Create a Form

The Sporty.co.nz platform makes it easy for you to create web input forms that display whatever question fields you want. Each form has a unique address (URL) so you can then share a link to your form on your website, Facebook or via email. Whenever someone completes and submits your form, their record is automatically added to an online database associated with that form.

IMPORTANT: Sporty includes a number of official registration forms for NZ Rugby Union, NZ Football, Touch NZ, NZ Rugby League, Volleyball NZ, Softball NZ and Netball. These official forms will be visible to you when you login to Sporty and go to your Online Registrations area. If you wish to take registrations or renewals for any sports code that has an official form, you should use that official form instead of creating your own form. You can still add your own question fields and text to the official forms to customise them to meet your own needs. Data submitted on the official forms is automatically shared with the governing body to meet their mandatory reporting requirements, but data relating to your own custom fields is not shared and remains private to your organisation.

How to create a form

1. Login to Sporty and from the Dashboard, click the Online Registrations tile to go to the registrations and databases area

2. Click + Build New Form to create a new form. This launches the form builder utility

3. Enter the name of your form in the Form Name field

Note: Do not type the year in the name of your form. The year will be displayed in the form name automatically if you set a year in the form settings below.

• If the form relates to a particular year or season, select it from the Season dropdown list
• If the form relates to a particular sport, select it from the Sport dropdown list
• If you expect to organise the people that register into teams/groups with grades/divisions or use the TeamBuilder™ utility, then click the Add Grades button and set the grades for your form
• Enter an email address into the From Email field. When people use your form, they'll receive a confirmation email (if this option is set in the Advanced Options area). If someone replies to that confirmation email, their reply will go to whatever From Email address you set here

4. Click the Advanced Options button to decide whether you want to change any system defaults. The advanced options are:

• Email a copy to the registrant - This sends a confirmation email that is a copy of the completed form to the person once they have submitted the form. Ticked on by default
• Visible in mobile app - This includes the form within the list of forms visible under the Register icon for anyone using your Sporty mobile app, so people can view and complete the form via the mobile app
• Allow registrant edit - If enabled this automatically adds to the confirmation email a unique link (URL) back to the completed form, allowing people to click the link from this confirmation email to return to their completed form and update their details/answers at a later stage. Ticked on by default
• Allow PhotoCard - If you subscribe to PhotoCard digital IDs, then a PhotoCard will automatically be created for everyone who completes the form. You can then manage this setting for each person in your database view. See this support article for more information.
• Exclude from CRM - If you are using SuperCRM, you may not want to include all registrants of a form in the CRM. By ticking this field excludes those records from appearing in the CRM
• Limit maximum amount of responses - Set a maximum number of registrations for the form. Users will see a message when they try to enter a registration after the limit has been reached
• Email copy of registration confirmation - Any email addresses entered here will receive a copy of the confirmation email whenever someone completes the online form
• Start date - If you wish to prevent people from completing the form before a specified date, set the date here using the date-picker
• End date - If you wish to prevent people from completing the form after a specified date, set the date here using the date-picker
• Next season form - If another form already exists for the next period (term/year/season) you can link your form to that form. This linkage is used when you wish to roll people's records forward from one database to another, or when you use the bulk invitation to re-register facility. Note that this linkage is set automatically for the official forms from sports codes governing bodies
• Confirmation Email Content - This is where you can add text that will sit above the introductory text in confirmation emails. This can be where you add messages, for example, to thank players for registering or instructions that need to be read after completing a registration. This is only visible to the person in their confirmation email
• Share form with - This option will only appear if it has been enabled by a Sportsground staff member for your organisation. If available, you can enter the name of a (single) organisation you wish to share the form information with. This will include information of anyone who registers to the form. See this support article for more information.

5. Set the introductory text that will display at the top of your form in the Intro Text area. This commonly includes the purpose of your form and any key information that people are likely to need such as important dates, pricing, or instructions. You can include links to documents or other pages form within this text area

In the Terms and Conditions text area, outline any terms and conditions necessary. This will usually contain information such as privacy policy and adhering to the organisation code of conduct. Note, when information entered into the Terms and Conditions are it will automatically introduce a mandatory check box at the bottom of the form that must be ticked before the form can be submitted.

6. Set whatever question fields you wish to display on your form. By default, the first section of the form is named Registrant Details. You can rename this if you wish, but the first three fields of First Name, Last Name, and Email are mandatory system fields. These fields are used in the top level database view for all records entered through your form

7. The top section also contains a number of optional preset form fields that you can add from the drop-down list. Click on the field you want to add to your form from the list and click Add. The optional preset fields are:

• Maiden Name
• Date of Birth
• Gender
• Ethnicity (Ethnicity Selections)
• Secondary Ethnicity (Second Ethnicity Selections)
• Photo
• Address
• Postal Address
• Phone 1 (Mobile)
• Phone 2 (Home/Alternate)
• Parent/Caregiver 1 First Name
• Parent/Caregiver 1 Last Name
• Parent/Caregiver 1 Phone
• Parent/Caregiver 1 Email
• Parent/Caregiver 1 Address
• Parent/Caregiver 2 First Name
• Parent/Caregiver 2 Last Name
• Parent/Caregiver 2 Phone
• Parent/Caregiver 2 Email
• Parent/Caregiver 2 Address
• Next of Kin First Name
• Next of Kin Last Name
• Next of Kin Phone
• Next of Kin Email

You can set any additional fields to be mandatory by ticking the Required checkbox.

You can also change the labels of the form fields. For example, instead of First Name, Last Name, and Email the fields could be Student first name, Student last name, Parents email. But it is important to use the field name for the purpose of which it is intended. For example, do not change the field name of the First Name field to Age.

If selecting the ethnicity field, this will be pre-populated with the ethnicity options of NZ European, Māori, Pacific Islander, Asian or Other. You can add an Ethnicity Selection field which will enable people to select more detailed ethnicity options. For example, if Māori is selected as the ethnicity, in the Ethnicity Selections field a list of all Iwi are displayed. You can also display a second ethnicity field. 

Also, if you would like to collect registrants' postal addresses, select the Postal Address option and the Postal Address field will display when registrants untick the box indicating that they have a different mailing address from their physical address.

8. You can add additional sections with your own question fields if you wish. To create a new section, click Add Section.

You can name the section however you wish and this will display as a section heading in the public view of your form. Alternatively, you can leave the section name blank if you do not wish to display this heading.

Similarly, you are able to rename the Products Section if one is displayed. This allows you to personalise the headline to match your unique products. Do so by editing the Product Section Title.

9. To add your own question fields, click Add Question and type your question into the text box. For each question, choose an appropriate field type from the drop-down-box to the right of the question. By choosing appropriate field types, you ensure the choices people make are sensible, consistent and can be sorted in your database view. The field types are explained below:

• SingleLineText - Use when you expect people to type a short text answer such as a word or short sentence
• MultiLineText - Use when you expect people to type a longer text answer such as a longer sentence or paragraph
• SingleChoice - This allows you to set options that will display in a drop-down list, where people can only choose a single option from the list
• MultiChoice - This allows you to set options that will display in a drop-down list, where people can choose one or multiple options concurrently from the list
• Yes/No - Use for yes/no questions
• DateOfBirth - Use for asking date of birth (which exists in the past)
• Date - Use for asking for a date in the future
• Address - Use for addresses. This field will auto-complete as the person types their address.
• Email - Use to ensure the person enters a validly formatted email address
• GradeList - If grades have been configured for your form, use this field to display the list of grades as a drop-down list
• TeamList - If teams exist for the grade selected from the GradeList (above), use this field to display the list of grades as a drop-down list
• Gender - Use this to display gender options
• Document - Lets a person attach/upload a document with their completed form, such as a birth certificate
• AddText - Lets you simply add text to display between fields, such as to display an explanation or instructions
• Checkbox - Displays a tick box
• Drivers license - Specific field type where you must enter 2 letters followed by 6 numbers which is a NZ drivers license format, e.g. BJ378394
• Additional Photos - Use if you want people to upload additional photos associated with their details, e.g. photo of birth certificate

10. Admin Only. Lets you record additional fields of information for a registrant that are only visible to you as an administrator. By ticking the checkbox the field is not visible to the person completing the form. You can edit their record once they have registered and add information into the field

11. There are handy formatting tools that you can use to change how your form will display. Firstly, you can easily change the order of the sections and questions in your form. Do this by using the four-way arrow drag-handles to drag & drop them into whatever order you want. Secondly, you are able to use the 'Expand' option to show fields on your form in an expanded or collapsed view. This provides you with the option to compress a lot of information into a small space that users can visually scan in a quick way

Expanded View of Registration form (display all the details of your form).

Collapsed view of registration form (display a summary of your form).

To achieve this, when editing your form select the tick box Expand to the right of the headline to enable.

12. You can delete sections or questions by clicking the trashcan icon at the top of the section you wish to delete, or beside a question you wish to delete

13. Once you are happy with your form, click Save Form. Note that you should also do this if you intend leaving your computer for a prolonged period during the process of building a form, in case you become logged out over time and your changes become lost

14. When you save a form, you must select a folder to save the form to, or create a new folder

15. Your new form will now appear in the selected folder in your Online Registrations area

16. To display you form, you can use the Online Form widget within the Sporty Website Builder, or use the form's address (URL) to display a link to the form on Facebook or via email. For more information please see:

• How to display a form
• The online form widget
• How to edit a form

17. You can add products to the bottom of the form to record payments owed and also accept online payments. For more information please see:

• Add products to a form
• Online Payments - what you need to know

18. To test your form, please see this support article