Set up sending emails for form responses

The Forms module in Sitefinity CMS can send email notifications to website users and administrators. For example, your website administrator may want to receive a notification each time a form response is submitted.

To enable Sitefinity CMS to send email notifications upon form response submission, you must configure the Forms module notifications settings by following these steps:

1. Enable notifications for forms.
   Perform the following:
   1. In Sitefinity CMS backend menu, click Administration » Settings » Advanced.
   2. In the tree view on the left, expand Forms and click Notifications.
   3. Select the Enable notifications checkbox.
   4. Click Save changes.
2. Configure a Notification profile for sending emails.
   By default, if you have configured the Sitefinity CMS email settings, the Forms module will send notifications using the default notification profile. For more information about configuring Sitefinity CMS email settings, see Configure email settings. If you want to explicitly specify a notification profile for the Forms module (for example, a profile different than the default one), perform these steps:
   1. In the SenderProfile textbox, type the name of the notification profile you want to be used to send emails for the Forms module. If you do not fill in a name explicitly, the Default notification profile will be used. For more information about Sitefinity CMS notification profiles, see Configure notification profiles.
   2. Click Save changes.

Sitefinity CMS enables you to send email confirmation for successful form response submission. To configure sending confirmation emails, follow these steps:

1. In Sitefinity CMS backend menu, click Content » Forms.
2. Click on the form, which you want to subscribe users for.
3. Drag and drop an Email widget in your form.
4. Click Publish.
5. Expand the Actions link of the form you want to subscribe users for and click Properties.
6. Select the Send email to form respondent checkbox under Notifications » Confirmation email.
7. To customize the template of the notification email, click Customize email.

   NOTE: When you choose to customize a template, this customization is valid only for the form you are currently editing.
   Once you customize a template on a form level, the form no longer uses the template, available under Administration » Settings » System emails. For more information, see Manage templates for system emails.
   To restore this link, you can click the Restore to original button while customizing the template.

8. Save your changes.

Sitefinity CMS enables you to send email notifications to a list of subscribers every time someone submits a new form response or edits an existing one. To subscribe a user to receive notification emails for a form, follow these steps:

1. To subscribe yourself (the currently logged user) for forms notification:
   1. In Sitefinity CMS backend menu, click Content » Forms.
   2. Click the Actions link of the form, which responses you want to subscribe to.
   3. In the dropdown menu, click Subscribe.
2. To subscribe other users for form responses notification emails:
   1. In Sitefinity CMS backend menu, click Content » Forms.
   2. Click the form, which you want to subscribe users for.
   3. In the right-hand side of the toolbar, click Settings.
   4. Select the Send email notifications to... checkbox under Notification email.
   5. In the text area below, enter the email addresses of the users that you want to subscribe.
      Enter each email address on a new line.
   6. Optionally, you can customize the template of the notification email by clicking Customize email.

      NOTE: When you choose to customize a template, this customization is valid only for the form you are currently editing.
      Once you customize a template on a form level, the form no longer uses the template, available under Administration » Settings » System emails. For more information, see Manage templates for system emails.
      To restore this link, you can click the Restore to original button while customizing the template.

   7. Click Publish.

The subscribed users will receive email notification whenever a response is submitted to a form.

NOTE: If you want to promote email notification settings when you use the SiteSync module to promote content, you have to enable the SyncSubscribersList option by navigating to Administration » Settings » Advanced » SiteSync » Forms.

You can instruct Sitefinity CMS to include the form response details in the notification email sent to form subscribers or respondents. This way, all form field values of the submitted response are included in the message body. To include the form response details, your form response confirmation or notification email, follow these steps:

1. Include the {|Form.Fields|} dynamic data field in your form response notification or confirmation email. For more information, see Manage templates for system emails.

   NOTE: By default, only the form response notification email includes the form response details dynamic data field.

2. Instruct your Sitefinity CMS whether to resolve the {|Form.Fields|} dynamic data field. To enable/disable resolving of the {|Form.Fields|} dynamic data field, perform the following:
   1. In Sitefinity CMS backend menu, navigate to Administration » Settings » Advanced.
   2. In the tree view on the left, expand Forms and click Notifications.
   3. Select or deselect the Include a copy of the submitted information in the notification message checkbox.

      NOTE: By default, this option is enabled and the form response details are included.

   4. Click Save changes.

You can configure the Forms module to provide direct access to the documents uploaded in forms through the email notification containing the form response details. This option enables easy and secure access for form subscribers to the uploaded documents without requiring user login. The documents are directly accessible for download upon opening the respective public URL included in the detailed email notification (the public URL is expiring).
Optionally, you can set a custom expiration period for the attachment's public URL.
By default, this feature is disabled.

To enable public URLs for the uploaded documents in the detailed email notifications, follow these steps:

1. In Sitefinity CMS backend menu, navigate to Administration » Settings » Advanced.
2. In the tree view on the left, expand Forms and click Notifications.
3. Select the Enable attachment public URLs checkbox.
4. (Optional) Set a desired expiration period for the attachment's public link (in days).
   The default value is set to 5 days.
5. Save your changes.

NOTE: To be able to use this option, you must have enabled these Forms notification settings too (available on the same screen): Enable notifications and Include a copy of the submitted information in the notification message.