Four ways to collect data into one form: link, your screens, a field team, a file

When you build a form, the first question is usually about the fields. The second, which decides whether the data actually arrives, is how people will fill it in. A registration form that only works on a laptop is useless to a team standing in a village. A public link is useless for a list you already keep in a spreadsheet.

A single Pulseform form can receive records in four different ways at once, and they all land in the same table of records, with the same fields and the same analysis. This article describes each and helps you choose.

1. A public link, for people outside

You share a link, or a QR code on a poster, and anyone you give it to opens the form in their browser and fills it in. They need no account and no login.

To turn it on, open the form's Options, then Settings, and under Access Permissions make sure both switches are on: Accept Responses (Active), which lets the form receive answers, and Public Link (No Login), which lets people open it without an account. A new form is not public until you do this, so you can build and test in private. Then click Share on the form and use Copy Link, or show the QR code, which people scan with their phone camera.

People fill in the form and click Submit Form, moving between steps if there are several, and then see Form Submitted Successfully! Click Open Public Form first to see exactly what they will see.

Use it when: the people answering are filling the form in themselves, on their own phones or computers, and they have a connection.

2. Your own screens, for staff entering records

Each form in the list has a Fill Form button. Staff use it to enter a record from inside the platform, for example from a paper form that arrived at the office, or a phone call.

Use it when: your own team enters records at a desk. The same rules apply as on the public link, so a mistyped phone number is refused here too.

3. A field team, even without a connection

For a team working where the network is weak or missing, give each person their own code instead of the public link. Open Options, then Field Collector Codes, and Issue New Code. Each code opens the form in the Collect app on one collector's device, with no account to create.

The collector links the device with the code while connected, which downloads the form. After that they fill it in with no connection, and the answers are saved on the device and sent automatically when a connection returns. Because each answer carries the collector's name, you can see who collected what, and you can follow your team: how many answers each has sent, when their device last synced, and who has been silent for two days or more.

Use it when: people collect on behalf of others, over days or weeks, in places with poor coverage, and you need to know who collected each record.

Know the limits. Until answers are sent they exist only on that device, so ask collectors to send whenever they pass a connection. And some form features cannot be used offline yet: file uploads, date rules tied to today or another field, duplicate checks, and forms that accept answers only through personal invitation links. The codes screen tells you which fields are blocking a form. Patterns are a special case: the Collect app does not check them, but a form with patterns can still be given to collectors, and answers that do not fit are kept and marked for you to review.

4. A CSV file, for records you already have

If the data already exists in a spreadsheet, bring it in as a CSV file: Export & Import, then Import Submissions (CSV). Download the template so the column names match, fill it in, and upload it (up to 10 MB). Each row is checked before it is saved, and the rows that fail are reported with the reason.

Use it when: you are moving an old list into the form, or entering a large batch from a spreadsheet.

Choosing

You are not limited to one. A common arrangement: a public link for the people who can register themselves, a field team for the ones who cannot, and a CSV import for last year's list.

One more variation

When it matters who may answer, and that each person answers only once, a form can accept responses only through personal links, one per person. That is a different tool again, built for votes and confidential surveys, and it is covered in confidential responses and verified participation.

In Pulseform

See sharing a form's public link, what Collect is, issuing collector codes and importing records in the guide. Whichever way the records arrive, they appear together in the form's records, where you can filter them, see the statistics and compare one field with another.