Can I prevent the same email address from being entered in my form multiple times?

  • qliomaha
    Asked on March 23, 2016 at 12:27 PM

    Hi, my company is using a form to grow our email list.  We are going to encourage our employees to sign their family and friends up to our marketing/PR campaign.

    Since we are going to send an auto notification message to anyone who is signed up to this list (we want them to know who signed them up, so they don't think our company is spamming them), we would like to prevent the same email address from being used in our form multiple times.

    Is that possible?  If so, please advise how we can setup the form to notify the person who is signing up the individual that their email address is already submitted.

    Or another option.  If we cannot prevent the same email from being submitted multiple times, can we tell the system to not send another auto email message to the same email address if it has been entered before?

    Thanks,
    Blake

  • Ben
    Replied on March 23, 2016 at 12:46 PM

    You can do that quite easily Blake if you use Form limits and a unique question option.

    The basics of it are that the form checks the specified field against already entered data. If the same is found to already exist, it is no longer possible to submit the form, but if it is not, then the submission is saved.

    You can check it out here: How to set Form Limits Based on a Unique Question

    Of course if there are any issues or questions around the same, do let us know and we would be happy to assist with the same :)

  • qliomaha
    Replied on March 23, 2016 at 1:02 PM

    Thanks so much - I followed the directions and have it setup!

    One related question.  Can I edit the text that a person sees when they submit the form and the email address they used has already been submitted?

    I apologize in advance if the directions you provided also show how to do this.  I have looked and cannot figure it out.

    Thanks again,
    Blake

  • Ben
    Replied on March 23, 2016 at 1:28 PM

    That is all OK Blake, feel free to let us know if you have any additional questions and we would be happy to assist with the same.

    Now in regards to your question, please do follow the steps here: How to Change Form Warnings

    When you go into form views, just search for following text: "Sorry! Only one entry is allowed. Multiple submissions are disabled for this form."

    As soon as you change them you will see the error message changed as well.

  • qliomaha
    Replied on March 23, 2016 at 6:20 PM

    Thanks - I now have that updated - much appreciated!

    Another question.  We are trying to expand an existing list, so I would ideally like to avoid having anyone who is already on our list receive the auto-email that is generated should someone try to register them.  I researched how to import submissions into a form, and I believe I did it correctly.  I only imported the email address, as I figured that was the only field that mattered, since that is the field that I want to check for duplicates.

    Unfortunately, when I tested the form to see if it would send accept a submission for an email address that I just imported, the system did not recognize the duplicate.  Did I do something wrong, or is it not possible to import data and have the system check it for duplicates like it does for individual submissions?

    Thanks again,
    Blake

  • Nik_C
    Replied on March 23, 2016 at 6:42 PM

    Could this work for you:

    If you go to Preferences of your form and than to form limits:

    Can I prevent the same email address from being entered in my form multiple times? Image 1 Screenshot 20

    And set for Unique Submission to be 'Strict check' that will control from which IP address your form is submitting. You can check more about this topic in this guide.

    Please let me know if this could work for you.

    Thank you.