Field Types | Subform - Zoho Forms

Subforms

Table of Contents
  1. Overview
  2. Types of Subform
    1. Inline Subform
    2. Popup Subform
    3. Vertical Subform
  3. Adding a Subform
  4. Subform Properties
    1. Subform Type
    2. Subform Entry Limit
    3. Validate Duplicates in Subform
    4. Serial Numbers for Subform Entries
    5. Sum of Field Entries in Subform
    6. Set Custom Range for form fields
    7. Add Entry Label
    8. Subform Fields: Label Placement

Overview

A Subform is a secondary form that lets you add multiple line items to your primary form.  A Subform can be used in order forms, booking forms, application forms, and more to collect additional details associated with the primary form.
Subform

For example, when respondents place orders using your order form, they can add multiple products as entries in a Subform, and the number of products can vary with each order.The Subform responses can be included in the Thank You page and email notifications as a table or a summary. The values from a Subform can be used in the Formula field to perform calculations and while collecting payments from your respondents.

Zoho Forms offers three different Subform types:

  1. Inline Subform
  2. Popup Subform
  3. Vertical Subform  

Types of Subform

Repeatable Subforms
Based on how the subform fields are displayed within a subform entry, there are three different subform types:

Inline Subform


In Inline Subforms, fields are displayed horizontally one after the other. This view lets you collect entries directly within the form in multiple rows. Each Subform entry appears in a row, and respondents can add multiple rows by clicking the + icon. 
You can customize each field's width in an Inline Subform by clicking Modify Width under Subform Properties. 

Inline Subform


The Popup view is useful when your Subform contains a large number of fields. When a respondent clicks + Add Entry in the live form, the Subform opens in a popup for each entry. Only a summary of the entries is shown in the form.
The + Add Entry label in the Subform can be renamed according to your preference under Subform Properties.

Popup Subform

Vertical Subform


For Vertical Subforms, each Subform entry is displayed as a separate block, stacked vertically one below the other. Choose this view if you want Subform fields to be displayed vertically within the form, rather than in a popup.

Vertical Subform
NotesNote:
  1.  Vertical Subforms are supported only in the new version of themes. 
  2. Card forms support only Popup Subforms. 

Let’s move on to the next section to learn how to add one or more Subforms (Inline, Popup, or Vertical) to your form.

Adding a Subform

To add a Subform to your form, 

  1. Drag and drop the Subform field from the form fields in the left pane onto your form builder.

  2. Drag and drop the required fields into the Subform and configure its Properties.

    Drag and drop fields

Notes
Note: You can add up to 30 fields in a Subform and up to 5 Subforms in a form. 

Subform Properties

Subform Properties


Subform Type 

While adding a Subform, you can choose one of the Subform types: Inline, Popup, or Vertical, according to how you want the subform fields to be displayed. This can be changed later using the Subform Type option in the Properties panel. 

Subform Entry Limit

You can restrict the number of entries that can be entered in a Subform.
  • To set a constant entry limit, enter the minimum and maximum values under Entry Limit in Subform properties. 
  • To set a limit based on form inputs, select the respective fields instead of entering values under Entry Limit in Subform properties. 
Notes
Note: The maximum entry limit in a Subform is 120.

Validate duplicates in the Subform

When you do not want duplicate entries in your Subform, you can apply the duplicate check validation. You can configure this for individual fields as well as for a combination of fields. 

Validating duplicate entries for an individual field in Subform
With this option, you can restrict duplicate values for the selected field within a Subform.
  1. Click the Subform field and open the field Properties pane.
  2. Under Validation, select No duplicates.
Validate duplicate entries for a field in Subform
Validating duplicates for a combination of fields in Subform

With this option, you can select a combination of 2 or 3 Subform fields and restrict duplicates only when all values of the selected set of fields are duplicated. For example, if the Phone and Email fields are selected as a combination, the entry will  be marked as duplicate only if both the Phone and Email fields contain duplicate values in a row. If not, the entry will be accepted as valid. 

  1. Click the Subform header and open the Subform Properties.
  2. Under No Duplicates for Combination of Fields, click Select Fields.

    Validate duplicates for a combination of fields in Subform
  3. In the pop-up, pick the fields that you want to check duplicate entries for and click Save.
    Check duplicates for a combination of multiple fields

Note: 
  1. Supported field types for validation: Single Line, Number, Phone, Email, Date, Time, Date-Time, Dropdown, Radio,Website.
  2. For a specific Subform, you can either configure validation for individual fields or validation for a combination of fields.
  3. You can select a maximum of three fields as a combination to be checked for duplicates.
  4. Duplicates will be validated only within the selected Subform. Values from outside the selected Subform and other form entries will not be validated. 

Serial numbers for Subform entries

You can include serial numbers to uniquely identify and maintain a count of the entries added to a Subform. 
To display the serial numbers for the live Subform entries,
  1. Go to the Subform Properties.
  2. Under Serial Number for Entries, select Show Serial Numbers, and save the Subform.

Sum of field entries in a Subform 

You can choose to display the sum of all the numeric values entered for a field in your Subform.
To do so,

  1. Click on a Numeric field in a Subform and open the Field Properties.
  2. Under Sum of Subform Entries, enable the Show Field Total option. 

The sum of field entries from a Subform can be included in the Thank You page and email notifications by merging the Subform responses using the merge tags. 
Supported Field Types: Number, Decimal, Currency, Formula, Slider

Notes
Note: The sum will not be displayed in the live Pop-up Subforms and forms accessed via mobile browsers. As an alternate, you can add a Formula field to your form below the subform and calculate the sum of field entries in Subform in this case.

Set Custom Range for form fields

You can set a custom Range based on the responses provided in the Number, Decimal, and Currency fields added to a Subform.
To set this up,
  1. Go to the Properties pane of the field and select Values from the Format dropdown.
  2. Select the required fields for the Min and Max values by clicking the Merge icon. The input entered by a respondent in the selected fields will determine the range for that field.
    Supported fields that you can select using the merge icon to set the Range:
    Number, Decimal, Currency, Slider, Rating, Formula
Notes
Note: Only the fields above the field for which you are configuring the Range in the Subform can be selected using the merge icon.

Add Entry Label 

The Add Entry Label shown in Popup Subforms can be renamed according to your preference. To do this, open the Subform Properties and update the Add Entry Label property.

Subform Fields: Label Placement

This property is available only for Horizontal Subforms. It allows you to control how field labels are positioned relative to the fields within the Subform.
You can choose from the following options: Left, Center and Right.

To customize themes for Inline and Vertical Subforms, and the Add Entry card in Popup Subforms, navigate to Themes > Form Customization > Special Fields > Subforms > Background. However, to customize Popup Subform Container, access Themes > Form Customization > General > Style > Popup Background.