As discussed in other articles, we've seen that collections items can be created manually and via a bulk import. The third option to create collection items is to do so via Easy Form submissions. This option allows your community members to contribute to the collection by submitting information from a custom built form.
This article will show you how to
- Enable the create collection item feature
- Easy form to collection item field mapping
- Reviewing and publishing submitted collection items
Enabling the creating collection items feature
In order to enable this feature, you must first create the collection that the submissions will go to; as such this feature is not a blanket feature, it must be enabled on a collection by collection basis. To enable the feature:
- From the Dashboard, click the Easy Forms tile
- Find the form to enable the feature for by
- Browsing the list; OR
- Searching the forms by the title
- Once found, under the Operations column, click the drop-down arrow, then click Settings
- Click the Collection Mapping tab near the top of the screen
- On the Options sub-tab, click the Enable Collection Mapping box
- Select Collection, select the collection that the form submissions apply to
- Click Save when finished
Easy form to collection item field mapping
Once the feature has been enabled, the next step is to map the easy form elements (fields) to the collection items fields. This mapping ensures the values entered on the easy form as added to the correct fields to create the collection item.
Note! The instructions below are assuming you are still on the easy form settings tab as described in steps 1 - 3 from the instructions above.
- Click the Mapping sub-tab (from the Settings > Collection Mapping tabs)
- For each collection item field, select the easy form element(s) that should be mapped to the collection item field
- To select multiple EasyForm fields press and hold Command/Ctrl and click the fields
- Click Save to complete the field mapping
Important!
- Collection fields marked with a *must have mapping completed
- Only 1 Easy Form field/question should be mapped to Filter Vocabulary fields
- In order for a collection item to be successfully created from a form submission, the terms in the filter vocabulary list must exactly match the response options in the EasyForm field (ie. it's best to ensure the element provides a pre-built list of values for the user to choose a single value from rather than options for manual entry or those that allow multiple selections)
Reviewing and publishing collection items
As mentioned earlier, once a user has completed an easy from submission the collection item will be available for a Stacks administrator to review and publish to make it available within the collection.
Tip! Email notifications can be enabled to alert the administrator about new submissions, for more information on EasyForm email notifications please see the article EasyForm Settings - Emails/Handlers.
To publish a collection item:
- From the Dashboard, click the Collections tile
- Find the collection which contains the item to be published by
- Browsing the list; OR
- Searching the collection by title
- Once found, under the Operations column, click the drop-down arrow, then click List Collection Items
- Find the collection item by
- Browse the list; OR
- Search the collection item by title
- Once found, under the Operations column, click Edit
- Review the submission and make any changes if necessary
- Change to, change the item's status to Published
- Click Save when finished