Building forms
Form builder
The builder is a WYSIWYG canvas. What you see is exactly what your submitters see. This page walks through the main concepts.
Canvas & palette
Open any form and you see three columns: the palette of field types on the left, the canvas in the middle, and a context-sensitive inspector on the right. Drag fields from the palette onto the canvas or click any field on the canvas to edit it in the inspector.
Fields can be reordered by dragging the handle on the left of each row. Use the section break field to visually group related questions.
Multi-step forms
Long forms have much lower completion rates. Break them into steps with a progress bar. In the builder, click Add step in the toolbar to split the current form at the selected field. You can:
- Name each step
- Show a progress bar or step counter
- Allow submitters to go back and edit earlier answers
- Run validation at the end of every step
Tip
Conditional logic
Any field can be shown, hidden, or required based on previous answers. Open a field in the inspector and scroll to Logic.
Example: show a "Tell us more" textarea only if the rating is 3 stars or fewer. Or make a field required only when country = "US".
Rules use an "all of" / "any of" builder — no code required. They are evaluated live as the submitter types.
Validation
Every field supports standard validation:
- Required / optional
- Min/max length for text fields
- Email, URL, and phone format checks
- Custom regex patterns with a friendly error message
- Number ranges, decimal precision, and currency
- File size and MIME-type allowlists for uploads
Themes & branding
From the form Settings → Theme you can pick a preset or customise every colour, font, and border-radius token. The accent colour drives buttons, focus rings, progress bars, and selected states.
Upload a logo to show it in the header and on generated PDFs. On the Pro and Business plans you can also hide the "Powered by Gatherino" footer.
Confirmation & redirects
Thank-you page
By default, submitters see a themed thank-you screen. Customise the title, body (Markdown supported), and an optional "Submit another" button.
Redirect URL
Alternatively, redirect to an external URL after submission. You can append query parameters with any field value using {{field_id}} placeholders — useful for passing data back to your own site.
PDF & email confirmations
Enable automatic PDF generation and attach it to the confirmation email sent to the submitter. Great for registration forms, applications, and orders.
Publishing & versioning
Every save creates a draft. Clicking Publish snapshots the current schema to a new version. Submitters always see the latest published version; in-flight submissions are validated against the version they started.
You can roll back to any previous version from Form → History. Submissions retain a reference to the exact version that produced them, so exports are always self-consistent.
Embedding & sharing
Each form has four share modes:
- Public URL:
gatherino.com/f/<slug> - Embed: one-line JavaScript snippet that renders the form inline on your site, inheriting your page's CSS reset
- Popup: button snippet that opens the form in a modal
- QR code: printable PNG/SVG for posters, menus, or event signage
Duplicating & templates
Open the form list and click the menu next to any form to duplicate it. This copies the full schema, theme, and integrations but not the submissions.
You can also save a form as a template and reuse it as a starting point for new forms in the same workspace.