Processing form data

Important: You will receive a validation error when attempting to update to a contact with non-breaking spaces in their email address. When notified of the error, please update the email address as form submissions for the email address cannot be processed”.

Form processing steps allow you to configure what should happen after a contact submits a form (such as updating a contact record or custom data object), and what actions to take as a result of the submission (for example, sending the submitter an email or adding them to a campaign). You can configure these steps for each form you create.

Here are some examples of form processing that could occur after a contact submits a form:

• Create a contact record with the information from the form
• Redirect the contact to a confirmation page
• Add the contact to a shared list based on the preferences specified by the contact
• Add the contact to a nurture campaign
• Send the contact an email to confirm their email address
• Update the data in your CRM

Learn more by watching the video

Accessing form processing

After you add and configure the visual elements of your form, you then need to configure what to do with the submitted form data.

Clicking the Processing button displays the processing window with the following elements:

	The Design button lets you switch back to the form design window, where the visual elements of the form are laid out and configured.
	The Processing Steps pane is where you identify the processing steps you want to include in your form.
	The button opens the list of processing steps. You can double-click or drag steps to add them to the Processing Steps pane.
	The button lets you remove or disable the currently selected step in the Processing Steps pane. You can also right-click the step to access these options. Disabled steps are identified by a red circle next to their name.
	The button opens the Key Field Mapping window, which lets you map a form field to a contact record field as your key identifiers. If you have an Email Address field in your form, the Key Field Mapping is set to Email Address by default. Some processing steps allow you to override this form setting.
	The configuration pane displays the settings for the currently selected step.
	Many processing steps provide these options, which let you specify when a step is executed. For more information see Configuring when a form processing step runs.
	The Actions button and File button are available in both the design and processing windows for your form. Use it to access form-related actions.

Steps to configure form processing

The following steps provide an overview of how to configure form processing steps. Use the links to find out how to configure specific processing steps.

Before you begin:

Oracle Eloqua makes the configuration process easy, but there are things you will want to understand and consider before you begin.

• Take some time to plan what you want to happen after the user submits a form. Make a list of the actions you want the processing steps to perform and have a look at the settings for each step to identify requirements. Depending on the processing you want to perform, you should have all the assets together that will be required (like campaigns, contact lists, emails, programs, and landing pages).
• Determine if any of your processing should only happen conditionally (for example, based on what the contact submits in the form or based on hidden form fields). See Configuring when a form processing step runs for more information.

Steps to configure form processing:

1. Click Processing.
2. Click at the bottom of the window and configure how to uniquely identify the contact that submitted the form. Typically this is done using the email address submitted with the form.

   Note: You can override this default mapping for some form processing steps.

3. Click in the left pane and double-click the step you want to add. Add the steps in the order that you feel they should be performed. Oracle Eloqua will reorder those steps that must occur first. See How Oracle Eloqua determines the processing order for more information.
4. Double-click the step you added and add a description of the step.
5. Configure the processing step and specify when to run the step. Use the topics below to help you configure the form processing step:
   • Updating a contact, account, or custom data object with form data
   • Updating a contact, account, or custom data object with a custom value
   • Redirecting a contact to a page after submitting a form
   • Sending an autoresponder email
   • Updating subscriptions when a form is submitted
   • Adding a contact to a campaign or program when a form is submitted
   • Adding form submitters to and removing them from a shared list
   • Posting submitted data to a server
   • Creating or updating leads, contacts, or accounts in your CRM system
   • Updating event registration status for form submitters
6. Click Save and resolve any errors.

Learn more

Forms

Creating forms