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Connect forms to your workspace

You can connect forms to your Customer.io workspace to automatically add people and trigger campaigns when they submit your form. Connecting forms to your workspace makes it easy to capture and respond to leads.

How it works

When someone submits your form, we’ll identifyThe Customer.io operation that adds or updates a person. When you identify a person, Customer.io either adds a person if they don’t exist in your workspace, or updates them if they do. Before you identify someone (by their email address or an ID), you can track them anonymously. the form submitter and assign them attributesA key-value pair that you associate with a person or an object—like a person’s name, the date they were created in your workspace, or a company’s billing date etc. Use attributes to target people and personalize messages. Attributes are analogous to traits in Data Pipelines. based on the values they provide in your form. You can map form fields to attributes when you set up your form (normally after the first submission). Form submissions also act as eventsSomething that a person in your workspace did. Events can trigger campaigns, add people to segments, etc. You can access event properties in liquid with {{event.<property>}} that you can use to trigger campaigns, making it easy to respond to your audience automatically based on their form submissions!

There are three ways to connect forms to your workspace:

These processes are not for Facebook Lead Ad forms, Jotform, or Typeform. See our Facebook Lead Ads, Jotform, or Typeform pages for more information about our direct integrations.

Install the custom forms JavaScript snippet

To capture form submissions using the custom forms JavaScript snippet, you need to:

1. Scan your form to Customer.io on the Data & Integrations > Integrations > Forms page. For us to scan your form, it must:

   • Use a <form> tag. We cannot scan <div>-based forms.
   • Not be inside an <iframe>.
   • Have fields with name attributes; name is how we identify non-textarea fields and map them to attributes.
   • Have a field that maps directly to one, and only one identifier—id or email as determined by your workspace settings.

2. Install the custom forms JavaScript snippet on the page(s) containing your form.

You can do these things in any order, but you cannot capture form information until you’ve done both.

Scan a form

To add a form, provide the URL of the page containing your form. Customer.io can scan most forms that use the <form> tag, as long as your form is not inside an <iframe> and your form fields have name attributes. If your form contains <textarea> fields that do not have a name (as with Squarespace), we’ll number them (e.g. textarea_1).

1. Go to Data & Integrations > Integrations > Forms.
2. Select Custom and click Connect form.
3. Enter the URL of your form and click Scan for Forms.
4. Select the form(s) you want to connect to your workspace and click Choose Form. If your page contains multiple forms, you can select each form and set a Name. The Name is how you’ll select forms in the UI.
5. Map Form Fields to Attributes and click Set Up Form.

   By default, we map the names of each field directly to an attribute. Click to prevent Customer.io from capturing a field. Take care when mapping fields; attribute names and values are case sensitive. If you segment or trigger campaigns based on attribute names and values, you want to make sure that you assign attributes and values correctly.

   

   
6. If you haven’t already, Install the custom forms JavaScript snippet. Go to the Settings tab to find the snippet.

Add the custom forms JavaScript snippet to your site

The custom forms JavaScript snippet is not the same as our basic JavaScript snippet. You must install the Connected forms JavaScript snippet to send data from scanned forms back to Customer.io.

Before you can find the custom forms JavaScript snippet, you must have scanned at least one form.

To find and install this snippet:

1. Go to Data & Integrations > Integrations > Forms and click Settings. The Settings tab only appears after you scan your first form. If you haven’t already done so, scan a form.

2. Click JS Snippet.

   

   

3. Copy and paste the snippet. Where you paste the snippet may vary based on your form provider.

   • Custom HTML or Netlify Forms: paste the script on the page containing your form. The script can go anywhere in the <head> or <body> tags.
   • Other form providers: See the supported providers below.

Compatible form providers

To use our form-scanning service, form fields must have a name attribute and you need to install the custom forms JavaScript snippet. This snippet is different from our basic JavaScript snippet and has been tested with the following services and forms, though it may be compatible with additional services:

• Formstack
• Instapage landing page forms
• Netlify forms
• Squarespace Form Blocks and Newsletter Blocks
• Unbounce landing pages (not pop-ups or sticky bars)
• Webflow
• Wordpress forms
• Your own HTML forms

We can also support virtually any form provider when you integrate directly with the /forms API. In general, we suggest using the API for backend integrations. While you can write your own JavaScript integration with this API, our custom forms JavaScript snippet is made specifically for this purpose.

Formstack

In Formstack, you add JavaScript to a theme. You cannot add a script to the default theme. You either need to create a new theme or copy an existing one so that you can edit it.

To add the Custom forms JavaScript to your Formstack theme:

1. This is your first form in Customer.io, Scan your form.
2. Go to the form containing your theme.
3. Click Style and then click Advanced Code Editor.
4. Paste the custom forms JavaScript snippet into the Header HTML or Footer HTML; it doesn’t matter which.
5. Click Save Changes.

Map Formstack fields to attributes

Formstack does not assign a friendly name attribute to fields. Instead, it assigns a numeric identifier value to the name attribute in each field in the format field113891598, which can make it challenging to map form fields to attributes. You need to know which name attribute corresponds to the field label, so that you can accurately map fields to attributes in Customer.io.

When you scan a form, fields generally appear in order from top-to-bottom, left-to-right, which may help you understand the order of fields when you map them to attributes. Otherwise, you can find the names of your fields by examining the HTML on your form page, or in Formstack by going to Forms, selecting your form, and then clicking the field you want to find the identifier for. The URL updates with each field you select; the final segment in the URL path represents the field identifier (in the format field<identifer>).

Instapage

You can install the JavaScript snippet in the head, body, or footer of your Instapage form page. If you use a custom domain (as opposed to the default, pagedemo.co URL), it may take a while before you can begin transmitting data to Customer.io due to DNS propagation issues.

Netlify

Netlify forms are basically custom HTML forms that include a data-netlify="true" parameter in the <form> element.

Include the JavaScript Form Snippet on the page containing your form. It can go anywhere in the <head> or <body> tags. Form submissions will appear both in Netlify and as people in your Customer.io workspace.

Squarespace

You can add the custom forms JavaScript snippet to Squarespace pages using the code injection feature. You can inject code at the page or site levels depending on how many pages contain your form.

1. Click Settings > Advanced for the page or site you want to add code to.
2. Paste the custom forms JavaScript snippet in the header or body sections.
3. Click Save.

Unbounce

You can add the JavaScript snippet at the domain level or page level, but you should not add it in both places, or you’ll receive duplicate submissions for each form.

• Add to the domain under Settings > Script Manager.
• Add at the page level, click Javascripts at the bottom of the page and insert the custom forms JavaScript snippet.

The JavaScript snippet does not work with forms in Unbounce popups or sticky bars.

Webflow

You must have a paid Webflow plan to add the custom forms JavaScript snippet to Webflow forms pages. In Webflow:

1. Go to Pages.
2. Click for the page you want to install the custom forms JavaScript snippet on.
3. Scroll down to Custom Code and paste the custom forms JavaScript snippet in either the Insidetag or Beforetag. It doesn’t matter which.
4. Click Save.

Wordpress with WPForms

We tested our JavaScript snippet with the WPForms plugin for Wordpress. You may be able to capture form submissions from other Wordpress plugins, but we can only guarantee support for WPForms. Contact us if you need support for a different Wordpress plugin.

You’ll need to add the JavaScript snippet to pages containing your form. If your form is on a few pages, you can add a custom HTML block below the form and paste the JavaScript snippet into the block.

Otherwise, you can add the snippet to your site using Google Tag Manager, the Wordpress Insert Headers and Footers plugin, etc.

When you publish the page containing the form, it’ll begin submitting results to your workspace.

Form fields and URL parameters captured by the JavaScript snippet

The custom forms JavaScript snippet captures both form fields and URL parameters on the page containing your form, but the two work differently: form fields are converted to attributesA key-value pair that you associate with a person or an object—like a person’s name, the date they were created in your workspace, or a company’s billing date etc. Use attributes to target people and personalize messages. Attributes are analogous to traits in Data Pipelines. on a person who submits a form; URL parameters are not.

Form Fields: When you set up a form in Customer.io, you scan a URL for forms. Customer.io identifies fields in your form by name attributes. After you scan a form, you determine which fields we capture, and map each field to an attribute for people who submit the form.

Customer.io also reserves three fields: form_id, form_name, and form_type; if fields on your form (or in your API payload) include these fields, we’ll ignore them.

• form_id: Assigned by customer.io when you scan the form or through the API in the path.
• form_name: Assigned when you map your form in Customer.io.
• form_type: Represents the form’s origin. Using the JavaScript snippet or API, this will always read custom. Other values represent direct integrations with Facebook Lead Ads, Jotform, Typeform, etc.
• form_url: The URL of the page that a user submitted your form from.
• form_url_params: An array of URL parameters present when a user submitted your form.

URL Parameters: When someone submits a form, we capture URL parameters on the form page, so that you can segment people and filter campaigns based on these values. But, because URL parameters are not mapped to attributes when you connect your form to Customer.io, we cannot apply URL parameters to people as attributes.

URL parameters captured in this way appear in the form_url_parameters array, to help you understand which fields come from your form and which come from the page URL; items in this array are not applied to to a person as attributes. If a form field and URL parameter have the same name, the form field will win and we’ll ignore the URL parameter.

Capturing the same form on multiple pages

If you have a form with the same fields on multiple pages, you only need to scan one URL; we capture submissions from all pages under the same form in Customer.io.

When you scan a form, we identify the form based on the fields contained in the form. Each field on the form is identified by its name, or, for textarea elements without names, we assign them a name in the format textarea_1.

When you integrate directly with our API, a unique form is determined entirely by the form_id. If you submit a form with the same fields on different pages, you can submit them with the same form_id to treat them as the same form, or set different form_id values to differentiate between your forms.

Form scanning errors

When scanning forms, you may run into some errors. In most cases, an error means that you’re trying to scan a form we don’t support, or you’re trying to scan a form that you’ve already scanned on another page.

Use the Forms API

If you don’t want to use our JavaScript snippet, you can write your own backend integration with the Customer.io /forms API. Even if you use our JavaScript snippet, you may want to maintain a backend API integration in case your audience blocks or disables JavaScript.

To connect your form to Customer.io, just send a send a POST to https://track.customer.io/api/v1/forms/{form_id}/submit when someone submits your form. The form_id is an arbitrary string value representing your form. If we haven’t seen the form ID before, we create a new form connection (found on the Data & Integrations > Integrations > Forms page). Requests with the same form ID are treated as submissions from the same form.

The payload of a request is a data object that must contain field that maps to an identifierThe attributes you use to add, modify, and target people. Each unique identifier value represents an individual person in your workspace.—the email or ID of the person filling out the form. If these attributes are titled email or id, we’ll map them automatically. If not, your form will show an error on the Go to Data & Integrations > Integrations > Forms page after your first submission, and you can re-map map fields to the appropriate identifiers. If the person represented by the identifier in your request does not already exist, we create them.

Additional keys in the data object represent form fields and values from the form that a person submitted. By default, we map form fields in your request directly to attributes, e.g. if you have a form field called first_name, we map that field to the first_name attribute.

{
    "data": {
        // each key represents a form field
        // form fields map directly to attribute names unless you re-map them
        "first_name": "Cool Person",
        "email": "cool.person@example.com",
    } 
}

After you submit your first /forms request, you can re-map form fields (properties in the data object) to attributes on the Data & Integrations > Integrations > Forms page.

Mapping identifiers and initial form submission errors

If an identifier in your form does not map directly to an identifierThe attributes you use to add, modify, and target people. Each unique identifier value represents an individual person in your workspace.—i.e. a field capturing email addresses is called something like email_address rather than email in your initial request—you’ll receive a 400, but we’ll still add your form on the Data & Integrations > Integrations > Forms page. You can then re-map your email_address field to email, and your form will begin working normally.

Submit forms using the action attribute

You can assign a POST method and action to your HTML form tag to submit forms directly to Customer.io without using our JavaScript snippet. When you set up a form this way, we generate a URL that you’ll copy directly to your form’s action attribute. Your form must have a success page—a page that you redirect people to when they click Submit.

<form
  method="POST"
  action="https://customerioforms.com/forms/submit_action?site_id=1ea07cb331d4ed0c39ba&form_id=2d75e032c78a41a&success_url=https://success.example.com/thanks"
>
<!-- by default, we map input name attributes to Customer.io attributes -->
  <label for="email_input">E-mail address</label>
  <input id="email_input" name="email" type="email" />
  <label for="job_title">Job Title</label>
  <input id="job_title" name="job title" type="text" />
  <button>Submit</button>
</form>

By default, we map form fields to attributesA key-value pair that you associate with a person or an object—like a person’s name, the date they were created in your workspace, or a company’s billing date etc. Use attributes to target people and personalize messages. Attributes are analogous to traits in Data Pipelines. using the name property. For example, if you have a field with a name property job_title, we’ll set that attribute on people who respond to your form. You can remap fields after your first submission.

Your form must contain one field that maps to an identifierThe attributes you use to add, modify, and target people. Each unique identifier value represents an individual person in your workspace.—the email or ID of the person filling out the form. If your identifier field has a name attribute of id or email, we’ll map it to the appropriate identifier automatically. If your identifier field isn’t named id or email, your form will show an error and you’ll have the opportunity to map your fields after your first submission.

Set up a form with an action attribute

1. Go to Data & Integrations > Integrations and Select Forms.

   

   
2. Select Custom Form, click View other options, and click Action attribute.
3. If your workspace has multiple sets of Track API credentials, select the credentials you want to use for your form.
4. Enter your Success page address URL. This is the page your form sends people to when they click Submit.

   

   
5. Copy the HTML snippet and adjust the form to add your form’s fields. Or, Copy the URL to your form’s action attribute and make sure that your form’s method attribute is set to POST.
6. Submit your form as a test. This makes it appear in your Customer.io Forms dashboard.
7. Return to the Data & Integrations > Integrations > Forms page, and select the form you just added. Make sure that the Mapped Fields reflect the attributes that you want to assign to people who submit your form. If they don’t, click Edit and re-map attributes appropriately.

   

   

Edit a form

You can edit your form to add fields, re-map fields to attributes, or turn off fields you no longer want to capture. Your changes only reflect new respondents. Changing form fields doesn’t change attributes on people who already filled out your form.

If you move a form to a new page, you do not need to edit or re-scan your form. You simply need to make sure that the page you move the form to has the custom forms JavaScript snippet.

1. Go to Data & Integrations > Integrations and Select Forms.

   

   
2. Select the form you want to edit and click Edit.
3. Add, remove or re-map form fields.
   • Enable/disable fields: Check and un-check fields to enable and disable them. You cannot disable fields when you use the /forms API or send forms using the action attribute.
   • Add fields: If your form uses the custom forms JavaScript snippet, click Re-scan to update the fields on your form. If your form integrates directly with our API, click Add Field.
   • Edit field names: Change the names of attributes you want to map form fields to. If integrated with the /forms API, you can also change the name of the form field that you want to map.
4. Click Save.

Disconnect a form

Disconnecting a form prevents Customer.io from collecting form submissions and identifying people who fill out your form. You can reconnect the form later, if you want to stop collecting submissions temporarily.

1. Go to Data & Integrations > Integrations > Forms.
2. Click and then click Disconnect.
3. Confirm that you want to disconnect the form.

Disconnected forms still appear in the forms list. You can find all your disconnected forms by selecting the Disconnected status.

Trigger a campaign from a form

Form submission events can trigger campaigns, making it easy to start a conversation with people and foster conversions immediately when they fill out your form.

You can start a form-triggered campaign by going to Data & Integrations > Integrations > Forms and clicking Create campaign for the form that you want to trigger your campaign. This automatically populates a campaign trigger with your form name.

Or you can create a form-triggered campaign from the Campaigns menu:

1. Go to Campaigns and click Create Campaign.

2. Click Form submission.

   

   

3. Choose the form that should trigger your campaign.

4. Continue creating your campaign.

After you activate the campaign, each form submission will trigger a campaign.

Form data in liquid

Remember that form submissions captured by the JavaScript snippet include both form fields and URL parameters from the page. You can access these variables in Liquid using different scopes.

Form Fields come in as event properties and are mapped to customer attributes. You can reference form fields either way, but remember that the event property represents the field name from the form, and the customer scope represents the mapped attribute name, and the two can be different if you re-mapped form fields to attributes when you set up your form.

For example, if you mapped a form field called msisdn to phone, then you could access the event property as {{event.msisdn}} or the customer attribute at {{customer.phone}}—both represent the same value!

URL Parameters are only available as event properties. For example, if you want to reference a URL parameter from the page that your form page called referred-by, you would use {{event.referred-by}}.

Form submission events in the Activity Log

Each form submission captured by the custom forms JavaScript snippet or the API is recorded as a form_submit event. You can see these events in the Activity Log. Click an event to see the form_id and values that a person submitted.