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Save and resume

Introduction​

Long forms lose people: job applications, grant forms, intake questionnaires. With save and resume on, every page gets a Save and continue later button. The visitor's answers are kept as a draft, and they are given a link back to it. A logged-in member can also pick it up again just by opening the form, on any device.

A draft is not a submission until it is sent. It is not listed, counted against the form's limit or exported, and no Submission Created workflow runs for it.

  1. Switch it on

    Save and resume is off by default. Turn it on for every form in Configuration › Forms, or for one form on its General tab under Save and resume. A template can decide for one render:

    templates/default_site/apply.group/index.html
    {exp:formidable:form form_handle="application" drafts="yes"}

    The form must store its submissions and their data, since a draft is its answers. On a form that stores nothing, there is no Save button.

  2. What visitors see

    Each page gets the button, between Next and Submit in the shipped themes. Saving skips the "required" checks, so a visitor can stop anywhere. An answer that is filled in is still checked: an email address that is not one is refused in a draft too.

    The visitor comes back to the form with a notice and the link to return to it:

    Your answers are saved. To come back to them, use this link: https://example.com/apply?formidable_resume=4f9c…

    Opening that link fills the form with their answers, on the page they saved on. Submitting it sends it as a normal submission. Files they uploaded are kept, so they do not have to choose them again.

  3. Email them the link

    Add a workflow with the event Draft Saved and the action Send an email, to a recipient field such as the visitor's email address with Allow as Workflow Recipient turned on. The shipped draft message says the answers are saved and links back. In your own message, {resume_url} is the link.

  4. Save on every page (optional)

    Turn on Save on each page next to the save-and-resume setting, or add draft_autosave="yes" to the tag. The draft is then also saved quietly each time the visitor presses Next, so leaving part-way loses nothing even if they never press Save. Files are kept only when they press Save or send the form.

    A member finds an autosaved draft by opening the form again. A guest needs the link, so pair this with a Draft Saved email: it runs when the first autosave makes the draft, not on every page.

  5. Remind people who did not finish (optional)

    Set Reminder after (days) on the form, or for every form in Configuration. A draft that has not been saved again for that many days runs the Draft Reminder workflows, once. Add a workflow with that event and the shipped draft-reminder message, which includes {resume_url}. Saving the draft again starts the count again.

    Reminders are sent from cron:

    crontab
    0 * * * * cd /path/to/site && php system/ee/eecli.php formidable:drafts:remind

  6. Clear out drafts nobody came back to

    Drafts are kept for 30 days after they were last saved, then they can no longer be resumed. Change that in config.php:

    system/user/config/config.php
    $config['formidable_draft_days'] = 14; // 0 keeps drafts forever

    Expired drafts, and the files uploaded to them, are deleted a few at a time whenever someone saves a draft. On a busy site, also run the prune command from cron once a day:

    crontab
    0 3 * * * cd /path/to/site && php system/ee/eecli.php formidable:drafts:prune

Who can open a draft​

  • A guest's draft: anyone with its link. The link is a long random token, but treat it like a password, and say so in your email. The shipped message does.
  • A member's draft: only that member, logged in. Their link handed to someone else opens nothing.
  • A member opening the form without a link gets their most recently saved draft of that form.

A member's drafts on an account page​

{exp:formidable:drafts} lists the logged-in member's unfinished drafts with a link back to each.

In the control panel​

A form's Submissions screen says how many unfinished drafts are waiting, with a link to View drafts. Exports from that view export the drafts.

Templates​

Variable
{page_has_save}Whether the page renders the Save button
{page_save_label}Its text: Save button label in the settings, then "Save and continue later"
{page_save_attributes}Its region attributes. Keep them: they include name, value and formnovalidate, which make it save rather than send.
{form_draft_saved}Whether the previous request saved a draft. {form_success} stays false, because nothing was sent.
{form_resume_url}The link back to that draft
A page's buttons, written by hand
<div {page_nav_attributes}>
    {if page_has_back}<button type="button" {page_back_attributes}>{page_previous_label}</button>{/if}
    {if page_has_next}<button type="button" {page_next_attributes}>{page_next_label}</button>{/if}
    {if page_has_save}<button type="submit" {page_save_attributes}>{page_save_label}</button>{/if}
    <button type="submit" {page_submit_attributes}>{page_submit_label}</button>
</div>
Do not cache a resumable form

With drafts on, what the form shows depends on the link and on who is logged in. Do not cache the form tag, or the page, with ExpressionEngine's tag or template caching, or with a static page cache.