The Basics of Building Droplet Forms

Hey there! Let's dive into how Droplet forms come to life through layers of layout and workflow, each playing a unique role in making your forms functional and slick.

Layout

The first layer of form building is the Layout or how the form looks and the information it needs to collect. The layout is made up of different fields such as those that collect the date, phone number, signature, or information arranged in tables. You can also add visual elements like text, images, and borders. You can read more about the available field types in this article: What types of Components can I use to Build Forms?

Workflow

After the layout is created, the Workflow is built. The workflow is a series of steps that people are assigned for each submission of your form. To create your workflow, you will set the order of the steps and who is assigned to each one. 

Workflow Visibility

During a workflow step, the assignee may need to add more information by completing certain fields, signing their name, or approving or rejecting the submission. You will need to set the Visibility for each of the components or fields you add in the layout for each step you add to the workflow. These permissions will make a field hidden, visible and read-only, or visible and editable. 

Notification Emails

As part of your workflow construction, you can also choose to add custom emails for the folks in the workflow or those who just need to hear about a form submission at a certain point. These emails are created within the Workflow Layer in the Visual Builder, or within the Notification Layer in the Code Editor. 

Optional Layers

You may consider adding other form elements depending on your needs. If your form uses data in the layout or workflow, you could add a Dataset to make managing this data easier over the life of your form. You may also consider setting up Translations to support those who will be completing this form.