Using an Existing Form

There are two ways to use an existing form with Freedback.

Method #1: Fast to Setup, but Unsupported

This method is quick and easy to setup, but it doesn't support some features. This method does not use our form HTML, which means form submissions cannot be exported. We don't officially support this method, but it is included here for people who just want to receive their form submissions only by email, and don't need to export their data.

  1. First make a backup copy of your form, just in case.

  2. Login to your Freedback account and create a form. Give it a name and click the "Save and Continue to Step 2" button. (You don't need to edit and of this form's fields, it's just a placeholder.) On "Step 2. Form Options", choose the actions you want us to take when someone submits your form, then click the "Save and Continue to Step 3" button.

  3. On "Step 3. Get Html", you'll see the HTML for your Freedback form.

    1. Replace the non-Freedback form's <form> tag with the <form> tag from the new Freedback form. (The form tag looks like this <form ...>.) You'll need the add following form attributes from your Freedback form to your non-Freedback form: enctype, method, action, and accept-charset

      The values you want to use are as follows: enctype="multipart/form-data" method="post" action="http://www.freedback.com/mail.php"; accept-charset="UTF-8"

    2. Add the following two lines from your Freedback form, located near the top. Add them below the <form> tag:

      <input type="hidden" name="acctid" id="acctid" value="example" />
      <input type="hidden" name="formid" id="formid" value="example" />

Method #2: The "Proper" Way

We recommend this method. It supports all Freedback features, but requires more time to setup.

  1. First make a backup copy of your form, just in case.

  2. Create a Freedback form that has the exact same of fields as your non-Freedback form. For example, if your old form asks for name, email, gender, and address then your new Freedback form should also ask for name, email, gender, and address.

  3. Continue through the Freedback form creation process until you reach "Step 3. Get HTML".

  4. Now you're going to have go through your non-Freedback form, and paste in information from your new Freedback form.

    1. Find the <form> tag (it looks like this: <form ...>) and replace (or add) the following variables: enctype, method, action, accept-charset.

      The values you want to use are as follows: enctype="multipart/form-data" method="post" action="http://www.freedback.com/mail.php"; accept-charset="UTF-8"

    2. Add the following two lines from your Freedback form, located near the top. Add them below the <form> tag:

      <input type="hidden" name="acctid" id="acctid" value="example" />
      <input type="hidden" name="formid" id="formid" value="example" />

    3. Go through your non-Freedback form, and for each form element, replace the "name" and "id" attributes with the values from your Freedback form. If there is no "id" attribute, then add it. Some examples follow.

      Example #1

      Name: <input type="text" name="name" size="40">

      Changes to:

      Name: <input type="text" name="name" id="name" size="40">

      Explanation: The "name" attribute already matched your new Freedback HTML, so we didn't need to change it. The "id" attribute was missing, so we added the "id" attribute from the Freedback form.

      Example #2

      Gender:
      <input type="radio" name="male" id="example" value="male" /> Male
      <input type="radio" name="female" id="example2" value="female" /> Female

      Changes to:

      Gender:
      <input type="radio" name="field-7ce7ed3185435f8" id="field-7ce7ed3185435f8_0" value="male" /> Male
      <input type="radio" name="field-7ce7ed3185435f8" id="field-7ce7ed3185435f8_1" value="female" /> Female

      Explanation: In this case we needed to replace both the "name" and "id" fields with versions from the Freedback form.