to create forms for the most frequent applications using practical examples. The examples also explain what the links calling up the form consist of and how they may be customized to your particular environment.