Building forms

A form is sections of fields. You drag them into place, click any of them to set it up, and publish when it's ready. This chapter covers each part of the builder. Who the people in a registration are is in Participants, and prices in Prices, discounts and codes.

The builder

Open a form's Build tab. It has three parts:

The palette, on the left: every kind of field and section you can add.
The canvas, in the middle: your form, section by section, as you build it.
The panel, on the right: the settings of whatever you've clicked. With nothing selected, it shows the form's own settings.

A form → Build

Simple

Name Short text Long text Email Phone Number

Rider

Participant

Name *

First name

Last name

Email *

Primary email

name@example.com

Birthdate *

MM/DD/YYYY

Label

Help text

For your confirmation

Required

The palette: drag a field into a section, or click it to add it after the field you've selected.
The canvas: click a section's title or a field to select it. Drag the handles to reorder.
The panel: the selected field's settings. Click an empty part of the canvas (or press Esc) for the form's own settings.

Your work saves as you go. The top of the page says Saving…, then Saved. Nobody sees any of it until you publish (see Saving and publishing).

Sections

Sections group the questions: Entry, Rider 1, Rider 2, Merchandise. Each has a heading and, if you like, a description. Registrants see them as headed blocks.

Add one: click Add section under the last one, or drag Section from the palette's Layout group to where it should go.
Reorder: drag a section by the handle beside its title.
Set it up: click its title. The panel has its Heading, Description, a show/hide rule, Repeat this section and One participant.
Copy, save or delete it: the buttons beside its title duplicate it, save it to reuse in other forms, or delete it.

Adding fields

Drag a field from the palette into a section, or click it to add it after the field you've selected. Then click it on the canvas to set it up. The palette groups fields by what they're for:

Build → the palette

Simple

NameShort textLong textEmailPhoneNumberDateAddressText blockHidden value

Specific

BirthdateGenderNationalityMilitary serviceEmergency contact

Choices

DropdownMultiple choiceCheckboxes

Agreements

AgreementWaiver

Pricing

ItemDonation

Simple: plain questions. Text, email, phone, numbers, dates and addresses, plus a Text block and a Hidden value.
Specific: fields made for one kind of answer, which Plantains understands (a birthdate, gender, nationality…).
Choices: a dropdown, one choice, or several.
Agreements: a statement to tick, or a waiver to sign.
Pricing: items to buy (T-shirts, camping) and donations.

You can change a field's type later: click it, then pick another type from the menu at the top of the panel. Its label, and its answers where they fit, come along.

A field's settings

Click a field to see its settings in the panel. Most fields have:

Label: the question, as registrants see it. It's also the column name in exports.
Help text under it, and a Placeholder inside the box (an example answer).
Required: they can't send the form without answering it.
Width: Full width, or Half width to put two short fields side by side.

And, depending on the field:

Type it twice (Email): adds a box that must match, to catch typos.
Length limit (text), and a Minimum and Maximum (numbers and dates).
Unique (Short text): no two registrations on the form can give the same answer, like a team name. Capitals and extra spaces don't make it different, and cancelled registrations don't count.
Hide after a date: new registrants stop seeing the question then (jersey orders that close before registration does). Registrations that answered it keep their answer.
Registrant can edit: they can change this answer after registering, once registrant edits are on in the form's Settings. On a participant's name it's Registrant can fix typos: small corrections only, since a different person is a transfer. See What registrants see.

Below those, colored boxes hold what depends on other parts of the form: Show / hide rules (violet), Discounts (teal) and Check-in tags (blue). Badges on the field on the canvas show which it has. Discounts are in Prices, discounts and codes, and check-in tags in Registrations.

Choices

Dropdown, Multiple choice (pick one) and Checkboxes (pick any) have a list of options. Add, rename and drag options in the panel, or click Paste a list to type them one per line (Long Course | LC | 101.75 sets an option, the value stored for it, and a price).

Pre-selected: an option already chosen when the form opens.
Prices: turn on Options have prices to give each option its own price (a category's entry fee). See Prices, discounts and codes.
Limited quantities: a number available for each option, set on each form's Inventory tab. Registrants see Sold out when one runs out.

Fields that know what they're asking

The Specific group's fields ask for one kind of answer, so Plantains can do more with it than store the words:

Birthdate

A Date field marked as a birthdate. Reports read ages from it, the form's minimum age checks it, and waivers know who's a minor.

Gender

Choices that Reports count, with an option to self-describe.

Nationality

A country, picked from a list people can type to filter.

Military service

Serving, veteran or neither, and the branch. Military discounts check it.

Emergency contact

A name and a phone number, together.

A few more worth knowing:

Address

States, provinces and postal codes adapt to the country. Reports map where people come from.

Text block

Words, not a question: instructions, a course description. Markdown works (# heading, **bold**).

Hidden value

Stored with every registration, never shown. With a rule, only when it matches: "Junior" for riders under 18.

Agreement

A statement to tick, like "I agree to the race rules".

Waiver

Text to read and sign, with a drawn signature if you want one. See Waivers.

Any Date field can become a birthdate: tick This is a birthdate in its panel. Waivers, minors and guardians are covered in Waivers.

Show/hide rules

A rule shows a field, a section or an option only when the answers call for it: Rider 2 only for a Duo, a T-shirt size only if they want a T-shirt, a parent's name only for a rider under 18. Everything hidden is left out of the registration, its price and its checks.

Click the field or section to show or hide, and find its Show / hide box.
Click Add a show/hide rule, choose the question it depends on, a condition and a value.
Add more rules if you need them, and choose whether all or any must be true.

Build → a field → Show / hide

Show / hide

Show this field when all of these are true:

Racing CategoryisDuo

Rider 2

ParticipantRevealed

Name *

First name

Last name

Email *

name@example.com

All or any: whether every rule must be true, or one is enough.
The question it depends on, and a condition: is, is not, contains, is checked, age is less than…
Shown on the canvas as a violet Revealed badge. Click it to see what it depends on.

Repeating sections

A repeating section asks the same questions several times, with an Add another button: one entry per rider on a team of any size, or per child in a family. Click the section's title and turn on Repeat this section, then set:

Each one is called: Rider, Child, Entry. Registrants see "Rider 1", "Rider 2" and "Add another rider".
At least and At most: how many entries a registration can have. The form starts with the minimum.

Build → a repeating section

Riders

Repeats · Rider ×1–4Participant per rider

Name *

First name

Last name

Birthdate *

MM/DD/YYYY

The section repeats: one to four riders, each with the same questions.
Marked One participant: each rider added is one person.

Rules inside the section that check its own fields apply to each entry on its own ("this rider"). Rules elsewhere match when any entry does. Prices and stock count every entry.

The form's own settings

Click an empty part of the canvas (or press Esc) and the panel shows the Form settings, which apply to the whole form:

Pricing: a Base entry fee charged once per registration, and the form's tax rate (the account's, or its own). See Prices, discounts and codes.
Primary email: the Email field of the person registering. They get the confirmation and receipts, and can manage the registration later. It's always required.
Event date: ages are worked out on this day (a rider who's 17 today but 18 on race day counts as 18).
Minimum age: participants younger than this on the event date can't register. It checks Birthdate fields. Your team can still save a younger birthdate when editing a registration (to record what's true, or make an exception), with a warning.
Submit button wording, and the Message after submitting.

The form's other settings (when it's open, payments, its public link, what registrants can change, its time zone and location) are in its Settings tab. See Go live.

Saved fields and sections

Fields and sections you use on every form (T-shirt sizes, your waiver, an emergency contact section) can be set up once and added to any form:

Save one from a form: click the bookmark button on a field, or beside a section's title, and give it a name.
Make and keep them on the Saved page (in the sidebar): Saved fields and Saved sections.
Add one to a form: it's in the palette, under Saved (and Layout for sections). Plantains' own Library of ready-made fields and sections is there too.

What you add is a copy, linked to the saved one. Edits on the form change only that form. When the saved field changes later, the copy says so and offers Review update, so you choose whether each form takes the change. Unlink makes it a plain field of that form.

Saving and publishing

The builder saves your changes as a draft. Registrants see the published version, so you can work on a live form without anyone seeing half-finished changes:

Publish (top right) makes the form public the first time.
After that, the button says Publish changes while the draft differs from what's live, and Published when they match.
Registrations keep the version they were made with: a price you change later doesn't change what someone already registered for.

Publishing needs the right role (Owner, Admin or Manager) and, the first time, the account's free trial or plan. If someone else saves the same form while you're editing, the top of the page says Changed elsewhere: click Load their version before carrying on, so neither of you loses work.