Using Intake Forms for Automated Proof Creation

Mike Salyga
Mike Salyga
  • Updated

Summary: The Intake Forms feature, unique to Ziflow, allows your designers, customers, and stakeholders to submit proofs directly into your account using a simple link and have a workflow automatically assigned to that proof.

You can create as many intake forms as you need in just a matter of minutes, each with its own customized branding, title, description, as well as upload options, and custom properties.

Our intake forms handle not only file & website submissions but also text which we’ll automatically convert to a PDF for review.

Available: on Standard, Pro, Business Legacy and Enterprise editions.

  • Features outlined in this article:

    1. Creating Intake Forms

    2. Intake Form Zibot

    3. Additional information

    4. Create new proof versions through intake forms

    Creating Intake Forms

    Click on the Create Intake Form button.

    Create intake form button in Ziflow

    Once you click the button, a new intake creation form will be displayed. Fill out all necessary fields and press Create Intake form once you are done.

    Create intake form screen and options
    1. Intake form name - that is going to be the internal Ziflow name of the form.

    2. Form URL - you can leave the URL that was automatically generated or enter your own custom URL.

    3. Submitter validation - by validating an email, you may allow people to create new review versions via the Intake form. Once this option is checked, people submitting new reviews will be asked to authenticate themselves using an email address. They then can submit new versions of proofs they've already created.

      Submitter validation pop up in Ziflow
    4. Title - the intake form title is visible to all people who open the form.

    5. Description - enter a description of the form.

    6. On-submission text - this is what will display after the proof is submitted.

    7. Branding - choose the branding that should be applied to the intake form. There are 3 options to choose from: My branding (account settings), Ziflow branding (default Ziflow settings), and Other branding (lets you customize).

    8. Allow upload of - lets you decide what type of files are allowed to be uploaded. You can decide to allow uploading: files, websites, or text. If you allow your clients to upload text, you can additionality set a maximum number of characters limit.

      Allow to upload different types of assets through intake forms
    9. Combine static/text into one proof - lets you decide if multiple files uploaded to the form should be combined into a single.

    10. Proof name - choose how the proof name should be determined: use the file name, allow users to name the proof, or customize the proofname using built-in tokens.

    11. Add property - this option allows you to add custom-proof properties if they are active in your Ziflow account. Please note that the User field type cannot be added as a Property in the Intake form. Custom properties in Intake Forms can only be added on Enterprise Edition.

    12. Add section - by adding sections, you can create headers for your intake form. Once those sections are added, you may group properties together.

      Add headers to your intake forms

    At this point, an intake form has been created and is active, but to add proofs from the files submitted through it, we must build a Zibot. The automated Zibot will automatically generate proofs whenever someone uploads a new file via the intake form.

    Intake form Zibot

    The Intake Form Zibot creation process looks exactly the same way as any other Ziflow Zibot. Here’s an article showing how to set up a new flow, but we will also show how this looks step by step. What is worth noting is that only users with "Admin" rights can set up Intake Form Zibots.

    You start by clicking on the Create flow button inside the Connect tab:

    Create flow button inside Connect tab in Ziflow

    Then an “Intake form” must be selected as the application:

    Choose an intake form as a flow application

    Select the “On submit” option as the event.

    Select on submit event type

    At this point, you need to choose which intake form should be connected to the Zibot (alternatively, you can also create an intake form from this level):

    Choose an intake form which will be connected to the flow

    Once you’re done with the event configuration, you can proceed to set up an actual Zibot that is going to create proofs:

    Select create a proof as a flow Zibot

    The next step will be a proof configuration: assembling a workflow, adding reviewers, adjusting proof settings etc. If you require additional information about configuration settings etc. please visit the detailed guide on how to create new proofs.

    Adjust proof workflow and add reviewers

    When you’re done, click the Next button, and you will be asked to confirm if the flow should be saved and activated. You can also name the flow so it is easier to differentiate it from other automations.

    Save a flow and see how it appears on your flow list in Ziflow

    After saving a flow, the process is finished. Users can start submitting files through the intake form. Whenever someone uploads a file through the form, a proof will automatically be created.

    Open an intake form and submit some files to see how proof is being created in Ziflow side

    Create new versions through intake forms.

    To allow you to submit new proof versions through intake forms, please make sure to enable two settings on the intake form that you want this feature to be enabled.

    Settings to allow new version creation through intake form

    By enabling this setting, intake submitters will be able to upload a new proof version. It's important to note that only the original form submitter has the ability to create a new version. Therefore, if someone has submitted an asset to your Ziflow and a proof has been created, the only individual authorized to attach a new version through the intake form is the same person who uploaded the initial V1 of the proof.

    New proof version creation through intake form

    Flow owners can also decide how new proof versions work when the original proof workflow is changed manually after the proof is created. This can be achieved by selecting a special setting while configuring Create Proof Zibot while setting up an intake flow.

    For a new proof version use all settings from a previous one (disregard details below)

     

    With this setting enabled when creating new proof versions using an intake form, Ziflow will pull settings and details from the previous version (and not from the original workflow details). Let's say that your client has initiated a proof using an intake form. The flow creates the proof, but the proof owner manually adds a new reviewer to the proof workflow.
    Later, when a new version is added using the same intake form & flow, then the new version will inherit all settings & reviewers from the previous (V1) version (including manually added reviewers after proof creation).

    Additional information:

    • Intake Forms can also be used when uploading different media types into a single proof. Read more about the Batch proof feature in Ziflow.

      Upload various file types using intake forms in Ziflow
    • Ziflow allows intake forms to be embedded on external pages. This is useful when you'd like to place a submission form within your website. If you're a Ziflow admin, please visit your account security settings and allow iframing your intake forms.

    Supporting material

  • This article outlines how described functionality appears and operates in the old layout. If you are using Dashboard 2.0, please refer to the corresponding article in the Help Center.


    Features outlined in this article:

    1. Creating Intake Forms

    2. Intake Form Zibot

    3. Additional information

    4. Create new proof versions through intake forms

    Creating Intake Forms

    Click on the Create Intake Form button.

    Create intake form button in Ziflow

    Once you click the button, a new intake creation form will be displayed. Fill out all necessary fields and press Create Intake form once you are done.

    Create intake form screen and options
    1. Intake form name - that is going to be the internal Ziflow name of the form.

    2. Form URL - you can leave the URL that was automatically generated or enter your own custom URL.

    3. Submitter validation - by validating an email, you may allow people to create new proof versions via the Intake form. Once this option is checked, people submitting new proofs will be asked to authenticate themselves using an email address. They then can submit new versions of proofs they've already created.

      Submitter validation pop up in Ziflow
    4. Title - the intake form title is visible to all people who open the form.

    5. Description - enter a description of the form.

    6. On-submission text - this is what will display after the proof is submitted.

    7. Branding (Pro & Enterprise editions only) - choose the branding that should be applied to the intake form. There are three options to choose from: My branding (account settings), Ziflow branding (default Ziflow settings), and Other branding (lets you customize).

    8. Allow upload of - lets you decide what type of files are allowed to be uploaded. You can decide to allow uploading: files, websites, or text. If you allow your clients to upload text, you can additionality set a maximum number of characters limit.

      Allow to upload different types of assets through intake forms
    9. Combine static/text into one proof - lets you decide if multiple files uploaded to the form should be combined into one proof.

    10. Proof name - choose how the proof name should be determined: use the file name, allow users to name the proof, or customize the proof name using built-in tokens.

    11. Add property - this option allows you to add custom-proof properties if they are active in your Ziflow account. Please note that the User field type cannot be added as a Property in the Intake form. Custom properties in Intake Forms can only be added on Enterprise Edition.
      Please note that properties entered while submitting an intake form will overwrite properties saved inside the Intake form Zibot.

    12. Add section - by adding sections, you can create headers for your intake form. Once those sections are added, you may group properties together.

      Add headers to your intake forms

    At this point, an intake form has been created and is active, but to develop proofs from the files submitted through it, we must build a Zibot. The automated Zibot will automatically generate proofs whenever someone uploads a new file via the intake form.

    Intake form Zibot

    The Intake Form Zibot creation process looks exactly the same way as any other Ziflow Zibot. Here’s an article showing how to set up a new flow, but we will also show how this looks step by step. What is worth noting is that only users with "Admin" rights can set up Intake Form Zibots.

    You start by clicking on the Create flow button inside the Connect tab:

    Create flow button in Ziflow

    To proceed, you need to choose an Intake form as your application.

    Select an intake form as a flow application

    Select the On submit option as the event.

    The on submit event type should be selected when creating intake form  flow

    At this point, you need to choose from the list which intake form should be connected to the Zibot (alternatively, you can also create an intake form from this level):

    Select the create proof option as a flow Zibot

    Once you’re done with the event configuration, you can proceed to set up an actual Zibot that is going to create proofs:

    Our next step will be selecting Create proof Zibot and proof configuration: building a workflow, adding reviewers, adjusting proof settings etc. If you need more details on the proof workflow settings, you can visit Creating a new proof article.

    Configure proof workflow and settings

    When you’re done, click the Next button, and you will be asked to confirm if the flow should be saved and activated. You can also name the flow so it is easier to differentiate it from other automation.

    Name configured flow and turn it on

    After saving the Zibot, the process is finished. Users can start submitting files through the intake form. A proof will automatically be created whenever someone uploads a file through the form.

    Submit a test file through intake form and check how proof is being created

     


    Create new versions through intake forms.

    To allow you to submit new proof versions through intake forms, please make sure to enable two settings on the intake form that you want this feature to be enabled.

    Settings to allow new version creation through intake form

    Enabling this setting will allow intake submitters to upload a new proof version. When

    New proof version creation through intake form

    Flow owners can also decide how new proof versions work when the original proof workflow is changed manually after the proof is created. This can be achieved by selecting a special setting while configuring Create Proof Zibot while setting up an intake flow.

    With this setting enabled when creating new proof versions using an intake form, Ziflow will pull settings and details from the previous version (and not from the original workflow details). Let's say your client initiated proof using an intake form. The flow creates the proof, but the proof owner manually adds a new reviewer to the proof workflow.Later, when a new version is added using the same intake form & flow, then the new version will inherit all settings & reviewers from the previous (V1) version (including manually added reviewer after proof creation).

    Additional information:

    • Please note that properties entered/selected while submitting an intake form will overwrite properties saved inside the Intake form Zibot.

    • Intake Forms can also be used when uploading different media types into a single proof. Read more about the Batch review feature in Ziflow.

      Upload various file types using intake forms in Ziflow

    Supporting material

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