Form

Collect features or non-spatial responses from people in the field or at their desks. Close to what Survey123 covers for many surveys, with a different designer and sync model.

basic

A form is an item that presents a question list to a respondent and writes their answers into a backing layer when they submit. Forms are how non-GIS people contribute data: damage assessments, inspections, citizen reports, training rosters.

What a form binds to

Every form is bound to a single backing item. Two cases:

  • Bound to a data layer. Submissions become new features in the layer's sublayer. The form is essentially a feature-collection survey.
  • Bound to a form-submission-collection. Submissions are non-spatial rows in a dedicated submission table. Use this when the answers aren't tied to a feature (a customer satisfaction survey, a meeting attendance log).

The binding is set when you create the form and can't be changed after; the field layout is built against the target schema.

What's in a form

  • Questions, each mapped to a backing field. Question types include short text, long text, single-select, multi-select, number, date, photo, location, signature, and a few composite types.
  • Layout. Question order, page breaks, section headers, conditional visibility rules.
  • Validation. Required, min, max, regex, custom expression.
  • Defaults. Pre-filled values, including computed defaults (geolocate-on-open, today's date, current user).
  • Submission permissions. Who can submit; an option to allow anonymous public submission via a tokenized URL.

How submissions flow

  1. A respondent opens the form in the portal or the field PWA.
  2. They fill it in and tap Submit.
  3. The portal validates against the schema and writes the row.
  4. The submission shows up in the bound layer's feature browser immediately. No approval step by default.

Approval workflows (queue submissions for a reviewer before publishing) are a separate item type, Form review queue, layered on top.

Form sharing vs response sharing

The form item's sharing controls who can open the form and submit. The paired data layer (created when you save a form with at least one question) has its own sharing, and that is what controls who can view submitted responses. By default the layer is private to you.

The form designer shows a short notice above the canvas with the paired layer's current access tier and a link to manage it. Sharing the form publicly to collect answers does not automatically make responses public.

Importing an existing form

The form designer's Import button accepts:

  • XLSForm (.xlsx) from Survey123, ODK, or KoboToolbox.
  • GratisGIS form JSON (.json) exported from another portal.

See Importing an XLSForm for the field mapping rules.

Versions and edits

Editing a deployed form is allowed but constrained: you can add new questions, reorder, change labels, tighten validation. You cannot remove a field that has data in it or change a field's type without first archiving the existing responses. The designer surfaces blocked operations with an explanation.

See also

  • Form designer. The visual builder, page by page.
  • XLSForm import. The one-time conversion from external surveys.
  • Form submission collection. The non-spatial backing item.