Forms 2.0 - Better forms without code

Forms 2.0 - Better forms without code

[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:
127 Comments
Anonymous
Not applicable
So glad this idea has come to an offical close.

Yippy.
Anonymous
Not applicable
I hope Forms 2.0 makes everyone happy, at least for a few weeks. 🙂  We worked hard on it.  

Im working this moment on the documentation.   Sorry the docs are late, but there are so many darn features! .  We are trying to launch them tomorrow.

Make sure to let us know if there are issues.  We already have a decent list of minor fixes for February.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Would really like to see the ability to allow hovering instructions on all field types!

Allow hovering instructions on all field types
Anonymous
Not applicable
Great idea Lucas E! I agree this is something we use to do through our own coding but it became such a pain. It would be really nice to have that option in our forms without all the extra coding. 
Sant_Singh_Rath
Level 7

They should also give us option to add custom javascript so that we can add more functionality.

SanfordWhiteman
Level 10 - Community Moderator

Um, Marketo Forms 2.0 has a robust JavaScript API.

kh-lschutte
Community Manager
Status changed to: In Production