Pre-Populate a form

Simon Wilcock

Morning

I've got a simple form that we send to a manager to complete details for their new employee. The form is started by me in that I add the new employee basic details onto the Smartsheet. I want to then send a form to the manager, with 3-4 pre-set fields already completed (Name, location, etc.)

I could use an update request but I prefer using the form because it looks much nicer and you can have the additional help text under each question. I will have an alert email going to the manager with the basic details as fields in the alert text and a custom URL and wanted to also have the basic fields on the form..

I've created a URL as follows with just one field selected for the moment,

="https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/5d18ecc434424104a97bc76f95876a73?Employee%20Name=" + [Employee Name]@row

My issue is that for some reason, the employee name field is only taking the employees first name and not the full name from the field.

Does anyone know what I am doing wrong?

Thanks

Andrée Starå

Hi @Simon Wilcock

Try something like this.

="https://appsmartsheetcom/b/form/5d18ecc434424104a97bc76f95876a73?Employee%20Name=" + SUBSTITUTE([Employee Name]@row; " "; "%20")

The same version but with the below changes for convenience.

="https://appsmartsheetcom/b/form/5d18ecc434424104a97bc76f95876a73?Employee%20Name=" + SUBSTITUTE([Employee Name]@row, " ", "%20")

Depending on your country/region, you'll need to exchange the comma to a period and the semi-colon to a comma.

You'll need to add the SUBSTITUTE part because there are Character Space between the first and last name.

Did that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please help the Community by marking it as the accepted answer/helpful. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

Andrée Starå

@Simon Wilcock

Excellent!

You're more than welcome!

✅Remember! Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please help the Community by marking it as the accepted answer/helpful. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

Andrée Starå

Hi @Simon Wilcock

Try something like this.

="https://appsmartsheetcom/b/form/5d18ecc434424104a97bc76f95876a73?Employee%20Name=" + SUBSTITUTE([Employee Name]@row; " "; "%20")

The same version but with the below changes for convenience.

="https://appsmartsheetcom/b/form/5d18ecc434424104a97bc76f95876a73?Employee%20Name=" + SUBSTITUTE([Employee Name]@row, " ", "%20")

Depending on your country/region, you'll need to exchange the comma to a period and the semi-colon to a comma.

You'll need to add the SUBSTITUTE part because there are Character Space between the first and last name.

Did that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please help the Community by marking it as the accepted answer/helpful. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

Simon Wilcock

Perfect, works correctly, thanks for this Andrée

Andrée Starå

@Simon Wilcock

Excellent!

You're more than welcome!

✅Remember! Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please help the Community by marking it as the accepted answer/helpful. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

Simon Wilcock

Quick question, I have the system working perfectly, one sheet tracks all my manager requests and a second sheet holds their completed forms. The first sheet has the URL which sends them then second sheet form with pre-populated fields.

Everything works except the date filed. In both sheets, the format is set as DD/MM/YYYY but when the second form opens with the present value in the URL, it has the correct date but shows it as DD/MM/YY so puts an error when you submit and the user has to change the date to DD/MM/YYYY

Is their anyway to ensure that the date gets sent in the URL as DD/MM/YYYY?

Andrée Starå

@Simon Wilcock

I hope you're well and safe!

Excuse the late response.

Did you get it working?

Be safe and have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

mamin

Question: I'm trying to prepopulate the following text on a form using the logic stated above, but am not getting any values back and would like to see if there are any additional thoughts/suggestions around this:

5 - Meets 100% of Criteria

Also, currently this above-mentioned text is just a text field but if it's part of a drop-down menu, is it still possible to pre-populate this using similar logic?

Thanks in advance.

melho

Hi,

So I've gotten the formula to work where it will pre-populate my form. But after submitting it, the submitted form creates a new line entry. It does not update the current line where the info is pre-populating from.

Is there any way to fix that and have the info populate into the current line? Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

TIA

Simon Wilcock

A new form submission will always be a new row. If you want to update an existing row, you would need to use an update request instead.