Freeform - using multiple fields on the same form

Question

I have a set of very long forms. Many of these forms require repetitive field types - example: one of my forms requires the "date" field 15 times.

Another form requires at least 30 single line text entries + dozens of radio button entries.

It appears I can only use a field once per form, forcing me to create a new field each time I use a previous one. Is there any way around this?

I see I can re-label fields for each form which helps but wondering if there is a better way.

I'm definitely going to run up against the 130 field limit if I have to create new ones each time.

Answer 1

No there isn't. In the same way as Craft, each field has a unique handle which is used both for templating and for email notifications.

Solspace support might have some other ideas, but I think this is just the way Freeform is built.

Answer 2

You might want to bypass the graphical form builder in this case and code it manually. I think this would let you give multiple fields an array-name: name="fieldname[]" (not sure what the correct terminology is for that).

Basically though, that would mean that all the fields with name="fieldname[]" would end up having their data combined and saved to the single fieldname field.

Answer 3

There is the MySQL limitation that Freeform can run into, and it seems likely in your situation. One thing you can do is reuse fields across forms... so for example, every form might have a first name, last name, email field, etc. Instead of having a new one for each form, you can have those as 3 fields used multiple times. And then, if possible, you can still override fields from one form to the next. For example, you could have a USA form with a field named "Zip Code", and use it in the next form as "Postal Code" for a Canadian version of the form, etc. I do get how you can run into issues if you start building very complex and different forms that pretty much require a different set of fields for each.

We have heard that several customers have had success by switching the field's column type from VARCHAR 255 to TEXT and they have reported getting upwards of 300 fields.

Also, if possible, one other option would be using the new Table fieldtype.

We're also beginning to work on Freeform 4, which will have several areas of the plugin rebuilt, including how fields and forms are architected and stored in database tables. A release date on this would likely be early 2020. :)