Core Docs - Core Concepts - Create a Form

Rock Version: v20.0
Last Modified: 2026-07-13 4:16 PM

There's nothing you need to do in advance to start using the Form Builder. You can start creating and using forms right away. In this article we'll walk you through the basic parts of the Form Builder and some of the options you have for your forms. Later we'll cover the details of adding fields to your forms for people to fill out.

Your first step will be to navigate to Tools > Form Builder. There you'll be able to create a new form or access an existing one. But there's more you can do on this page besides looking for or creating forms.

Form Categories - If these categories look familiar, it's because they're the same categories used by workflow types. After all, each form you create becomes a new workflow type. Select a category to see all the forms it contains, or add a new category with the ti ti-folder-plus icon.

Edit Category - Use the ti ti-dots-vertical options menu, or the Edit and Delete buttons, to adjust security, rename or delete the selected category. Just remember the changes you make here will also be reflected on the Workflow Configuration page. Categories can't be deleted if they contain any forms or workflow types. Also, permissions set here flow down to all forms in the folder.

Create New Form - To get started on a new form, select the ti ti-square-plus button.

Category Security 
Since the Category is treated as the parent for security purposes, individuals with Edit permission on a Workflow Category can also modify the category itself and manage items within it. This includes deleting workflows and deleting the category if it does not contain any workflows.

Creating a New Form

Let's start with the basics of creating a new form. First, we'll cover how to create a form, and then we'll go over the different parts of the form that you'll be working with.

Name - Be sure to give your form a good name. A solid name will make the form's intent clear and will help distinguish it from other forms. The name of the form is for internal use only and will not be visible to the person filling it out.

Slug - Unique identifier for this form, often used in links.  

Description - Like the name, the description is for internal use and will not be shown to the person filling out the form. Do your future self a favor and create a description that indicates how, where and why the form will be used.

Category - The category will be filled in for you, but you can change it here if needed.  

Template - You can optionally create your new form from a pre-configured template. For more details see the Form Builder Templates section below.

After clicking the Start Building button pictured above, you'll be brought to the main Form Builder page pictured below. This is where you'll actually design your form.

As pictured above, you'll see four areas on your new form. There are areas for the form's header, a Person Entry form, your form's fields and the form footer. Each of these areas can be customized by clicking the ti ti-pencil or ti ti-settings icons along the right of each area. We'll look at each of these areas individually below.

To copy a link to your form, click the ti ti-link icon. Want to see what others will see? Click the ti ti-eye icon to open a live view of your form. These options are available on most screens in the form builder, so you’ll have quick access wherever you’re working.

Form Header/Footer

You can optionally add content to your form's header or footer area. This content will appear above (header) and below (footer) the rest of your form, as it's shown on the screen.

Select the ti ti-settings icon on the header or footer area to open its settings, then add your text, images or HTML in the Content field. Header content appears above your form and footer content appears below it.

Person Entry Form

If you've ever worked with the Form workflow action, then you might already be familiar with the Person Entry form. This is a mini form that collects a person's information and will match the person to a record in your system or create a new record if needed. In the workflow type that gets created, the result of the information gathered here will be stored in a Person attribute. In most cases you'll probably want to use the Person Entry form, but it can be disabled by toggling the Enable Person Entry setting on the main Form Builder panel.

Autofill Current Person - If Rock knows who the person is (e.g., because they’re logged in), selecting this option will automatically fill in the Person Entry fields for them. That means the person filling out the form doesn’t have to provide information you already have. This is also a great way to fill in gaps in your data.

Hide if Current Person Known - Selecting this option helps simplify your form by hiding all the Person Entry fields if Rock already knows who the person is. Keep in mind that selecting this option doesn’t always mean the Person Entry fields will be hidden. For instance, if you set the Address field to be Required, and if the person doesn’t have an address in Rock, then the Person Entry fields will still be shown. This ensures the Required information can be collected.

Record Source - Record Source tracks where individuals were first introduced into Rock, such as through event registration, Check-in or Workflow entry forms.

Connection Status - The person filling out the form may be new to Rock. In that case, the Connection Status will be applied to the person’s record when it’s created.

Show Campus - If selected, a campus field will be available on the form. The campus field will be required and can be changed by the person.

Campus Type/Status - If you have Show Campus enabled, you can use these fields to restrict which campuses are available for selection by the person filling out the form. For instance, you might use these to limit the options to Physical campuses that are Open.

Person Entry Fields - The remaining panels let you choose exactly which fields appear on your form. Expand a panel, then set each field to Required, Optional or Hide based on your needs.

Personal Information - Choose whether to collect the person's Gender, Email, Mobile Phone, SMS Opt-In and Birthdate.

Address - Collect the person's Address and set which address Type it should be saved as.

Family - Gather Marital Status and turn on Spouse Entry to collect spouse details, with a Spouse Label you can customize.

Demographics - Optionally include Race and Ethnicity entry fields.

There are other Person Entry fields, but now we've covered many of the essentials. Let's talk about sections.

Sections

A section is where you can group the fields that make up your form. You can have a single section or multiple sections. Each section has its own settings that you can use to add content and styling to your form, which we'll look at below.

Title - You can give your section a title. The title will appear in large font above the description (if one exists) and above the form fields contained in the section. This is a great way to label/classify the fields within the section.

Description - The description appears below the title in a smaller font. This is where you can give a little extra detail about the fields in the section or provide instructions for the person filling out the form.

Show Heading Separator - Enabling this will simply add a horizontal rule (a line) below the title and description, visually separating them from the section's fields. This option is here purely for aesthetic reasons, to help your form look its best.

Type - This indicates the type of section this is. You can choose No Style, which has the same effect as not making a Type selection at all. This means the fields in this section will appear to simply be on the page, not contained within any visual grouping. The Well option, on the other hand, will enclose your fields in a lightly bordered background. This is a great way to visually break up multiple sections and can give your form a cleaner and more professional feel.

Conditionals - You can choose to show or hide the entire section, and the fields within it, based on the person's answers to fields in other sections. This is perfect for cases where you want to ask a series of questions only if the person answers an earlier question a certain way.

Those are the settings for the form section itself. In the next article, we'll look at adding fields to the section for people to fill out.