Web Forms
We support a variety of web-based form creation services that allow you to collect information from people visiting our sites. In most cases, you can use Microsoft Forms or Google Forms, which are included in Middlebury’s enterprise subscriptions. Basic surveys can also be created with these two services, while more advanced surveys can use Qualtrics. Marketing and inquiry forms are best handled with one of our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools.
Please note that Data Classification Policy Level 3 (DCP-L3) data is not allowed to be collected by the form creation services discussed here. If you have a need to collect DCP-L3 sensitive or confidential information (as defined by Middlebury’s Data Classification Policy) or have an advanced use not covered by any of these services, please contact ITS to discuss your needs in more detail.
Drupal Webforms, the Legacy System
During the migration to Drupal 7 in 2014, we created forms.middlebury.edu and forms.miis.edu and moved all forms to these sites from other Drupal sites, WordPress, and some community web spaces. Support for Drupal 7 will end in November 2022 and the system that we used to manage access control to these forms will not be part of our Drupal 8 environment.
We now have access to new form-building solutions from Google and Microsoft that we did not have in 2014. These services offer many of the same features as the Drupal webform system and surpass it in some areas. For instance, both support web-based spreadsheet views of results, the upload of much larger files, and integration with other parts of their platforms, such as SharePoint and Flow in Microsoft’s case.
Middlebury now has CRM tools like Salesforce to handle inquiry and marketing forms and Qualtrics for people who would like to create client or community surveys.
For these reasons, we are asking that all forms in use on forms.middlebury.edu and forms.miis.edu move to a new system prior to November 1, 2022 so that we may retire these systems without incurring the additional cost of long term support contracts when the community security coverage period ends.
Migrate Your Form
If you no longer need your form and do not wish to create a new copy, please skip to the Delete your Old Form section below. It is important that you complete this step so that we know which forms are no longer in use.
Before you turn off your current form, we recommend you create and test the new version. See the Form Options section below to review the services we offer and find the best one for your form, then recreate it in that service and keep the link to use in the rest of this migration guide.
Step One: Redirect to the New Form
- Log into the forms site at either https://forms.middlebury.edu/user or https://forms.miis.edu/user.
- Browse to the page which has the old version of your form. If you see “/node/######” at the end of the URL, remove that text and press Enter so that you’re on the page, rather than the individual form.
- In the blue Content section of the editing bar at the top of the Page, click Add.
- Select Redirector from the list of content type options.
- Enter the URL of your new form in the Destination URL text field and click the Save button.
Step Two: Backup Your Data
- Ensure that you are viewing the old version of your form and are logged in.
- Click the View submissions link below the form.
- Click the Download link in the green Results tab at the top of the page.
- The default options on this page will download all of your data to an Excel file, which we recommend, but you can change those settings if you wish.
- Click the Download button. This will save the file to your desktop computer. Please review our File Storage options to find an appropriate place for long-term backup. If your form collected Level 3 data as defined in the Data Classification Policy, please contact us to determine the best storage system for your backup.
If your form allowed people to upload files, the Excel file you downloaded will have links to those files, but those links will stop working when we turn off the Drupal webform service after November 2021. If you need copies of these files, please create a Helpdesk ticket and include a link to your old form. Do not follow the rest of this guide until the ticket is resolved.
Step Three: Delete the Old Form
We will take forms.middlebury.edu and forms.miis.edu offline in November 2021 and you will no longer be able to access them or the data they’ve collected. We will periodically audit the list of published forms before then and remind you to migrate the form. To assist in this audit, we’re requesting that you delete your form after you’ve migrated it and it’s no longer in use.
Once you’ve completed the steps above, please delete your old form. We will periodically scan the forms sites for those forms which have not been deleted and ask offices to migrate or delete them. By deleting the form, you’ve let us know that you’ve completed this work and no longer need to be contacted about it.
- Ensure that you are viewing the old version of your form and are logged in.
- Click the Delete link below the form.
- Click the Delete button to confirm that you want to delete the form.
This places the form in the Recycle Bin, which is sufficient to indicate that you’ve completed the forms migration and deletion work. If you wish, you can click on the [Recycle bin] link in the left navigation and then Empty recycle bin in the green Page section of the editing bar at the top of the page. Doing this will completely remove the form, it’s submission data, and any files associated with it from our server and we will not be able to recover this data.
Form Options
Most forms can be created in either Microsoft or Google Forms. We sync all of our accounts and groups to both of these services so that you can use your account to create forms and share both viewing and editing access to just those at Middlebury who need it. These are evolving services and may have features now that they lacked when you last tried to use them. If your Microsoft or Google form is public, you can embed it in our Drupal sites and if it requires a login, you can link to it from your site.
We recommend you use either of the Microsoft or Google services you’re most familiar with. We are in the process of developing a matrix to help you better understand the features of both options.
-
Google Forms
Google Forms are part of the Google Docs service, accessible at http://go.middlebury.edu/gdrive
-
Microsoft Forms
Microsoft Forms are part of the Office365 service, accessible at http://go.middlebury.edu/o365
-
Qualtrics Surveys
Qualtrics is a powerful survey tool that can be used for academic work, institutional outreach, or internal projects.