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Forms 2.0 - Better forms without code

Forms 2.0 - Better forms without code

Status: In Production Submitted by Anonymous on ‎02-10-2012 06:30 AM
127 Comments (127 New)
[Please add your comments below to help build a strong case]

Since the FORMS 2.0 idea from Glen Lipka has long been lost, it's time to bring it back and get it on the agenda.  It only been raised as an issue for 3 years and more than 2 versions of this community.  Even one of recent ideas from the community for the Amazing Race Idea was for form improvements: Form Widgets!.

Basically Forms need to be come way easier without manipulation through code.  There are a lot of small improvements that could be made to the form functionality that would be a great benefit to clients without access to a web developer skill set.  

At one time or another, I have had marketers request most of the following list of form improvements:

  • support for HTML5 form elements
  • allow pre-population on a field by field basis as a form designer attribute
  • allow text fields to optionally concatenate the new value with the existing data
  • field masking for phone, sin number etc.
  • add real-time (onblur) validation, validation test conditions and  contextual error msgs
    • email regex,
    • min and max for numbers etc. 
    • phone with or without extention
    • domain name for spam exclusion - i.e. mickmouse@example.com a@a.com
    • alpha-only for names/text fields
    • Automatic formating for proper case including whitespace trimming
  • better positioning of the field label and error msg
  • more form layouts in terms of 2-3 columns layouts as well as fields that can span the columns
  • more control over the submit button:
    • its style/image
    • dynamic button text both before and after click text to make the form reusable on more that one landing page within the landing page editor
    • enable/disable submit based upon required fields/validation
  • provide more advanced type of controls:
    • date pickers,
    • sliders (range),
    • dropdowns (combobox) with icons, option groups etc.
    • better support for checkboxes/radio with multi-select 
  • dependant selections or skip logic i.e. country/state and surveys
  • geo-ip support for country/state
  • automatic detection and support for iframes to get parent parameters, adjust the form's target = _top etc.
  • better (dynamic) follow up options - new windows, dynamic redirect based upon other form fields, parameters or cookies
  • Allow fields from SFDC objects other than contact and lead

Forms have been one of the least attended to areas of Marketo; it has literally been years since any significant improvements have been made while the competition has not been standing still waiting.

Below is a small list for just from this version of community:
18,522
127 Comments
Anonymous
Not applicable
‎02-12-2013 08:15 AM
‎02-12-2013 08:15 AM
Another idea to add : have the possibility to populate a field from URL or Cookie while keeping the field unhidden. This would be useful when email is sent by third party with links toward my Marketo landing page. The URL in the third party email may contain info in URL parameters such as
info.mydomain.com/mylandingpage.html?lname=doe&fname=john&email=jdoe@mydomain.com

Using this, the form would appear pre-populated.
Anonymous
Not applicable
‎02-12-2013 08:21 AM
‎02-12-2013 08:21 AM
And also : have a display value editor for select, radio or checkbox fields to make it easy to change display values. The :: notation that we have to use today is a nightmare for long lists...

My 2 cents
Anonymous
Not applicable
‎02-12-2013 08:24 AM
‎02-12-2013 08:24 AM
Another idea to add : have the possibility to populate a field from URL or Cookie while keeping the field unhidden. This would be useful when email is sent by third party with links toward my Marketo landing page. The URL in the third party email may contain info in URL parameters such as
info.mydomain.com/mylandingpage.html?lname=doe&fname=john&email=jdoe@mydomain.com

Using this, the form would appear pre-populated, even though the lead is not actually in the Marketo database.
Edward_Masson
Level 10
Level 10
‎02-12-2013 08:31 AM
‎02-12-2013 08:31 AM
Gregoire, You can pre populate the form from the URL (if the info is there) by using JQuery on your Marketo Landing page. I've not tried it but I'm sure some JQuery guru can confirm - I'm looking at Eric H... 🙂
Rafael_Santoni1
Level 5
Level 5
‎02-12-2013 08:51 AM
‎02-12-2013 08:51 AM
Edward, what you said is true. However, the idea here is to remove the dependency on coding to accomplish these tasks. If not, another approach could be to use Marketo's native url parameters functionality to pre-populate hidden fields, and use jQuery to change the field type from "hidden" to "text" or whatever else you may need.

The ideal scenario would be to simply allow to configure the functionality of url parameters to populate displayed fields (at least text fields).

Thank you,

Rafael
Rafael_Santoni1
Level 5
Level 5
‎02-12-2013 09:00 AM
‎02-12-2013 09:00 AM
Having something like the below image available to configure that functionality would be really good.

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I hope you can see the mock design I included here.
Anonymous
Not applicable
‎02-13-2013 12:36 PM
‎02-13-2013 12:36 PM
Thanks Rafael for putting my idea in colors 🙂 My point was exactly what you wrote.

If I need to hire a developer each time I want to create a program, then I remove one of the key value point brought by Marketo : Marketing team autonomy and responsiveness.
Brice_Dunwoodie
Level 4
Level 4
‎02-13-2013 12:49 PM
‎02-13-2013 12:49 PM
Gregoire,

You are echoing the sentiments of many on this list. The entire point of a Marketing Automation system is to empower non-technical staff to deliver sophisticated, high value programs. 

As far as I'm concerned, until Marketo delivers on this with Forms, the product is over priced and over rated. 

The best thing we can do is vote this issue up, bug our account managers and publically blog, post and tweet about it.

Marketo has piles of cash coming in the door. They need to respect their customers, reinvest in the product and clear out this bottleneck.

I'd actually like to see them acquire an innovative forms company, integrate the technology and add some UX engineering talent in the process. One can dream :).
Anonymous
Not applicable
‎02-13-2013 01:14 PM
‎02-13-2013 01:14 PM
I'm all for this:

The best thing we can do is vote this issue up, bug our account managers and publically blog, post and tweet about it.
 
And 

...some sort of picket should be in order. Although since sending me to Summit to attend isn't even being considered, I can see my request to just go there and picket falling short as well.

Love to see the engagement... please keep up the pressure.  And get your users to vote this one up.

Cheers,
Eric

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