Can you validate an email address in a form by domain?

Jessica Hodge

Hi,

We have a web form with a place for a respondent to enter in an email address. We would like to restrict the field so that only domains from state government agencies can be entered into the form.

Each agency has a distinct domain, and they would all have to be accepted for this to work.

Is this possible?

Paul Newcome

If you restrict the dropdown to only the options listed in the column properties, then they wouldn't be able to select an "unapproved" domain is what I was thinking with that. Make it a required field, and they won't be able to submit without selecting a domain and to select the domain they won't have any options other than approved domains.

Paul Newcome

Do you know how many different domains there are?

Jessica Hodge

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/254682#Comment_254682

42

Andrée Starå

Hi Jessica,

It might be possible with the Form Logic.

I'm going to check to make sure.

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Andrée Starå

@Jessica Hodge

Yes, it would work with the Form Logic, but we might reach a limitation.

We'd use the Contain criteria and add the different domains. If the domain isn't approved, it won't show the other fields or something similar.

Would that work?

Paul Newcome

@Andrée Starå I am interested to see what you come up with with the form logic.

I was thinking using two separate fields. A text field for the first part of the email address and then a single select dropdown with the acceptable domains listed.

Email Prefix:

"paul.newcome"

Email Domain:

DROPDOWN WITH SELECTIONS

Then in the sheet you can use a separate column to pull the two together into a usable email address.

Andrée Starå

@Paul Newcome

Yes, that was my initial thought, but I don't think that @Jessica Hodge want them to be able to submit if the domain isn't approved.

Jessica Hodge

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/254688#Comment_254688

This is a good idea and it could work! I was also thinking of doing a formula to create a conditional column in the sheet that displays true when it matches one of the domains and false when it doesn't. However, I'm not sure how that formula would work with all 42 domains. I was thinking an IF(CONTAINS, but I can't get it to work with more than one domain.

Paul Newcome

If you restrict the dropdown to only the options listed in the column properties, then they wouldn't be able to select an "unapproved" domain is what I was thinking with that. Make it a required field, and they won't be able to submit without selecting a domain and to select the domain they won't have any options other than approved domains.

Andrée Starå

@Jessica Hodge & @Paul Newcome

FYI

Something like this was my idea.

Paul Newcome

@Andrée Starå Ah. That makes sense. And you would select all 42 of the appropriate domains in the logic to be able to show the other fields.

Andrée Starå

@Paul Newcome

Yes, exactly, but I'm not use that that many conditions can be applied. We'll notice another day!

Jessica Hodge

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/254688#Comment_254688

So I'm trying to do this. I'm running into a problem though. The formula I'm using to concatenate the email parts is not working when a new entry is added to the form. Join([Email local address]1:[Email domain]2]).

The merged cell needs to populate automatically in order to not break an automation that is in place.

Jessica Hodge

Sorry typo. it should also be [Email domain]1)

Paul Newcome

What do you mean by "not working"? Is it producing an error or an unexpected result? Do you have two rows above or below the new row that contain the formula?