Registering Multiple Guests / Having Multiple Pages Displayed Conditionally

A common use of the multi-page forms is form registering multiple people to attend an event or register for a conference etc. This KB article explains how to set this up on your multi-page form.

The first thing you need to do is ask the respondent how many guests they have. On the first page of your form, add a field named "numOfGuests", use either a drop down menu with predefined numeric values or use a numeric validation option to ensure a number is entered.

Next, you eed to create a new page for each guest, up to the max number of guests expected. In this example, we are allowing a maximum of 3 guests, and so we'll create 3 pages, 'guest1','guest2' and 'guest3'.

After the user clicks submit on page one, after selecting the number of guests, they will be directed to the 'guest1' page.

Adding the Conditional Branching

At the bottom of 'guest1' open the conditional branching options and build a condition that says:

IF [numOfGuests] GREATER THAN 1 THEN GO TO PAGE 'guest2'

This condition says if there is more than one guest, go to the guest2 page. This process is then repeated for all the guest pages. On the 'guest2' page we would create the condition to read:

IF [numOfGuests] GREATER THAN 2 THEN GO TO PAGE 'guest3'

It is important to note, that this works because we are checking if the [numOfGuests] is 'GREATER THAN' the current guest/page that we are on. If it is, then we know we need to move to the next guest page.

Advanced Topic:

What if I want to allow an unlimited number of Guests?

Adding an unlimited number of guests IS possible through the use of two forms chained together via the autoresponder redirect url. The first form would collect the general information and the second form would be a one page guest info page. After the first form is completed, the autoresponder redirect url would pass the new records 'record_id' to the second form via the autoresponder redirect url. The guest form would save the original 'record_id' in a hidden field named 'parent_id', used to relate the guest entries back to the original record.

The respondent would then enter the first guests information and click submit. The data would be recorded and a post submission thank you page would ask the respondent if they have any more guests to add. This link, would then redirect back to the guest form (again passing in the ORIGINAL record_id, now named 'parent_id to the form), so the next entry could be added. This process is repeated until the the user has entered all of their guests.

The relational data that results from this method is best viewed by:

a) Using a Published Page (through our publishing system) to view the main entries with a link to click to view all guests registered for each entry. This is done through the use of a drill down link.

b) The other option is to set up a local MS Access Database with two tables that  match your two forms. Create a relationship between the record_id in the main table and the parent_id in the 'guests' table. Use logiBridge to automate the download of data into the Access Database at predefined intervals. The data will appear relational in Access, you can click the main entry and it will expand to show each registered guest. For an example of how this works see this tutorial:

http://www.logiforms.com/index.lf/method/tutorial/tutname/customersOrders/