Smartsheet Form Fields (HTML)

Art Schneiderheinze

While I like that Smartsheet has forms to collect information from users, they are very limited in how data is collected, as well as limited in visual design options.

With Google forms, I can create a form, view it in a Web browser, and then identify the actual form fields in the HTML and use those same field codes in my own HTML form. This way, I can have complete control over how the form looks and how data is collected (e.g., forcing data to be entered a certain way).

When I view a form I created in Smartsheet, then go to View Page Source, I see random characters---nothing that looks like form HTML code. As a result, I have no idea how to identify form field information. When I know the form and field names, I can use those in my own HTML form, and still use Smartsheet to collect the data. For example:

<form>

<input type="text" name="firstname">

<input type="text" name="lastname">

</form>

Anyone try to create their own HTML forms but use the Smartsheet form behind the scenes, so data entered in the HTML form I create ends up in Smartsheet?

L_123

I've used vba in excel to submit data in excel spreadsheets to smartsheet using the forms.

The secret I have found is instead of looking for the fields to submit via html you can use query strings to fill the fields. That way you can use the predictable column names and update the url instead of trying to find values in html. Probably not the best way to do it, but it works for me.

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2478871-url-query-string-form-default-values

If you are interested in the code I am happy to share.