How to Prefill a Hidden Form Field

One of the most common questions we get in our coaching program has to do with an advanced prefilled form feature. This is most often requested by businesses who want to send prefilled forms to their clients, but they want to be able to HIDE some of the prefilled data. For example, let's suppose that you want to send a prefilled form to your clients and ask them for feedback. When they click your Airtable Form link, it automatically fills out with their client information, right? But, did you know that your clients can 'X' out their link and then then will see your entire client list???

Needless to say, this is a big problem for most businesses. However, there is an advanced work around that you can build with a 3rd party form software and some automation magic! In this video I walk through that precise set-up using JotForm, Zapier, and Airtable.

The end result of this process is a JotForm URL that is unique for each client. Every time your client goes to their form, they have no idea that they are telling you exactly who they are! There is absolutely no way for them to see your full client list - and yet when they submit the form, your database will record the submission came from them... it's almost like magic!

Be sure to check out the two pitfalls that you might face when setting up this system. Firstly, you'll want to 'unlock' the ability to send your attachments through an integration. By default, JotForm doesn't make this data available, so check out this video to see exactly how to enable that feature.

Secondly, you'll want to build your automation using a tool like Zapier. Although JotForm and Airtable do have an integration, it's not able to handle this particular automation. This video showcases exactly where the direct integration breaks down and what you can do to overcome that limitation.

Needless to say, although this automation is on the advanced side of things, it's a game changer once you get this working! What forms have you been putting off sending?