Pre-populate Link

What is the Pre-populate link?

The Pre-populate link pre-populates items on your form with values you've passed into the link's URL. Using this requires a little technical knowledge of how URLs work.

Customize the Pre-populate Link

On your form's "Share" page, copy the "Pre-populate link" URL. Then, customize the example parameters in the URL and change them to the values you want to pre-populate.

The general format for the Pre-populate link is:

https://www.formsite.com/yourAccount/yourForm/fill?itemID=YourValue

• itemID: The ID value of the form item. You can find the ID value on the item's settings page in the form editor or on your form's "Settings -> Integrations -> API" page.
• YourValue: The URL encoded value to pre-populate into the item.

For text field item types, the value should be the text you want to populate. Make sure the text is URL encoded to prevent issues with special characters. For multiple choice item types, the value should be the position of the choice you want to select. Each parameter in the link should be separated with &, as shown in the example below.

All item types except File Uploads, Multi-scales, and Signatures can be pre-populated.

Pre-populate Link Example

Below is an example of a Pre-populate link for a form with Short Answer, Radio Button, Checkbox, Dropdown, Radio Button Matrix, and Checkbox Matrix items.

This form can be pre-populated as shown using a link with parameters like:

https://www.formsite.com/user/form/fill?id2=First+Lastname&id3=1&id4=1&id4=4&id5=1&id6-1=1&id6-2=3&id6-3=2&id7-1=3&id7-2=1&id7-2=2&id7-2=3&id7-3=1

In the above URL:

• id2=First+Lastname populates the Short Answer item with the ID of 2 with "First Lastname".
• id3=1 populates the Radio Button item with the ID of 3 with its choice in position 1, "Parent".
• id4=1 populates the Checkbox item with the ID of 4 with its choice in position 1, "Driving".
• id4=4 populates the Checkbox item with the ID of 4 with its choice in position 4, "Tear-down".
• id5=1 populates the Dropdown item with the ID of 5 with its choice in position 1, "Camping".

Matrix item types are similar but also include a reference for a sub-question:

• id6-1=1 populates the item with the ID of 6, sub-question 1 with its choice in position 1, "not".
• id6-2=3 populates the item with the ID of 6, sub-question 2 with its choice in position 3, "very".
• id6-3=2 populates the item with the ID of 6, sub-question 3 with its choice in position 2, "somewhat".
• id7-1=3 populates the item with the ID of 7, sub-question 1 with its choice in position 3, "Evening movie".
• id7-2=1 populates the item with the ID of 7, sub-question 2 with its choice in position 1, "Swimming".
• id7-2=2 populates the item with the ID of 7, sub-question 2 with its choice in position 2, "Canoeing".
• id7-2=3 populates the item with the ID of 7, sub-question 2 with its choice in position 3, "Evening movie".
• id7-3=1 populates the item with the ID of 7, sub-question 3 with its choice in position 1, "Swimming".

Additional Information

If you have a multiple page form, only items on the form's first page can be pre-populated. Pre-populate cannot be combined with Save & Return and "Always require login" or with password protected forms since they add a page before the first page of your form.

You can also pre-populate an Embedded Form.