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Pre-fill Webform fields

Sometimes, you want to pre-fill a field based on earlier information. For example, say you want to send a client a Webform with their personal information already pre-filled for them. This can be done by setting the default value to Value from form. The default values can either be from earlier in the same Webform or from a previous Webform within the same Workflow. Your customer can then review and edit the pre-filled information.

In this post we’ll set up a Workflow with employer and employee Webforms. We’ll use information from the employer Webform to pre-fill the employee Webform with basic information.

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Pre-filling a Webform with information is helpful if you want to save time during the form filling process. You can reuse information that’s already been provided to pre-populate Webform fields later down the line.

  • Pre-fill from a previous field in the same Webform: We recommend this option if you want to use information that a customer provided.
  • Pre-fill from another Webform: This method leverages multiple Webforms to help pre-fill information on behalf of another user.

In this post, we’ll specifically focus on the second method. If you’d like to learn more about pre-filling a field with information from the same Webform, please see our default values article instead, as the process is the same.

Setting up your Workflow

Workflows can support multiple Webforms, which is extremely helpful when you need forms filled by different audiences. In today’s example, a member of the HR team will help pre-fill information for a new employee.

Before getting started, you’ll need to first set up two Webforms:

  • One for your HR team
  • One for your new employee

While both parties in our example are internal facing, we encourage you to set up access control if your Workflow consists of Webforms for both internal and external parties, or on any Webform where you’d like more security.

Pre-fill from another Webform

After you’ve created both of your Webforms, they’re ready to be configured to help pre-fill information.

Additional notes

The pre-filled values used in today’s examples are intended to help save the employee time during the Webform filling process. Rather than having to fill out basic information the employer already has on hand, the employee just has to review the information and verify it’s correct. If it’s not, they can always update the information.

Before applying this method to your Workflow, keep in mind that the pre-filled values can be changed as a user is reviewing the fields with the default values. If you’d prefer to display information that your customer cannot change, use field references instead.

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