Use Forms & Workflow (OpenForms) with CMS OE (OpenCities)

If you use Forms & Workflow (OpenForms) to build the forms for your city or council, you can embed these directly onto pages of your CMS OE (OpenCities) website to make it easier for your community to access them. There are two ways you can do this:

• Manually copy form embed codes and paste them into the WYSIWYG Editor of your website pages.
• Select your forms directly from a list in the WYSIWYG Editor when editing your pages.

If you want to select your forms from a list, you'll need to be on a Forms & Workflow Enterprise plan or GXC subscription, and you'll need to configure the connection between your forms and CMS accounts.

If you have the bridge connected:

• SSO users can log into the Forms & Workflow platform via Forms in the CMS main menu - although local Forms users must still log in through the Forms & Workflow interface.
• Content authors can add forms to pages through the WYSIWYG Editor. 

To connect your accounts, follow these steps:

1. Include form permissions for your CMS users
2. Connect your CMS account with your Forms & Workflow account
3. Insert forms into your pages

If you're looking for more information about using Forms & Workflow, check out the help center.

Include Form Permissions for Your CMS Users

This task is for users with the OC System Administrator role.

When you connect your CMS and Forms & Workflow accounts, your users will be managed from the CMS. Because of this, you'll need to know what permissions your CMS users have in their roles.

This table shows which forms roles correspond to the CMS roles

However, if you're using custom roles, you must decide which roles can access Forms & Workflow and update the permissions accordingly.

These are the permissions you can add to custom roles:

• OpenForms Author (create, edit, delete forms, workflows and custom documents): Includes permissions to create and manage forms, workflows, and custom documents.
• OpenForms Reporter (See and export responses, files, and custom documents): Includes permissions to view and manage form responses, files, and custom documents.
• OpenForms Reviewer (Assignable as a reviewer to any workflow step): Includes permissions to review and action responses for forms set up to go through a workflow after submission.
• OpenForms Admin (Manage admin and Integration settings. Assign local users and workspaces): Includes permissions to perform administrative tasks in the Forms & Workflow interface.
• OpenForms Account Owner (Manage external users, access billing and security tools, access all admin, author, and reporter tools): Includes permissions to manage users, billing, and security. By default, Account Owners can also complete admin, author, and reporter tasks.

Once you've connected your accounts, the best place to manage your users is in the CMS admin. To manage their details and change or revoke their access, go to More > Users > Admin Management, then change the selected user's details and Save. Their updated access will be synced when they next log in to Forms & Workflow via the CMS SSO bridge. You can edit the roles directly by going to More > Roles. If you delete or deactivate a user, they can no longer access either platform.

Connect Your CMS Account with Your Forms & Workflow Account

This task is for accounts using the Forms & Workflow Enterprise plan or any GXC subscription. Users must have the OC System Administrator role to connect the user bridge.

Once you've set up your users with Forms & Workflow permissions, you can connect the platforms.

1. Log into your CMS admin and select Forms from the main menu.
2. Under Manage staff access to OpenForms, select Connect.
3. A pop-up window will appear. Select Connect again, and you'll be taken to Forms & Workflow.
4. Select Link with existing account or, if you don't have an account, select Register new organisation.
5. Enter your credentials and follow the prompts.

Once you have connected your accounts, Single Sign-on users can access Forms & Workflow through Forms > OpenForms.

Disconnecting Your Accounts

You can disconnect the SSO bridge at any time, but you'll no longer be able to login into Forms & Workflow via the CMS or insert forms into pages directly from a list in the WYSIWYG Editor, and all SSO users will switch back to local users.

To disconnect:

1. Log into your CMS admin and select Forms from the main menu.
2. Under Manage staff access to OpenForms, select Disconnect.
3. Select Disconnect again in the pop-up window.
4. All users need to reset their passwords from the Forms & Workflow login screen. 

Once disconnected, you can still log into the Forms & Workflow interface directly and manually insert forms into your website pages using embed codes.

Insert Forms Into Your Pages

This task is only available for accounts on the Forms & Workflow Enterprise plans or GXC subscriptions.

Once you have connected and configured your accounts, you can add published forms directly onto pages through the WYSIWYG Editor.

1. In your CMS admin, go to the page where you want to add the form and select Update if it's already been published.
2. Open the WYSIWYG Editor, and position your cursor in the body where you want the form to appear.
3. Select the Insert OpenForms icon from the WYSIWYG Toolbar.
4. Select your form from the list and select Insert. You can use the Workspace drop-down or search bar to filter the forms list. Your form will appear as a green widget in the body content area. 
   
5. Select Save Content and Close, and then Save your page. Preview your page to see how your form looks on the page.
6. Publish when you're ready.

We recommend embedding forms on OC General pages with a full-width template, so you have more space to display the form correctly. Additionally, be careful when inserting forms into accordions or tabs; the styling on these containers can affect how the embedded forms display.

If you're not an Enterprise or GXC user, you can still manually embed a Forms & Workflow form in website pages without connecting your account.

For detailed instructiosn and assistance with building and managing forms, please visit the Forms & Workflow help center.