Instant Item Updates Via SuperForm

5 minute(s)

Sometimes you need people to update information in your monday.com board, but you don’t want to give them full access to your monday.com account. For example, clients whose feedback you want to collect after a service request, employees updating their personal information for HR purposes, vendors reporting delivery status, or teacher who want to get parent approvals. That’s exactly what SuperForm’s update feature was built for. With an update form, each user can update items in a secure, controlled way.

Here’s how to create SuperForm update forms so that every user can update the right item quickly and easily.

Switch to Update Mode

By default, forms are built in Insert mode, meaning that every submission creates a new item in your board. To switch a form into update mode:

• Open the SuperForm board view.
  
• In the form editor, click the Update button in the righthand editor.

Your form is now set to Update mode, so users will be able to edit existing items instead of creating new ones.

Configure When and How Fields Can Be Updated

Decide what information users should be able to change and what should remain visible but unchangeable. The following options can be configured either from the main editor panel or the right sidebar.

• Click View only on the fields you want users to see but not edit
  
• Click Required to make the field required
• Hide any fields you don’t want users to see

• Note: Any fields not hidden and not marked as View Only will be editable by the form user.

Ways to Share Update Forms

There are several ways to create and share SuperForm update forms.

1 – Use a general update link. This form link is relevant when you want to give access to all of the board’s items. The user can choose the relevant item to update in a dropdown or search.

2 – Use SuperForm filters to filter information in the form accessed by a general link. This can be used when you only want to give access to specific items in the form, without compromising the security or data quality of any other items.

There are two types of SuperForm filters. A static filter which displays information based on a fixed value selected by the form owner, and a dynamic filter which allows the form user to choose which information is relevant to him. For example, on a Tickets board, a static filter would show only open tickets, whereas a dynamic filter would allow users to insert their name and see all of their assigned tickets.

• Pro tip: A dynamic filter can also be used to set a unique ID that will make sure the user will only access the information that is specifically relevant to him (this can be phone number, identity number, email address, license number, etc.).

To create an update form using SuperForm filters:

• Access the form in Update mode.
• Navigate to the filters tab in the right SuperForm editor.
• Set a dynamic filter either by: (1) selecting ‘filter by column’, or (2) setting a ‘dynamic filter’. To use only one dynamic filter, use the ‘filter by column’ dropdown. To use multiple dynamic filters, add additional filters with the ‘dynamic filter’ button.
• Set a static filter by clicking on the ‘static filter’ button and selecting the desired fixed value.

• Customize the filter title and description as desired as this will be the user’s introduction to the form.

When configured properly, the user will reach a page where he can make selections based on the form settings.

The user can choose the relevant item and make the updates as needed.

3 – To create a unique link for each item:

• Add a new Link column on your monday.com board.

• Give it a clear name, like Update Form Link.

Personalized URLs will appear in this column, with each link linking to a specific item on your board.

Once the link column is set, use SuperForm automation recipes to generate these links automatically.

• Go to the Automations Center.
  
• Search for SuperForm – Update per item
  
• Select the recipe that best meets your needs.
  
• Configure the automation to populate your new Link column with the unique URL for each new item.

When the setup is complete, every time the automation is triggered, a personalized update link will automatically be generated and stored in the Link column.

Once automation is active, test the link:

• Complete an action to trigger the automation in your board.
  
• Look in the Update Form Link column. Your unique URL should appear.
  
• Click the link. You’ll see the form open, pre-filled with that item’s details. Only the fields you marked as editable will be open for updates.
  

• Pro-tip: To create a unique link to items already existing in the board, we recommend using the “when button clicked” or “when status changes” triggers. Once the recipe is configured,  go to the board, multi-select the existing items, and trigger the automation on one item by clicking the button or changing the status, depending on the recipe you created. This will create the unique links to all selected items at once.

Now you’re ready to generate custom links any time you need them.

• Pro tip: Use SuperMail to send your custom update item links directly to the right people. Learn how here.