You can design Zingtrees to ask users to input text, select from list boxes, or click checkboxes or radio buttons. This data is collected as a part of the session and is easily imported into other applications.
Here's how to add a Data Entry field to a node:
- In the editor, open the content node where you would like to place form fields.
- Go to the Data Collection Form Fields section, then Add Data Form Field.
- A new Data Entry field dialog appears. Select the type of data you want to collect, and enter a variable name and a label that the end-user will see.
- Optionally, you can also enter Help Text. The Help text is descriptive text that will be displayed directly below the input Label, like this:
For radio buttons and list boxes, enter the option choices one per line. If you are using scoring variables, you can enter a score variable, and a score value to assign to each choice. In the example below, the residence variable will be assigned a residence_score of 2 if Own is selected, or 1 if Rent is selected.
List Box Filtering: We recommend leaving this option turned on. Users will be able to type to quickly filter a long list box of items. Like this: - Select Required Field to make this field require an entry before proceeding.
- Click the Add button when finished.
Labels vs. Placeholders
You can choose how the hints for the data entry fields display, as either Labels or Placeholders.
Here's how labels appear:
Here's how placeholders look:
Repeating Data Entry Forms
Repeating Data Entry Forms allow you to collect information on an indeterminate number of items. For example, an insurance application may need to collect the names and ages of each family member – be it one or ten. Zingtree’s Repeating Forms capability fulfills this need.
How Repeating Forms Work
A node can collect multiple forms, one at a time. First, the agent starts with one form:
The agent can click the + button to enter a second family member:
This can continue for multiple family members. Here is a representation of the data collected.
Configuring Forms for Repeat Entries
When editing a node, there’s an option in the Data Collection Form Fields section to configure repeating items. Here are the details:
- Edit the node with the form you want to make repeating.
- In the Data Collection Form Fields tab enter the maximum number of items to repeat (up to 50):
That’s all you need to do! The data variable names for your repeating forms will have an underscore and an item number at the end. So, in the example above, the variables for driver will be driver_1 and driver_2, driver_3, etc.
Please note: File Uploads are not available in repeating forms.
Displaying collected values of variables in your content
- When an end-user enters something into a data collection form field, you can display it in subsequent nodes. Just include the variable name surrounded by #characters. In the example below, you would insert #first_name# to show the entered first name, and #last_name# to insert the entered last name.
You can also insert variables from the content editor when editing a node, like this:
Data Entry Placement
- Data Entry fields are displayed at the end of the content area by default. If you want your Data Entry fields to be inserted in a different place in your content area, use the Put the Data Entry Area at the Cursor template in the content editor instead:
This will insert the text ##data-collection-entry-fields## into the content area, which will be replaced by your data collection form fields.