Build your first form
This is the fastest path from a blank canvas to a live, shareable Droplet form with a working approval flow behind it. Follow it start to finish and you will have something real by the end. Set aside about 20 minutes.
Prefer to learn by watching, or alongside other people? You have options. This guide is the self-paced walkthrough, there is a hands-on Build a Form course in the Droplet Community that builds one with you, and we run a live Forms 101 session you can join:
However you learn best, the steps below are the same ones we cover. Make sure you are signed in to Droplet first, then let us build.
What you'll do
Seven short steps, in order:
- Plan what you need to collect and who needs to act on it.
- Create the form.
- Add your fields with components.
- Add logic so the form reacts to what people enter (optional).
- Set up the workflow so submissions route to the right people.
- Preview and test it end to end.
- Publish and share your form.
1. Plan what you need
A few minutes of planning saves a lot of rebuilding. Before you open the builder, jot down:
- What you are collecting. The questions you need answered, and which ones are required.
- Who fills it out. Anyone with a link, or specific people?
- What happens after submit. Does someone review or approve it, and in what order? That becomes your workflow.
Keep your first form small. A handful of fields and one approval step is plenty to learn the flow, and you can always add more later.
2. Create your form
Go to the Forms page, where all of your forms live.
Choose to create a new form. You will land in the form builder.
Name it something your team will recognize, like "Field Trip Request."
For the full tour of the builder, see Create and edit a form.
3. Add your fields
Fields are called components. Add them to the canvas, then click any one to set its label, whether it is required, and its options. Start with these:
- Layout components to group related fields into sections.
- Text inputs for names, emails, and free text.
- Choice components for dropdowns, checkboxes, and multiple choice.
Every form needs a way to identify who submitted it. Add a field for the submitter's name and one for their email near the top.
4. Add logic (optional)
Once your fields are in place, you can make the form smarter:
- Show or hide fields based on earlier answers, so people only see what is relevant to them.
- Validation rules to catch bad input before it is submitted.
This step is optional for your very first form. Skip it if you would rather keep things simple to start.
5. Set up your workflow
The workflow is what happens after someone hits submit: who reviews it, who approves it, and who gets notified. Switch to the Workflow tab at the top of the builder.
Create one step for each person who needs to review or approve the submission, in order.
Point each step at the person or role who should act on it.
Add a notification so each assignee gets an email when it is their turn. See Workflow notifications.
Full details live in Configure workflows.
6. Preview and test
Before anyone else sees it, run through the form yourself. Click Preview to fill it out exactly as a real person would, and check that the fields behave and the workflow routes the way you expect.
Notifications do not send while you are in Preview. To test the emails for real, publish the form and run a live test submission with a colleague.
7. Publish and share
When it looks right, publish your form to make it live, then get it in front of people. See Share a form link for every way to share, from a simple link to embedding it on a page.
As responses come in, you will track and act on them from the submission views: View and filter submissions and Take actions on submissions pick up where this leaves off.
Keep learning
That is a complete form, start to finish. When you are ready to go deeper:
- Take the self-paced Build a Form course in the Droplet Community.
- Browse the Build Forms & Workflows guides for components, logic, and advanced workflows.
Or join us live and bring your questions: