Webform names don't match to contact list when inputted on form

Mark Bonham

When using webforms and submitter puts in their name, if their name is already in contacts it doesn't match to contacts name.  So you end up with a new name entry the same as an already existing name in your contacts column.  Could they be linked?

Travis

Hi Mark - web forms do not have a way to look into your contacts or to link inputted names to Smartsheet users in your sheet. The best option is to fix the name in your sheet after the form is submitted. 

Stephanie Taylor

Can you prepopulate the names in the webforms?  That way they are entered to match your contact list.  Or do you have too many different people using the webforms?

Travis

Stephanie - you could pre populate a contact list field with a single value but this would come in as text, not as a contact (just like if you typed it in). There is not a workaround to link an entered name to a user at this time.  You would need to fix the name once it is in the sheet.  

 

I will pass this feature suggestion along to our product team! 

Mark Bonham

Thanks for all the suggestions.  The fixing of the name to match pre-existing submitter is what has to be done now.  It's just heavy manual process to do.   What could be good is if a submitter to the webform has already used the form before that it could offer the name back to the submitter.  So a vlookup when the submitter start typing their name from the smartsheet pre-existing information, this would then allow them pick the match.  Is this something smartsheet could think of doing?  Thanks.

Travis

Mark - there aren’t any near term plans for this functionality but I did send this request to our product team for consideration in future development. Thanks Mark! 

David Bauman

I agree with Mark!  This would be so helpful.  In the sheet, contacts are selected from a drop down menu, but the same field in the Webform doesn't give you a drop-down option (unlike other drop-down fields which do work...)  Seems like it would be an important thing to fix.

 

Thanks!

Dave

Brian Veasman

If you use a contact's email address instead of their name, then SmartSheet makes the connection.  This is useful in webforms and when copy excel data into Smartsheet that have contact fields.

Kegan

Hi Guys,

 

Any news on when this functionality might be added?

 

K

Mark Bonham

Hi Guys, 

 

Just a thought building out on the webforms issue for contact names.   Assuming that logic that smartsheet promotes collaboration, having a situation where you can be sure the right name and person is collaborating, wouldn't it make sense that you have a drop down choice of names on webform to an existing smartsheet user?

 

If the person is new, they get to to a basic register to get their contact name consistent?  of course only on webforms where a contact name is required.

 

Scalability of having freeform inconsistent names and manually having to correct isn't working on a large population.

 

Thanks,
Mark

Travis

Hi everyone! We appreciate the feedback and understand your concerns. Our goal is to make Smartsheet the best and easiest way to collaborate, plan, and monitor projects and tasks and are constantly improving the product. I don't have any updates on this particular feature, but you can check out our product roadmap to see what we are currently working on: www.smartsheet.com/product-roadmap

R.Holden

This is an excellent request and I will check the roadmap to see if it makes it soon!

Gordon

I tried entering an email address into the webform contact list field per Brian Veasman's ealier suggestion, but S/S still does not seem to make the connection in the sheet to my existing Team account/contact data.

 

Any updates on this critical feature for us, or perhaps a creative workaround?  I'm looking for a way to setup reminders and alerts for the sheet tied to a contact list field that is input via webform.

Kristy Marshall

Brian Veasman

You stated that if you use a contact's email address instead of their name, then SmartSheet makes the connection.  I have not found this to be true.  I copy from Excel or from SQL and I have tried the contact's email address and I still have to manually type in the name from the drop down.  I was curious if I need it in a certain format?  I just have name@email.com.  Do I need quotes or anything special to get it recognize it?  I noticed that if I import from Excel it recognizes it but not a copy.  Thanks for any suggestions.  This is quite a daily time consuming function I have to do.  I have over 500 rows that I copy in each day and that is the only field I have to manually type.

Kent Vaughn

+1 from me. 

 

This is another one of those features that I just find hard to believe isn't implemented.  Unless I'm missing some critical detail, If I don't have the contact information then the reminders/alerts won't be able to send emails, correct?   So this would imply that trying to do something as simple as an action item list via a web form means you would have to go into the sheet to enter the actual contact information.   ( It might be possible to enter the email address in the Contact Field and have the contact column "link up" so to speak.  But having to type in an email address for every "todo" seems terribly inefficient ). 

Rob Lent

+1 from me. 

 

I've attended a few SS trainings and I'm getting better with creating sheets and reports based on best practices, but the more features I use, the more holes seem to be appearing in the SS product...