This article was developed to describe the steps associated with setting up a web form data source. 

Web Form data sources allow you to post information using an HTTP Post. You may wish to link a form on your company's website or have leads directed from a marketing source straight into your CRM. 

1. Name / Field Assignment

Log into the CRM. Click on the Contacts tab, and then click on "Data Source" from the Navigation Bar.

Start by filling in the information under the Name / Field Assignment Section.

1. *Source Name - Enter a name for the data source that will appear throughout the system. We suggest naming the data source after the marketing company or using the web URL for the website from which the leads will be importing.
   
   
2. *Type - Select "Web Form". Import Data Sources are discussed in this article.
   
   
3. *File Type - Select the file type for which the contact should be created. You should make a selection even if you operate with a single File Type.
   
   
4. **Stage and Status - Select the Work Flow Stage and Status you want the contact placed on creation.
   
   
5. Campaign - Select the Campaign to which you want the leads to be assigned.
   
   
6. De-Dupe Field - Select the field you wish to check for duplicates against. We recommend using the "Email" address, as "Phone" could be a shared number with a spouse or family member and possibly still be separate leads from the same household. You would use "My ID" in cases where you are purchasing leads from a lead vendor, and you want to be sure they are not importing duplicate leads to your account.
   
   
7. De-Dupe Action - What do you want to happen to the duplicate?
   • • Reject means the duplicate lead will be rejected, and no contact will be created. There will be no record of this contact attempting to be imported.
     • Flag as Dupe allows the system to still create the duplicate contact but flag it as a possible duplicate. On the Client Dashboard, you will find a link to view and compare the possible duplicates and decide whether to merge or leave them separate.

8. Status - If you are flagging duplicates, you can also place the new possible duplicate contacts in a separate workflow status to be sorted later.

9. Type - Which contacts do you wish this data source to affect? You may select "All Contacts", "Enrolled", or "Not Enrolled".

* Required
** Recommended

Once you have completed this section, go to the navigation bar and click "Save Data Source". You should then see the page refresh and the POST URL appear in the upper right section.

2. POST URL

After saving the data source as a Web Form type, the system will create and display the POST URL to be used. Think of this as the address or location of the data source the party posting/importing into the system will need to direct leads to. You will want to provide this to the other side of the Data Source (i.e. Lead Vendor, Marketing Source, Web Site). The POST URL is a unique identifier, and for each source, a new data source should be created so that they can be managed separately.

To create a contact using the Post URL from the example image above, our Post should look like this:

https://client.forthcrm.com/post/cefeaa16310d57106b453c4106e715e4c95a69d9/?FirstName=John&LastName=Smith

From the example of the POST URL above, expect to receive a contact lead named John Smith. For further information about testing your POST URL, click here.

3. Import Fields / Field Mapping

At this point, it may be necessary to take a break from setup for the provider/import side of the data source to be set up. The web developer or lead vendor will need time to set up so the leads can post out of their system using the POST URL. Once complete, you will want to ask that they send a test post/contact through.

During this process, the importer may ask for Keys/parameters/fields to pass for the fields. If so, please advise them you will map the fields from within the CRM and that they will need to pass "Key Value Pairs" and make the Key descriptive.

For example, they will probably pass something for the contact's first name. It does not matter if they pass it as "first_name", "fname", "first", etc... We will map whatever they pass to the system field "First Name". Using "First Name" will not work directly, and you will still be required to map fields.

To start, the Import Fields section will be blank, as you can see below.

After the importer has sent a test contact, you will find the fields that are available to be mapped. In this example, we pass information for the contact's first and last name, phone number, and state. The importer is passing the as "fname", "lname," "phone", and "state." As a result of the test import, a blank contact will be created. You can delete this if you do not need it.

The "Maps To:" dropdown menu starts with Standard (system) fields. If you continue to scroll, you will find your CRM's Custom Fields and other additional options. The ability to add the data as a note on the contact is the final option if you do not wish to save the information to a field.

Now that the fields have been captured, you can map them to fields in your account. Avoid mapping the same fields from the CRM (right side) more than once, and be careful not to map fields that should be left alone. Mapping "Stage" or "Status," for example, will override the workflow status you already set in the Name / Field Assignment section. You can remove fields or leave them unmapped if you wish. Not everything being imported needs to be mapped - they can be omitted if the information is not needed.

Once you have mapped the fields, save the data source again and ask for another test contact to be posted. You should find the contact created with the data saved in the file. 

**IMPORTANT: It is not possible to map Co-applicant fields. This is because the system cannot create the Primary contact and Co-applicant contact at the same time. If you have Co-applicant data that you would like to import, you may use Custom Fields instead.

4. Additional Options

If you followed the steps above, your data source should now be functionally importing and creating contacts. The following options are not required for the data source to function but can be used to apply additional automation when creating contacts.

A. Assignment Options
The assignment options allow you to assign leads to users and companies on creation. This will allow leads to be worked on as soon as they are received into the CRM.

1. Assigning On - Check the box to activate the further assignment options you will set in this section.
2. Public - Checking this box will make all the leads created through this data source "Public". Public leads are viewable within the entire company and do not follow the other sharing options that may limit what contact users can see. The contact can be assigned as "Private" from the edit contact page (Client Dashboard).
3. Company - Select the company to which you wish to assign the lead. This will affect the users displayed in the next option, Assigned To.
4. Assigned To - Select the user to whom you want leads assigned. You can select multiple users by holding the  'CTRL' key while clicking on them. If multiple users are selected, the leads will be distributed evenly.
5. Additional Company Assignment - You can add secondary company assignments by company type. To set a company's type, go to the Admin Tab > Companies > Select the company to edit and change the option set to "Company Type."
6. Role Assignment - Users are assigned secondarily by role. You must make the user role assignable for it to be available. For more information, see our article on Role Assignments here.
7. Team Assignment - Select the team(s) (data source) you want the leads assigned to. 
8. Notification - Select an email template to send to the representative assigned to you when creating it. The email template must have the Category set to "Notification" to appear in this menu.

B. Send Notifications
The send notification section can send email messages notifying parties when a contact is created. First, select the template. Then, select users for whom you wish to receive notifications. You can also add other email addresses in the "More People" box to notify someone who may not be a user within the CRM. You could use this to send a confirmation email to lead vendors to confirm you received a lead they provided.

C. Create An Auto-Responder
The Auto-Responder can send a message to the newly created contact upon creation. You may do this when the Data Source is linked to a form on your website to confirm that you have received the contact information and will follow up with them shortly. First, check the "On" box to activate the feature, then choose an E-Category (this is the email template type that has been applied to a template from the E-Marketing Tab). Then, select the template and sender from which you wish the message to come.

D. WebHooks
Webhooks can be set up to post lead information out of the system immediately upon creation. You may do this as part of the Data Source to post leads into a phone dialer campaign so new leads can be contacted as soon as possible. For more information on setting up WebHooks, visit our article here.

Using Gravity Forms with WordPress

1. Add a WordPress filter to post the form data from gravity into the CRM.

2. Add a hidden input to your form with your 'thank you' page URL (see example below).

<input name="returnurl" type="hidden" value="http://your_domain_name_here.com/thankyou" />

For a more detailed explanation of the process, Click Here.

Spam Prevention

Another helpful tip is to add the following hidden input to your Web Form to prevent spamming:
<input type="hidden" name="emailemail" value="" />

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