Forms 2.0 - Better forms without code

[Anonymous]

[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:

• Multi Select in the Values Drop Down

• Better design of Forms!
• Form Widgets!
• Better Usability for forms
• Prefill country and state fields
• An easier way to set up 2 column forms

• Can certain form fields span columns?

• Check Boxes on Forms
• Conditional Logic for Forms

• Customizing Submit Button

• Links In Form Labels

•  

  Forms - Need A Multiple Select Check Box Option

• Forms - Need A Multiple Select Check Box Option

[Anonymous]

And 

Forms on mobile (jQuery mobile)
Allow automated numbering of fields on a form
Access to Custom Objects in Salesforce
Prefill country and state fields
Form Widgets!
Populate forms based on IP information
Add field names next to field label in Progressive Profile box
Better Usability for forms
Forms - add a field attribute to toggle field pre-population
Blackout Days for Marketo Date Picker
Custom HTML names for forms
Enable Variable Width Fields when creating forms
Presenting anonymous leads with forms based on Lead Score
Check Boxes on Forms
Marketo Forms will not auto-populate if they exist in an iFrame in Internet Explorer
Allow automated numbering of fields on a form

[Anonymous]

Didn't know it but apparently you cand break a community post when inserting a comment over 4000 characters. Had to split the above list into two parts

Cheers,
Eric

[Anonymous]

I'm happy to see more people voting this up and more pressure being applied. As I said in my earlier comment, I started using Marketo in earnest in November of 2012. Overall, the system is great and a major improvement over Genius.com. I remain absolutely floored at how rudimentary the native form controls are and how difficult it is to manipulate them using CSS. It's laughably basic to the point where I feel we should get some money back for the inconvenience. 

And while I genuinely appreciate Glen giving us some insight into the upcoming system improvements (particularly the pending speed increase), it is an absolute disgrace that this is not already on the roadmap. Marketo is all about Lead Generation. Lead Generation involves, in most cases, a form submission of some sort somewhere along the line. It would be very logical to assume, therefore, that this would be a no-brainer top priority, not something an employee should have to "try to prioritize". 

The bottom line is this; Marketo has a ton of money and a lot of talented people. There is no excuse for such a core part of such an expensive system to be this poorly executed. Make forms at top priority, take a phased approach if it helps, and communicate this to the community ASAP.

[Anonymous]

As a marketer I love Marketo. As a front end designer/developer I facepalm daily due to the form designer. We are working very hard (and spending signicant capital) to completely replace Marketo's forms.

@Eric: thanks for doing this. Your posts look like my #todo's.

@Glen: Hi Glen! From a user experience perspective the forms implementation needs TLC. From a feature perspective it "works" but in the land of user acquisition and lead generation that's not good enough. Customer (and executive) expectations are growing rapidly and our landing pages risk falling behind. If you need firepower to make this case just tell us who needs to hear what. You'll likely have an army of customers ready to make that case.

@Raphael: overriding inline CSS and JS may have been kosher 5+ years ago but it's not now. It's also not scalable.

[Anonymous]

Neil,

Thanks for the comments, I am on the same trajectory... removal of all marketo forms and converting to soap api so that I can make my website more responsive/liquid.

Cheers,
Eric

[Brice_Dunwoodie]

Wow!

People are electing to use WS/SOAP over Marketo forms (!!).

Is anyone from Marketo product management getting boxed about the ears for this? Holy mother of all #fails.

Yikes. 

I don't want to get this thread off topic, otherwise we could start whining about having to use ancient SOAP technology instead of having a modern (circa 2007) REST interface. 😞

[Brice_Dunwoodie]

Here's a suggested tweet we can all use:

"Hey @marketo marketers are not jQuery programmers. Customers want modern, easy, mobile forms (Forms 2.0). You listening? #fixmktoforms"

Maybe we can all set up nurture campaigns and nurture this issue on to the roadmap. 🙂 Clearly the Ideas section is not working so well.

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone!  I hear you loud and clear - you definitely have our ear on this one.  It's my NUMBER ONE priority on the roadmap (and Glen's) for the second half of 2013.   We are in the process of planning and we will update you shortly. 

[Anonymous]

Hi Brice,

I threw in a REST api idea into the mix almost a year ago and there has been little traction.  You can vote for it here

Implement a REST API

Cheers,
Eric

[Anonymous]

Heather, Liz

Thank you for the idea merge work.  Now we are getting a richer picture about how important this issue is.

Cheers,
Eric