What is a Form Notification

A form notification is generally considered to be an incoming email triggered when a form has been submitted and contains the form submission data. A form notification is essentially an outgoing email that has been pre-configured to dynamically populate the email headers and email body/message.

Similar to composing a new email, setting up a form notification contains all the same features. These include from, to, reply to, bcc, subject, body, and the ability to attach uploads. When drafting a traditional email, the email header and message body are normally static. The email address field of an email is generally manually entered, whereas a form notification dynamically populates these values at run time.

Setting up outgoing notifications can combine static text and dynamic values. For example, a bcc field may include a manually entered email address followed by a dynamically inserted email address. Dynamically inserted form data uses what are called dynamic tags. Dynamic tags “map” various fields that exist in a form and exchange or replace the “tag” for the value of that particular field when the form submission occurs.

Outgoing email notifications require an integration with an SMTP or email server in order to be successfully delivered to the recipient(s). After the form has been submitted and the dynamic tags replaced with their corresponding form values, the notification is then processed by an email server, which handles the delivery. SMTP companies are also referred to as transactional email providers and are recommended to ensure increased email deliverability.

Form notifications can be used for a variety of different reasons, including successful submission alerts, welcome emails, and the most common being to review the submission. As a web developer or site owner, being able to review submissions in the form of an email is a quick and efficient way to stay on top of leads and manage customer inquiries. One of the many benefits of an email notification is that you can respond in a timely manner by using your normal email client/provider.

In addition to outgoing email notifications, a form notification can also be an SMS or MMS message sent to the recipient's mobile number. An SMS or MMS notification can include the same data as an outgoing email notification but is generally used for submission confirmations. For example, “This message confirms we have received your submission!”. SMS and MMS messages are both sent to mobile numbers, except an MMS can include images in addition to text. When sending an SMS or MMS message, the form requires at least one phone input.

The email body is the most important aspect of an outgoing notification and is the primary location where form submission data is added. The body of a form notification can include HTML, dynamic tags, static text, and user-meta data. User metadata may include the user’s IP address, browser, device type, screen size, etc. Since emails can contain HTML, submission data can be formatted using standard HTML markup such as HTML tables, DIVS, and HR elements.

When building forms and collecting data from a website, a form notification is the only means to review submissions unless the submissions are also stored inside a web server’s database and later reviewed. Form submissions and notifications are similar, but not to be confused. A form submission is the form data or the values entered into the form, whereas a form notification is an alert that contains the values submitted in the form.