Pre-populate a form

Sarah McKew

Hi all,

I have read through this thread and a lot of it seems very advanced for my current SS level, but I am trying to understand anyway.

Could somebody please advise whether it's possible to pre-populate a form with a user's name when the form is embedded in a dashboard? (Dashboard requires the user to be logged in).

I tried including an Auto-Number System column for "Created By" but it populates the cell with web-form@smartsheet.com instead of the user's detail.

Thank you in advance!

Genevieve P.

Hi @Sarah McKew

To have the user's email automatically populate into a "Created By" column, you'll need to adjust the Form Settings (see here) to only allow users with a Smartsheet Login to fill out the form.

If they have to log in to see the Dashboard, this will automatically log them in for the form as well, so it won't look any different from the user side.

Here's the setting in the form:

Let me know if this works for you!

Cheers,

Genevieve

Sarah McKew

@Genevieve P you are a rockstar! Thank you so much :)

Genevieve P.

Haha, no problem at all! Happy to help 🙂

Brett Buzzy

Through the thread here I have been able to figure out how to pre-populate a form using data from an existing sheet. TY.

The goal is to start another row in Sheet "B" by using a Form which is pre-populated with data with from a specific row in Sheet "A". I do not want to link cells as the data in the Form for Sheet "B" often will need to be altered. This is just a way to give the user a head start. Goal is to click on a button in a row on Sheet "A" and certain values are inserted as defualt in the Form for Sheet "B"

Like I said before I was able to get this to work. However, I can not figure out how to change what is displayed in the cell in Sheet "A". If I leave the cell to display the URL it works fine. When I tell smartsheets this cell is a hyperlink the "smartness" goes away and the URL becomes static and not dynamic. So....the next row that is added in Sheet "A" will pass the wrong info to the Form for Sheet "B".

I was going down the path of hiding the cell which generates the URL and have the "button" cell grab info from the URL generator cell, but I can not get that to work. Any ideas?

Brett

liz.mayeux

I had the same issue and have decided for my purposes to leave the hyperlink as is.

I did find that by using DataMesh and Dynamic View, I no longer needed pre-propulated forms as much.

Tracy Huang

Discovered this thread and thought this was a brilliant solution. However, I've spent the day and cannot get the URL to display the referenced cell. Here is my formula:

https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/473c22d5f5154353b7729e2f79a9143b?First%20Name="+SUBSTITUTE([First%20Name]%40row," ","%20")

It is displayed in the form: " SUBSTITUTE([First Name]@row "

Please help.

liz.mayeux

this may sound weird but add spaces between =" (SPACE) + (SPACE) SUBSTITUTE

I just looked at my formula and that's the only differences I'm seeing between the 2 entries

="https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/0af8f97554a9406b88b1a7d6c2dcc245?Project%20Number=" + SUBSTITUTE([Project Number]@row, " ", "%20") + "&Project%20Name=" + SUBSTITUTE([Project Name]@row, " ", "%20")

Margarita Takou

How to populate drop down fields with multiple entries? Are the spaces between the multiple entries considered spaces?

Paul Newcome

@Margarita Takou The spaces between multiple entries in a multi-select dropdown column are actual line breaks.

Entry 1

Entry 2

You can see this if you select the column and turn on text wrapping.

To enter a line break into a formula, you would use:

CHAR(10)

Rosimeire Santos

Hello,

I am trying to do the same thing following your example above and it does not work for me. What am I doing wrong? it opens the form but shows only a text "[Project ID]@row"

https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/20e01e8085e048238104f96917cba84e?Project%20Name=[Project%20ID]%40row

Thank you

Rosimeire

liz.mayeux

Try this - I think you are missing quotations

https://

app.smartsheet.com/b/form/20e01e8085e048238104f96917cba84e?Project%20Name= +SUBSTITUTE([Project ID]@row)

Rosimeire Santos

I added but still the same: getting text:  SUBSTITUTE([Project ID]@row) instead of the value. I added two spaces mentioned above too, but no luck...

https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/20e01e8085e048238104f96917cba84e?Project%20Name=%20+SUBSTITUTE([Project%20ID]@row)

liz.mayeux

you shouldn't need the %20 before the +Substitute or in between [Project ID]. [Project ID] is your column name and doesn't require the %20.

Replace Project%20Name with Project%ID in the formula. That is the name of the cell on your form.

In my example below, I'm including = sign before the formula begins and then " before the https begins. I'm not sure if it is removed w/ your copy and paste into the comment field here. I also include " after Number= and before +substitute. It took me quite a few tries and once I was able to figure out the format that worked best.

="https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/0af8f97554a9406b88b1a7d6c2dcc245?Project%20Number=" + SUBSTITUTE([Project Number]@row, " ", "%20") + "&Project%20Name=" + SUBSTITUTE([Project Name]@row, " ", "%20")

I hope this helps.

Rosimeire Santos

Bingo!! I was copying the string in the hyperlink. I did not think it as a formula!! :(

Now I understand and it worked! Thank so much!!!! You made my day!

Have a great weekend!

Rosimeire