TEXT FIELD INITIAL VALUE

You can set up 6 different types of initial values in the text field. When the user accesses the form page, these values ​​are pre-populated into the text field. By default, the text field is still editable, so the user can modify the initial value. However, in most cases, you want to mark this text field as read-only and even hide the fields in the form.

• Fixed Value
• URL Value
• Today’s Date
• Current Time
• Current Date Time
• Incremental Code

Most of the initial values ​​are self-explanatory, such as fixed values ​​or today’s dates.

URL Value

If you can manage the sharing URL of the form, you can attach some URL parameters to set the initial value. For example, https://form.formcan.com/fr3uffwovsa/?name1=fox&name2=dog. Here ?name1=fox&name2=dog is the value (name and value pair) you append to the form URL. If your form has 2 text fields, one uses name1 to get the initial value from URL and the other uses name2. Once the form is loaded, it parses the URL and populates the corresponding values, fox and dog, into the two text fields based on the specified name.

Incremental Code

In many cases, you may want to provide a unique code for each submission you receive. This incremental code initial value can achieve this goal. It can create some code, such as RECEIPT-00001, RECEIPT-00002 or RECEIPT-00003 . As example, here you can set RECEIPT- to the prefix of the initial value. Then specify 00001 as the initial seed value. Each submission will increase the seed value and create a unique code.

The code prefix is ​​optional. Only numbers can be used in the seed value. This value can start with a 0. If the new code length is shorter than the seed value length, it will be padded with 0 until its length is the same as the seed value length. Otherwise, if the new code is longer, this rule will be ignored.

After the form is published, the code will increase as the form receives more submissions. If you modify the seed value in the form editor again, the change will only take effect if the seed value is greater than the current code. For example, the seed value is 0001 before the form is first published. After the form receives 110 submissions, the current code will be 0110. If you change the seed value to 000010 and publish the form again, the new seed value will not take effect because the new seed value 10 is less than the current code 110. (Note that leading 0 does not affect numeric values.)

Note: The code does not increase in preview mode.

By default, text fields are visible on the form. When the form is loaded, FormCan will pre-allocate an incremental code. If someone aborts the submission, this can result in code discontinuities. For example, if three users open the form at the same time, their form will be pre-assigned the codes 0001, 0002 and 0003. If the user using the code 0002 gives up the submission of form, you will get a submission with 0001 and 0003. FormCan also does not reuse 0002, i.e, the next code will be 0004. To avoid this, you need to hide this text field from from. In this case, our system only allocate new code when the user submits the form, which will ensure that your submission has continuous incremental code.

Disclaimer: The incremental code feature is provided “as is” and there is no guarantee that the code will be absolutely unique or absolutely continuous. FormCan does not recommend using it in scenarios that highly rely on unique or continuous code. For example, financial transaction tasks that require absolutely unique and continuous number. FormCan will not be held liable for any damage caused by use of this incremental code.

Reference Code

After submitting the form, FormCan will create a reference code to help you track the information. You can view and search for this reference code on the submission page. In the form, you can set the reference code as an initial value. Note that once a text field uses this reference code as its initial value, the field becomes an invisible field in the form. This is because the reference code does not yet exist when the user opens the form.

Disclaimer: The reference code is not guaranteed to be absolutely unique. There is a very small chance that you may get a duplicate reference code in your submissions!

IP Address

If you have enabled “Collect IP address” in the form settings, this initial value prints the IP address of the submitter to the corresponding field after the form is submitted.