Creating a Public Web Form

Creating a Public Web Form

Departments: all

Last revised: May 22, 2014

Background:  We regularly use forms on our web site, and some of those forms are being heavily used by spammers.  In 2010 we asked IT about using a Captcha type tool to prevent spam and were told, “We do not currently use anything to stop form spam as most forms that we deal with are on intra and not accessible by the outside world or have other things like payment processing that stops them from going through.” (ticket #52040) 

In order to reduce the amount of spam we’re receiving, we are switching eligible forms over to google doc forms requiring a Valpo login to access.  Of course, this means that any forms that need to be available to a non-Valpo audience (ex. Instruction request for local schools) are not eligible to be switched over. 

The decision whether to switch over an eligible form to a google doc is up to the people who receive emails from that form.  If the recipients determine that the amount of spam justifies the switch, they can create a replacement form.  Below is the procedure to follow when creating a form.

Procedure:

1. All forms must be created in the Google Drive of a shared account (usually library@valpo.edu, but occasionally moecirc@valpo.edu).  No forms should be housed in individuals’ personal accounts.
2. For the sake of uniformity, please select the “Blue Birds” theme.  (Note: this theme was selected for several reasons, including the fact that it has good separation between sections with horizontal blue bars).
3. For the most part, the text and questions can be copied over from the web form to the google doc form.  The exceptions are: a) since the google doc will not have the Valpo Christopher Center branding, please add Valparaiso University Library Services at the beginning of the title of the form.  b) if you want the email address to be a required field for your form, please select the option to “Automatically collect respondent's Valparaiso University username” and remove the question asking for email address since it will automatically be collected.  Alternatively, if you want to allow people to fill out the form anonymously but leave their email address if they like, select “Require Valparaiso University login to view this form” (otherwise spammers can use the form) and leave the optional email address field in your form.
4. Once the form has been created, share the responses spreadsheet (select "Share" under "More" from the document list) with any people who have been receiving emails from the web form (select the default “can edit”).   They can then log into their personal accounts, go into the spreadsheet, select “notification rules…” under Tools, and choose “a user submits a form” and either the email right away or daily digest option.  Each person needing to receive notification MUST do this step themselves; the way Google Drive operates, one person cannot create notification for another.
5. Once the steps above are complete, email the form’s link to Ruth Connell to have it added to our website.  Ruth will make sure that links to that form on our library.valpo.edu site are updated.  Please check LibGuides to see if there are any links to the old form there, and update them to the new link.