CMS Forms manual

CMS Forms is a platform for form building, processing, and managing web forms integrated into the CMS Lite and the government website.

On this page:

• What's new
• Contents
  • About section
  • Workflow section
  • Cookbook section
  • Reference section
• Bookmark and subscribe

What's new

November 22, 2024 - Release of completely redesigned manual.

• See all release notes

Contents

About section

This section provides an overview of CMS Forms for those interested in onboarding to the platform.

• About CMS Forms
  • Why CMS Forms?
  • Using CMS Forms to support digital transformation
  • Checking your current capabilities
  • Onboarding to CMS Forms
  • Choosing and managing your users
  • Getting support for CMS Forms
  • CMS Forms release notes
  • CMS Forms future development

Workflow section

This section walks you through the processes of building, revising or retiring a form.

• The CMS Forms development workflow
  • Protecting citizen information and privacy
  • Creating a new form
  • Building your form
  • Configuring your form
  • Testing your form
  • Releasing your form to the public
  • Updating your form records
  • Revising an existing form
  • Retiring a form no longer needed

Cookbook section

This section provides orientation, guidance and solutions.

• "Cooking" with CMS Forms
  • Starters: CMS Forms basics
    • Application screens in CMS Forms
    • Using form controls
    • Naming your controls
    • Managing control appearance and behaviours using settings
    • How publishing works in CMS Forms
    • Managing and using form definitions
  • Entrees: Configuring forms and fields
    • Calculating data
    • Transforming data for other uses
    • Requiring and validating data
    • Combining text and data
    • Limiting form availability
    • Helping citizens with a form wizard
    • Controlling what appears on forms and when
  • Combos: Complex models and scenarios
    • Creating A/B tests to see which version of a form performs better
    • Tracking form and project status using forms control
    • Creating form pages in CMS Lite to manage where your forms appear on the website and their publication (release) to the public
    • How to design, manage and use form templates to speed up form creation
    • Ways you can personalize the citizen's experience
    • How to create a special view of the form to help with testing
  • Desserts: ​Post-submission design
    • Having data sent to another application using an API
    • Designing and setting up email notifications
    • Customizing system messages for citizens
    • Designing an alternate PDF layout for your form
    • Working with fillable PDFs for precision output

Reference section

This section includes reference materials to assist you in form-building.

• CMS Forms and related reference materials
  • Demonstration forms
  • Formulas used in forms
  • Glossary of forms terms 

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