Disable Form feature: Ability to include clickable link in disbaled form warning message

I created a new version of my spin design form, and on Oct 25, 2020, I installed on the server updated HTML pointing to the new form REPLACING the HTML that pointed to the old form.. I did not disable the old form.

Yesterday, the old form was submitted by a customer even though the website was changed almost 2 months ago. Can you explain how this might have happened AND how I might prevent it from happening in the future?

THe old form: https://www.jotform.com/build/93271150619960

New form: https://www.jotform.com/build/202973955076971

Hello @bdoodle,

Thank you for contacting JotForm Support.

I did check your website and it seems that it is the "New Form" that is currently embedded. Submitting this form would only submit itself and would not trigger the submission of another form.

The only possibility for the other form to have been submitted is if you still have it embedded on another page, or if you have shared the direct URL of the form with someone. With access to the direct URL, the form can definitely still be submitted if you have not disabled it yet.

The best solution for this would be to disable the form or simply archive it to prevent it from being submitted again.

Related User Guide - How-to-enable-disable-a-form

Thanks for your response.

I tested disabling a form and found the following .... If

1. my customer opens my webpage with my form, but doesn't submit it,
2. I disable the form and install an updated webpage pointing to a new form, and
3. my customer completes my old form and submits it, they receive an error message saying the form has been disabled.

How many times have you seen that kind of thing from a reputable business? I never have. I understand that there’s only so much under your control, but this situation is not really acceptable to us for the long term. 

Could your developers do one of the following?

Implement a way for us to specify a replacement form for a form being disabled or archived, when one is available. And after anyone nevertheless submitted the old form through whatever means, either...

1. Leave the old form visible and generate an error message including a link to the new form and text specified by your user. (e.g. I might provide text saying the form has been changed since the customer opened it, and regretfully, they must abandon it and invoke and complete the new form by clicking -----.) OR
2. Have the replacement form automatically presented under an error message that is user specified. 

Ideally, whether method 1 or 2 above is implemented would be an option for your user to specify when disabling a form along with the new form embed code and the error message text. I might choose method 1 when a form that supports a complex sail design is involved so the customer could take a snapshot of their design before going to the new form.

This is still not perfect, but it’s way better than receiving a “form disabled” message and no further help. (Or perhaps your developers have a better idea.) I have a major set of price changes coming up and I can't have customers submitting old forms. I hope you can do something quickly so I can disable old forms so our customers can't submit a form with old prices AND if they inadvertently try, they will be guided to the new form.

Thank you.

Hello @bdoodle,

My apologies for not mentioning this in my earlier response, but there is another way to "disable" the form where you can easily route your users to the new and active form.

This will require that you not disable the form in the settings, but instead, you can use the form conditions to hide the form fields and display a message that will indicate to your users that this form is no longer available and you can provide a link they can click that will route them to your new form.

Here is a step by step walkthrough of how you can accomplish this.

1) Insert a Date Picker field into your form, set it to Current time, and Hide it

2) Insert a Paragraph field to your form and enter your custom disabled message, and include the new form URL

2) Create a Condition that will hide all of the form fields except for the "disabled" message if the date is after a day in the past. (No need to hide the "Date" field again as it is already hidden in the settings)

This will ensure that the form fields are no longer accessible and that anyone who accesses your old form will see a message that directs them to the new form. I created a sample form to replicate this functionality, please give it a look and feel free to clone it for yourself to see how it is set up.

Sample Form - https://form.jotform.com/203516617063047

Related User Guides:

• Enable-or-disable-a-form-based-on-time-using-conditions
• How-to-clone-an-existing-form-from-a-url

Please let us know if you have questions or concerns about this solution, we will be happy to continue providing assistance.

Thank you for your helpful response. It would solve the problem when someone manages to call up an old form that was not disabled after it was replaced by a new form.

Unfortunately, it would not solve the problem that appears to have happened to us where the customer opened a form before it was replaced and left it up. Then, some time later, after it was replaced, they proceeded to complete and submit the old form without refreshing their browser. Since the old form was not disabled, there was nothing to prevent the customer from submitting a form with old prices and options that were no loner available.

A better solution might be tweaking the disabled form functionality, triggered by a form Submission, that you already offer. What if we could specify the following when disabling a form?

1. disabled status (You already have this working.)
2. error text (This could just be default text like you have now, or you could allow users to enter their own text.)
3. a replacement form URL (This would be new, for a user to provide or not, depending on the situation. The error text above would mention the replacement when this URL is provided. The form disabled screen would include a link to the replacement form URL, when provided, along with the error text.)

It really comes down to adding #3. Would you please forward this feature request to your developers? I'm sure most of your users would appreciate this feature.

Thank you!

Yes, of course. Allow me to escalate this ticket as a Feature Request for our developers.

I cannot provide an ETA for the implementation of this feature, but our team will review the request and take it into consideration. If the feature is implemented, we will inform you immediately via this ticket.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can assist you with, we are always happy to help!