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Enable Data Passthrough on Forms

  • Updated

Data Passthrough is a setting you can enable on a form when you don’t want the ProntoForms server to store your data. Use this feature when your organization’s security policies prohibit storing information on an external server.

This topic describes how Data Passthrough works and how to enable the setting on a form. It also includes a list of ProntoForms features that are not compatible with Data Passthrough.

Supported on all tiers:

Essentials
Advanced
Enterprise

Contents

How Data Passthrough works

When you enable the Data Passthrough setting on a form, the ProntoForms server keeps the submitted form data in encrypted storage for 24 hours. After 24 hours, the server deletes the data from the ProntoForms server.

Why Data Passthrough requires two types of Data Destinations

Data Passthrough relies on your Data Destinations to store the data from submitted forms in your preferred system.

To prevent possible data loss, you must associate at least two unique types of Data Destination with each Data Passthrough-enabled form. This is important because ProntoForms deletes the submitted data from our server after 24 hours, even if a Data Destination fails.

For example:

  1. A user submits a form with Data Passthrough enabled.

  2. The system executes your Data Destinations.

  3. Your first Data Destination, Google Sheets, fails to execute because of a problem with Google services.

  4. Your second Data Destination, Email, executes successfully.

  5. You can access your data from the second Data Destination.

Info:The topic Data Destinations Overview includes a full list of all the different Data Destination types you can configure.

A second Data Destination can also help you to troubleshoot your form. For example:

  1. A user submits a form with Data Passthrough enabled.

  2. The system executes your Data Destinations.

  3. Your Email Data Destination fails because of an incorrect email address.

  4. You can access the data from the submitted form in your additional Data Destination and see that the email address is incorrect.

    Info:The topic What does "Error: Data Record Processor Execution Failed" mean? describes how to troubleshoot a failed Data Destination.

Note:The ProntoForms Support team can’t easily troubleshoot forms that have Data Passthrough enabled, because they can’t access data from your submitted forms. If you need help with troubleshooting Data Destination failures, access the data from a destination that executed successfully and provide that data to Support.

ProntoForms features incompatible with Data Passthrough

The Data Passthrough setting deletes submitted data from the ProntoForms server 24 hours after submission. For this reason, any features that require data from a submitted form are not compatible with Data Passthrough, including:

Enable Data Passthrough on a form

Prerequisites

  • Your form must have two different types of Data Destinations added. This ensures that you have a backup in case your main Data Destination fails. For example:

    • You can configure Data Passthrough for a form that has both a Dropbox and an Email Data Destination.
    • You cannot configure Data Passthrough for a form that has two different Email Data Destinations configured.

    Warning:If your Data Destinations fail, you will lose your data. The ProntoForms server holds your data for 24 hours and re-executes the entire submission, including successful Data Destinations. After 24 hours, the ProntoForms server deletes the data.

  • Your form must not have Editing enabled.

  • Your form must not have ProntoForms Teamwork enabled.

  • We strongly recommend that you configure a Problem Contact Email Address.

    Info:The topic What is a "Problem Contact Email Address"? describes how to configure an email address to receive notifications when Data Destinations fail.

Steps to enable Data Passthrough on a form

  1. From the Manage Forms menu, navigate to the form you want to configure.

  2. Select Edit Form.

    Result: The form opens in edit mode.

  3. Select Settings, and then select Advanced Properties.

  4. Select the check box to enable Data Passthrough.

    Result: The system confirms that you enabled Data Passthrough.

    Tip:Remember to Save and Deploy the form when you’re ready to make it available to your mobile device users.

Note:We recommend that you test your form thoroughly at the following times:

  • Before you enable Data Passthrough

  • When you make any changes to the form

  • When you make any changes to Data Sources or Data Destinations associated with the form

To mitigate the risk of data loss, ensure that your Data Destinations execute properly.

How failed Form Submissions re-execute in Data Passthrough-enabled forms

Data Passthrough-enabled forms require that you configure at least two different types of Data Destinations. If any of your Data Destinations fail, the server re-executes the submitted form, including successful Data Destinations. This means that the server sends the data from the submitted form to all your Data Destinations again.

The server re-executes the submitted form every ten minutes for Data Passthrough-enabled forms. After 24 hours, the server deletes the data and stops re-executing the Data Destinations.

Note:If you don’t stop the Form Submission from re-executing, successful Data Destinations might have repeated data. For example:

  • An email Data Destination succeeds.

  • A Google Sheets Data Destination fails.

  • The server re-executes both destinations every ten minutes until they all succeed, up to 24 hours.

  • The email destination receives multiple sets of data from the submitted form.

Stop a failed Form Submission from re-executing

  1. Identify the Data Destination that failed. To do that go to

    Data & Analytics > Submissions (by Form) > FormName > Continue
    or
    Manage Forms > FormName > Go to submissions

    Result: The Web Portal displays the Form Submissions page for the selected form.

  2. Select the Form Submission that failed.

    Result: The Form Submission details page opens.

  3. On the error message, identify the Data Destination that failed.

    In the following example, the Form Submission has three different Data Destinations configured. The Data Destination that failed is the Microsoft Sharepoint List Data Destination, as specified in the error message.

  4. Select the failed Data Destination to open it, and then select EDIT DATA DESTINATION.

    Result: The Data Destination opens in edit mode.

  5. In the Destination Basics tab, select the check box to disable the Destination.

    Result: The Data Destination is no longer active and does not receive any more Form Submissions.

  6. Select Update to save your changes.

    Result: The failed Form Submission re-executes one last time, and no Data Destinations fail.

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