{"versionId":"9d2c04ab-58b8-44d4-7d5e-08dedbb027a7","articleId":"e749761b-ea84-4016-fc2a-08dad41f7127","title":"Forms","tags":["context","forms","integrations","All articles"],"content":"

With Helpfruit forms you can collect information from chat users directly in the conversation, send the data you collect via email or API, and optionally, send data back to users.

Forms can be used for escalation - from sending an e-mail to raising a ticket. They can also be used for data collection, feedback, look-ups (eg order status) and more. They are very flexible - and still feel like chat.

In this article...

Contact form
Form builder
See where a form is used
Form types
Form configuration
Form fields
Include collected data in form responses and email notifications
Form actions\n
- Email forms
- Include conversation details in form emails
- API forms
- Context collection
- Zendesk forms
\n

Contact form

Helpfruit comes with a pre-configured email contact form. Completed entries will be sent to the email address specified on sign up.

Review your contact form and make changes via the Forms menu:

Contact forms are triggered when a user needs help or the bot can’t answer their question.

They can also be linked to questions, so when a user enters “contact” or \"get in touch\", for example, the Contact form is triggered.

Form builder

Use the Forms page in the Helpfruit portal to set up your forms.

Forms are publishable. This means that if you are working on a form and don’t want to expose it yet, you can save it as a draft and continue later.

Any existing forms can be edited via this screen too.

Before changing or removing a form, check where it is used so you can assess the impact on any linked engagements or Q&A content.

See where a form is used

You can check where a form is used before making changes to it. This helps you understand which chatbot content depends on that form.

Go to Forms.
Find the form you want to review.
Select the reference icon beside the form.
Review the list of places where the form is used, such as engagements or Q&A entries.

This is useful before editing, unpublishing, or deleting a form, especially if the form is used in more than one place.

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Form types

When you create a new form, you will first get to select the type of form:

An email form sends the data collected in the form by email to a specified address
An API form calls a specified API - and can be used to send and/or retrieve data from a back-end system (eg CRM)
Context collection forms collect user context for use in other bot functions - for example, as a pre-live chat step, collecting the name and/or contact details of the user. In these forms, data is not sent anywhere else. Context keys must be set up first. Contact the Helpfruit team if you'd like help to set up a context collection form.

Form configuration

Forms have a few general settings:

Name (required) – name of the form. Used for display/identification
Published - you can save a form as a draft and publish it when you’re ready.
Note: If a form isn’t published it won’t be available in Q&A or to the user in chat.
Welcome Response – message sent to the user when they start the form
Completed Response – a message sent to the user upon form completion
Exit Text – a message sent to the user if they exit/cancel the form
Processing Text – a message sent to the user when a request could take longer than expected (this could happen, for example, with an API based form)

All are optional except the form name - allowing a form to be sent \"silently\" - i.e. without asking the user any questions in chat.

Form fields

Form fields are the questions the bot will ask the user to answer.

Each form field includes:

Field Name
Field Type, used for input validation (most common field types are Text and Email)
Bot Question, the question the bot will ask the user to collect the required information

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You can rearrange the order of form fields using the arrows on the right. This changes the order questions are asked to the user.

If you would like to store data collected in the form (eg so the user doesn't have to type it again), make sure your form fields have corresponding context keys.

Include collected data in form responses and email notifications

You can personalise your completed form message by adding {{name}} (or any other fieldname, in the format {{fieldName}}):

You can also add substitutions in your email subject line, for email forms -

Form actions

Email forms

Use an email form to send the data collected in the form to one or more recipients.

Email forms include the following settings:

Email to – where to send the form data. Separate multiple addresses with a semicolon, for example address1@helpfruit.com;address2@helpfruit.com.
Subject – the subject line of the email sent.

You can add dynamic values to the subject line:

{{timestamp}} – the Unix timestamp of when the form was submitted
{{fieldName}} – any field in your form

If the field name contains 2 or more words, remove spaces and start each later word with a capital letter. For example, use {{emailAddress}}.

Email forms can also be configured to include conversation details in the email output.

Include conversation details in form emails

You can choose to include conversation details in email form notifications. This can help the recipient understand the full context of the request without needing to open the conversation separately.

This setting is configured on each form.

Go to Forms.
Open the email form you want to update.
Scroll down to the Email configuration section.
Enable the setting if you want the email to include the conversation content.
Click OK
Save your changes on the Forms pages.

This is useful when the person receiving the email needs enough detail to assess or action the request directly from their inbox - especially if they are not a Helpfruit user, and wouldn't otherwise be able to access the information.

Note: This is a per-form setting, so you can turn it on for some forms and leave it off for others.

API forms

You can also make forms which will call a specified API
You must specify the endpoint you would like the request to be sent to, along with any query parameters you require other than the ones we may potentially add to your endpoint.

We have two request types:

Request – Make a single request to the endpoint specified, a response is not expected
Request and Response – Make a single request to the endpoint specified and expect a response back which complies with our guidelines on response structure

We support GET and POST request methods.
For GET Requests, query parameters are added to your endpoint, which are form fields and their respective values. You must assign which ones to capture and use as query parameters
For POST Requests, a body is sent with the following JSON structure:

You can add any headers you may need to your request (Content-Type needs to be JSON if posting data and is set by default if not set manually).

Learn more

Context collection

Forms can be set up to collect user context for use in other bot functions - for example, as a pre-live chat step, collecting the name and/or contact details of the user. In these forms, data is not sent anywhere else. Context keys must be set up first. Learn more

Zendesk forms

For more info on our Zendesk forms and integration, see our detailed help guide

","description":"Set up Helpfruit forms to collect information in chat, send submissions by email or API, and manage how forms are used across your chatbot.","isMarkdown":false,"publishedOnUtc":"2026-07-06T23:53:39.0978595","modifiedOnUtc":"2022-12-05T03:24:09.1258766"}