Schedule Form Deactivation & Friendly Form Ended Msg

Sarah J Huibregtse

Hello all,

I've searched this topic but only found old ideas from 2019'ish, so I'm hoping there has been an update made to Smartsheet or someone found a better workaround (meaning user friendly) than what was previously suggested.

1) I'd like to schedule a form to deactivate at a set date/time. I'm not seeing that as an option. Is there a workaround to make this happen? I even looked at the workflow options but that doesn't impact form submissions.

2) Per the forms training resources for de-activating a form does the following: "Disable the URL (accessing it will display an error message), but preserve it and the form so that you can use them in the future." MY QUESTION - is there a way to have a user friendly message display similar to what a user would receive if they submitted the form? Or is there a way to re-direct them to another page once the form is deactivated (if this is an option I know I'd have to create a web page to land on)? It's not user friendly for someone to receive an error message and will only mean that I'll receive emails to find out why it's not working. I definitely don't want them to be able to submit thinking they will get what they are asking for past the deadline---that's definitely not putting the user first.

I did see validation options using a set date as an end date, but that doesn't prevent them from submitting. As a user I'd be annoyed if I completed a form to receive a message after submission stating the deadline passed.

Open to other ideas and workarounds that are user focused/friendly.

Kind regards, Sarah

Genevieve P.

Hi @Sarah J Huibregtse

1 - You are correct, there current is no option to automatically deactivate a form. You can set a reminder to do it yourself, but deactivating a form is a manual process at this time. (Please submit your feedback to the Product team through this form, here).

2 - There also isn't currently a way to change what the error message says when you deactivate a form. It will have the standard message:

What I would suggest doing is create a Duplicate of the form so you have the layout you worked on. Then, delete all the fields in your current form, except for the Title and a Description:

This way when users access your link, they'll see the custom message you've added as the Description:

Even though the Submit button is there, users won't be able to submit the form as nothing exists.

I hope that helps!

Genevieve

Sarah J Huibregtse

Genevieve,

That's a great workaround! Thank you so much. Not ideal but definitely more user friendly than a standard message.

Truly appreciate your idea and time to reply.

Kind regards,

Sarah

Genevieve P.

Hi Sarah,

No problem! It's what I'm currently using on a specific form. 🙂

Neal M

Not ideal at all.

We have a form for clients to request assistance. When the waitlist gets too long, we have suspended it until we catch up, then reactivate the form. Creating a duplicate form would creates a different url and we basically have to re-create the form each time we need to activate it.

wallacea

Has the Smartsheet team created an automated way to expire a form since the date of this last inquiry?

Paul Newcome

I use a date field in my form that is hidden and has a default value of the date that I want to "deactivate" my form on. I also include a header field in the form that has the deactivation message. Then I use conditional logic to say that if the date field is after today, show all of the fields I want shown, and a second bit of logic to say that if the date is before today (meaning in the past), it will only show the deactivation header.

Since it is showing only a header field, no other field can be filled in which means the Submit button just won't work.