Feature Request: Allow an end user to submit an edited version of their submission as a completely new submission

  • mwinigrad
    Asked on December 23, 2014 at 6:22 PM

    I would like to allow users to edit a previously submitted form, but save as a new submission when finished.  I don't want to modify or overwrite the original submission.

    I need something similar to:

    http://submit.jotform.us/form.php?formID=1111&sid=2222&mode=new

    Is this possible?  Are there any workarounds?

  • jonathan
    Replied on December 23, 2014 at 8:01 PM

    Hi,

    Unfortunately, if you go to Edit mode of previous submissions -- you are already in edit mode. 

    The fields will be open and can be overwritten then.

    I am not sure yet what you wanted to achieve by this process.

    If you can provide us with more details why you wanted to go to submission's edit mode and yet you DO NOT WANT edition and requires only new submissions, we will try and see a possible workaround.

    At this time, the solution I can suggest is just to let user's see the previous submissions and provide link to the form for new submissions instead.

    You can embed reports on the form for the users to see previous submissions

    Hope this help. Inform us if there is more we can assist you with.

    Thanks.

  • mwinigrad
    Replied on December 24, 2014 at 8:14 AM

    Thank you for considering my request.  I believe you understand my requirements.

    Since you asked for more details...

    I have a long multi-page form.  My users need to complete this form several times a year.  Each time, they only need to change a few items and then re-submit it.  I am trying to find a way for them to re-use their previous submission so they don't have to re-type all of the fields.  Ideally, I would like for them to create a "copy" of their previous submission and then edit it.

    Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

  • abajan Jotform Support
    Replied on December 24, 2014 at 10:20 AM

    Your dilemma is quite understandable but unfortunately, there's currently no way (that I can think of) to both have a clone of a jotform and have it prepopulated with answers of a previous submission made in the original of the clone.

    My colleagues may have ideas on ways to accomplish this though.

  • abajan Jotform Support
    Replied on December 24, 2014 at 11:11 AM

    My apologies, I meant that there was no way to have the submission made as a new one (in the same jotform's records) instead of an update of the original submission.

    What I can do is submit a ticket requesting the functionality. The way I envision it would work would be to have a question on the jotform asking the user if the changes are intended as an edit to an existing submission or if it's a completely new submission:

    Feature Request: Allow an end user to submit an edited version of their submission as a completely new submission Image 1 Screenshot 20


    Would such a setup be suitable for your purposes?

  • mwinigrad
    Replied on December 24, 2014 at 4:36 PM

    Yes, I believe this would be an excellent feature to add to your product!

    May I also suggest including the ability to insert a complimentary link in emails and Thank You pages.

    For example:

    {edit_link} = Link to edit a previous submission

    {copy_link} = Link to submit an edited version of a previous submission as a completely new submission

     

  • Ben
    Replied on December 24, 2014 at 5:23 PM

    Hi,

    Based on what you have mentioned I believe that you are after this:

    http://form.jotformpro.com/form/43576541474966

    What I have done is combined URL parameters with the data of the submission that we get on Thank You page.

    Do let us know if that is what you were after.

    Also, you can check submissions here: http://www.jotform.com/submissions/43576541474966

    Password: ben

    I have hidden email field intentionally from the submissions view so that others do not see the submissions.

    Best Regards,
    Ben

  • mwinigrad
    Replied on December 25, 2014 at 10:14 AM

    This is a very clever workaround!  Thank you!

    I have a lot of fields on the form, so this will take some work to construct the URL parameters, but it should work nicely.

    I hope your team will consider building this feature in the future.

    Again, thank you for your excellent suggestion!

  • Ben
    Replied on December 25, 2014 at 10:44 AM

    Hi,

    This is a very clever workaround!  Thank you!

    You are welcome and thank you :)

    I have a lot of fields on the form, so this will take some work to construct the URL parameters, but it should work nicely.

    This should help you with prepopulating the URL by giving you the fields with dummy values that you set, which you can then just replace with the proper {fieldTags}.

    PrePopulate Fields app

    I hope your team will consider building this feature in the future.

    My colleague was waiting for your confirmation and I wanted to see if this is something that would work for you, but I will raise this to our developers as a new feature.

    Now there is one other way to set it up as well, that I just thought off :)

    I will only lay it out in theory, but if needed we can work on the actual sample supporting the theory as well.

    This new way of doing it would require that the thank you page is on your server.

    1. Set the form to send POST data and prepare the php pages to accept it
        - Send POST Data From JotForm Using PHP in Custom Thank You Page
    2. collect the data on server and build form with hidden fields for each of the submitted data fields
    3. using GET in the form action, just let the user click the button and they would get back

    This would be a bit complex to build and would require you to update the php file if you change something with the fields.

    Oh and another one, which is not as good in my opinion, but might work for you or someone looking for just that so I will add it.

    If you have a long list of items and you use the page break on your jotform, what you could do is set the thank you page to redirect to the jotform (back to itself), but pre-populating the required fields.

    However you also add a thank you message at the top, which is only shown on first page if fields are filled on the last page.

    Now the only reason why I say that it is not as good as the first two options is because if you go back you might see the thank you on the first page, so it would only work if they can not go back to the first page.

    Hope that this helps :)

    We will be raising this to our developers and they will update you through this thread as soon as there is any update on this.

    Best Regards,
    Ben

  • Ben
    Replied on December 25, 2014 at 11:02 AM

    Hi,

    It is me..Well, you might say that I am becoming boring, but I just thought of a new way that would require:

    1. under 1 minute to set it up,

    2. only simple Copy -> Paste needed

    3. Shows the start of the jotform (first page) and has all of the info pre-filled for you.

    4. did I say that there is no codding required? :)

    Please take a look at the jotform again and you will see it as a "New test" at the bottom.

    http://form.jotformpro.com/form/43576541474966

    How to do it?

    Go to thank you page and set it up like you would like to have it shown to your visitors.

    Now select the words that you want to take them back to a new submission, with the same data already present and click on Add link in the toolbar

    Feature Request: Allow an end user to submit an edited version of their submission as a completely new submission Image 1 Screenshot 20

    After that add the javascriptDISABLED: history.back(); option in the Link URL field (step 3) and click on Update.

    Now test it and see how smooth it is, I just can not believe that I did not think of it on the first go :)

    Do let us know if you have any further questions.

    Best Regards,
    Ben

  • wendyw
    Replied on September 1, 2015 at 3:04 PM

    Ben, 

    This is exactly what I'm looking to do, but I'm having a hard time doing it in the updated version of jotform. I would like the user to be able to have the option of cloning a previous submission so the reply you sent December 25 at 11:02 AM seems to be applicable. However, this is how I see it on my end:

    Feature Request: Allow an end user to submit an edited version of their submission as a completely new submission Image 1 Screenshot 20

    Can you please walk me through the steps?

     

    Thanks,

    Wendy

  • Ben
    Replied on September 1, 2015 at 4:16 PM

    Since this is almost a year old thread, I have moved your question to a new thread Wendy that can be found here: http://www.jotform.com/answers/652911 and where we will help you with the setup.

    Now as many things have changed since then, not all of the steps might be available at this time, but as mentioned, we will check and see what can be done :)