What Does This Page Cover?

Learn about form drafts and how Creator makes it easier to save your partly-filled data, thereby enabling you to effortlessly pickup from where you left and complete the form before submission.

Availability

Saving a form as draft:

1. is available across all data centers.
2. can be created in the free and paid plans of Creator.
3. can be configured by the super admin, admins, and developers while other users can create and manage them. 

Overview

Drafts enable users to save their progress automatically for a certain period of time, after which they will be deleted. This means that if users are unable to complete a form or need to switch devices, they need not start over the next time they open the form.  They can access the draft, make changes as required, and submit the form.

Saving a Form as Draft in Creator

A form is a component of your Zoho Creator app that enables you to collect and store data. In other words, forms enable your users to provide their data through your app. This makes forms one of the main points of interaction between your users and your app. Sometimes, users will fill out part of a form, and save the rest for later. They'll want the option to pick up where they left off and complete the saved form before submitting it, without incurring any loss of data.

Example

See How It Works

Things to know

1. Users can save their forms as drafts only if you (Admin/Super Admin) have enabled the Save Draft form property. All users of your application can then add, update, or delete drafts in the live mode of your application.
2. You can save an integration form as a draft.
3. Drafts are user-specific. In other words, users can only view and access their own drafts. 
4. Application administrators cannot view their users' drafts.
5. All drafts saved for more than 15 days will be deleted automatically. 
6. If you (Admin/Super Admin) make any changes to a form, all its drafts will be deleted. Changes include:
1. Disabling the Save Draft property
   
2. Modifying field properties
   
3. Adding or deleting form fields
   
4. Deleting a form or application
   
7. In the case of workflows, draft deletion will occur if workflows are created, modified, deleted, and enabled/disabled in the following cases :
1. Record events, such as Created, Edited and Created/Edited records.
   
2. Form events, such as:
   
1. On Load
   
2. On User Input (subform included)
   
3. Addition of subform row
   
4. Deletion of subform row 
   
8. Once a draft is submitted as a record, the corresponding draft will be deleted. 
9. If you've enabled environments for your apps, the Save Draft property will only be available in the production environment for C6 applications.
10. The Save Draft property is available for C5 applications. For sandbox applications in C5, Save Draft is available for those published in Sandbox mode.

Note:

1. Currently, draft data will not be available when you perform application backup and restore.
2. Saving a form as a draft is not supported for the below form types: 
1. Stateless forms
   
2. Public forms
   
3. Embedded forms
   
4. Pop-up forms
   
5. Offline-capable forms

What happens if you've configured form workflows?

1. If you've configured either an on-load or on user input form workflow, it will be executed as usual upon loading of the main (original) form. However, this workflow will not be executed upon opening a draft form. This is because drafts only maintain the state of the form from where users left off.
2. If you've configured an on validate or on success deluge script for your form workflows, it will be executed upon validation or submission of a draft form (i.e. when the user clicks the Submit button on the draft form). This is because a draft form, once submitted, is considered a form record and the configured form workflow is executed.

Limitations

1. Drafts can be saved only while adding a record (Drafts are not supported while editing a record).
2. Users can only save up to five drafts per form. After that, they'll need to clear an existing draft to save a new draft. 
3. While submitting a record using saved draft data, there might be chances of storing outdated values in integration fields. To rectify them, users can either modify the value referred in draft, in the respective connected service or delete the record from their Creator application.
   
4. You cannot view preview of media fields preview while editing a draft.

Mobile properties 

Form drafts saved in web browsers will automatically be available on both mobile and tablet devices. These include code-signed apps, customer portal apps, and PWAs. Similarly, when a user deletes a draft in the web browser, that draft will automatically be deleted on their mobile and tablet devices.

On mobile and tablet devices, you can access your drafts by clicking the Drafts icon in the top-right corner beside the form name. 

Related Topics

1. Understand forms 
   
2. Understand form builder
   
3. Manage form drafts