Creating a Simple Form

1A form people finish

The Science Club at a school in Huye registers members at the start of each term. Returning members only need to choose this term's project; new members must also give their interests and confirm that a parent agrees. One long form would ask returning members questions that do not apply to them, and many would give up halfway. A well-built form shows each person only the questions that apply, checks the answers as they are typed, and thanks them when they finish.

In this lesson you build that form step by step: sections, branching, validation, a confirmation message, testing and publishing.

2Step by step: build the Science Club form

A. Title, description and section 1

1. Create a blank form. Title: Science Club registration, Term 1. Description: who runs the club, what the data is for, and that only the club patron and two officers can see it.
2. Question 1, Short answer: Full name. Switch on Required.
3. Question 2, Dropdown: Class, with one option per class (S4 MPC, S4 PCB, …). Required.
4. Question 3, Short answer: Admission number. Required. Open the ⋮ menu on the card, choose Response validation, then Regular expression → Matches and type ^S[1-6]-[0-9]{4}$. In Custom error text, type "Write it like S6-0412".
5. Question 4, Multiple choice: Are you already a member? Options: Yes and No. Required.

B. Sections 2 and 3

5. Click Add section (the last icon on the floating toolbar). Title it New member. Add Checkboxes: "Which areas interest you?" (Robotics, Chemistry experiments, Astronomy, Environment). Add Multiple choice: "A parent or guardian agrees that I join" with one option, Yes, and make it required.
6. Add another section, This term. Add Multiple choice: "Which project will you join?" and Checkboxes: "Which days can you meet?" In the ⋮ menu choose Shuffle option order on the project question, so the first project listed is not favoured.

C. Branching

7. Go back to question 4. In its ⋮ menu, tick Go to section based on answer. Next to Yes choose Go to section 3 (This term); next to No choose Go to section 2 (New member).
8. At the foot of section 2, set After section 2 to Continue to next section. At the foot of section 3, the form submits.

3The route through the form

Draw the branching before you build it. The arrows must reach Submit from every starting answer, and no section should be reachable only by mistake.

4Validation, tested before use

A pattern that rejects good answers is worse than no pattern, so test it with real and wrong examples first. This short JavaScript program, run with node, tries the two patterns used in the club form. Google Forms uses its own regex engine (RE2), but simple patterns like these behave the same way.

// Test the two validation patterns before putting them in the form
const phone = /^07[2389][0-9]{7}$/;   // Rwandan mobile: 072, 073, 078 or 079 + 7 digits
const adm   = /^S[1-6]-[0-9]{4}$/;    // admission number such as S6-0412

for (const t of ["0788123456", "078812345", "0748123456", "+250788123456", "0788 123 456"])
  console.log(t.padEnd(15), phone.test(t));
for (const t of ["S6-0412", "s6-0412", "S7-0412", "S6-412"])
  console.log(t.padEnd(15), adm.test(t));

Output:

0788123456      true
078812345       false
0748123456      false
+250788123456   false
0788 123 456    false
S6-0412         true
s6-0412         false
S7-0412         false
S6-412          false

The phone pattern accepts a ten-digit number starting 072, 073, 078 or 079, and rejects one digit too few, an unknown prefix, the international form and spaces. If the club wants to accept +250 numbers too, the pattern must be widened; the custom error text should tell respondents which form to use.

For Checkboxes the rules are select at least, at most or exactly a number of options, for example "choose at most 2 projects".

5Finish, test, publish

1. Settings → Presentation → Confirmation message: "Thank you. The patron will confirm your project by Friday." Switch on Show progress bar so respondents can see how far they have gone.
2. Preview (the eye icon). Submit the form once by each route: as a returning member and as a new member. Try a bad admission number and check the error message appears.
3. Open the Responses tab and delete the test responses (⋮ → Delete all responses), so they do not pollute the real data.
4. Click Publish. Choose who can respond, then copy the responder link. The link icon can shorten it to a forms.gle address that fits in a WhatsApp message or on a poster.
5. To show the form inside a school website, use Embed HTML (the <> option when sending), which gives an <iframe> you paste into the page.

6Hands-on: build, break and fix

1. Build the Science Club form exactly as in steps A to C, with its validation and confirmation message.
2. Give the preview link to a classmate. Their job is to break it: reach Submit without giving consent, submit an impossible admission number, or skip the project question.
3. Fix every hole they find, then swap roles.

Check: your form passes when both routes reach section 3, a new member cannot submit without consent, and s6-412 is rejected with a helpful message.