Core Docs - Engagement - Enter New Connection Requests

Rock Version: v20.0
Last Modified: 2026-08-28 1:45 PM

There are three ways to enter new connection requests: people can submit their own from your website, staff can enter one from the internal site, or a workflow can create one. Here’s how each works.

Self-Service

Rock ships with two blocks for self-service entry. Connection Request Entry puts everything on one page, so someone gives their information and picks an opportunity in a single form. The opportunity search pages let people browse and filter opportunities first, then connect from an opportunity’s own page.

Connection Request Entry

Give people one place to raise their hand. The Connection Request Entry block asks who they are, shows the connection opportunities you have chosen to offer and drops their request straight into your pipeline, ready for follow-up.

On the external site this is set up under Connect > Get Connected. You decide which connection types appear, which fields the form asks for and how every heading reads, so the same block can serve a new-guest form on one page and a serving signup on another.

The form moves through sections: Pick a Campus, Personal Information, Contact Information and Connection Opportunities. Choosing an opportunity reveals the connection request attributes tied to it, so you gather opportunity-specific detail without building a second form.

To open these settings, select the ti ti-settings icon on the Connection Request Entry block. The settings you will reach for most are grouped into the sections that follow.

Basic Settings

Connection Types - Choose which connection types the block draws from. Every opportunity inside the selected types becomes available, so this is the main lever for deciding what the page offers.

Display Banner - Show the banner at the top of the form. Set this to No when the page already carries its own heading.

First Time Guest - Show or hide the first-time guest option. Show it on a Get Connected page aimed at new visitors; hide it on a page built for one ministry.

First Time Guest Opportunity - Point at the opportunity that catches first-time guests. When someone marks themselves as a first-time guest, Rock adds their request to this opportunity alongside anything else they picked.

Field Selection - Decide field by field what the form asks for. Each personal and contact field, including the spouse fields, can be set to show, hide or required, so you can keep the form to a name and email or gather a full profile.

Person Attribute Category - Add person attributes to the form by pointing at the category that holds them.

Preferred Service Time - Ask which service someone usually attends by pointing at the schedule category holding your service times. Leave it empty and the field never appears.

Optional Redirect URL - Send people to a page of your own after they submit. Leave it blank and Rock shows a default completion message.

Connection Status - Set the connection status Rock gives to people it creates from this form. The default is Prospect.

Record Status - Set the record status for new people. The default is Pending, which keeps new records out of your active counts until staff review them.

Record Source - Track where these people came from. The default is Serving Connection, and a RecordSource page parameter on the URL wins over this setting.

Exclude Non-Public Connection Request Attributes - Hide any connection request attribute not marked Public. Leave this at Yes so internal-only attributes stay off the public form.

Customize Text

Nearly every word on the form is yours. Icons, titles, descriptions and section headings can each be edited to match your organization’s voice, from the banner at the top of the page down to the label on each section.

Opportunity Search

Rock also ships with a search page and a detail page for browsing opportunities. This is pre-configured on the external website for the involvement connection type under Connect > Serve.

Here you will see the search page for finding involvement opportunities. It allows you to filter by campus and also by various attributes about the opportunity (we’ll show you how to configure these). Selecting an opportunity will display its details.

From the details page, the guest can then choose to Connect with the opportunity. This action creates a connection request.

In the following example, a custom attribute has been added to request "Begin Date" information from the individual.

Connection Request Attributes

Both self-service blocks show connection request attributes, so this setup applies either way.

To set up attributes for the connection request, go to Admin Tools > Settings > System > Entity Attributes. Add an attribute with an Entity Type of "Connection Request". The attribute’s configuration controls which attributes appear on either self-service block. You have different options for controlling this.

You can select specific categories to include or exclude. To set up categories for this, navigate to Admin Tools > Settings > General > Attribute Categories and add a category with the Entity Type set to "Connection Request". That category can then be assigned to your connection request attributes, so they can be included or excluded in each block’s settings.

You can also use the Public flag in the attribute's setup to control which attributes are shown. Each block carries a setting to exclude non-public connection request attributes outright. This can be used in place of, or in conjunction with, included or excluded categories.

Staff Entry

Staff enter requests from the internal site. Go to People > Connections, then open the connection type or opportunity you are working in. That brings you into the Connections Hub, where ti ti-plus on the request panel opens the Add Connection Request form.

Rock fills in what it already knows. The Connection Opportunity and Campus come from the filters you have active, so a request you start while viewing Children's for Main Campus arrives with both already set. Change either one before you save.

Requester, Connection Opportunity and State are required, and State starts on Active. Under Request Details, set the Connector, Status, Placement Group and Comments your process calls for. Status opens on the connection type's default status, so you can usually leave it alone. Any request attributes your organization added appear under Attributes.

Workflows

Rock also ships with a workflow action that can create a new request. This is a powerful way of creating your own request screens using the workflow entry actions. See the Connection Workflows article for more information on how you can configure workflows to best use the connection features.