NOTE:

If you want someone other than the Site Manager to have access to form submissions as well as links to files uploaded through webforms, you can request that they be given the Reviewer role for your website. Submit the Add/Remove Permissions for WMS Website Managers, Editors and Reviewers webform. For more information about the Reviewer role, see Roles and permissions for the WMS.

Submissions

From the Submissions tab, you can view a list of all form submissions. If the form requires authentication, you will see the user's login credentials. Click on the View link within a row to see that user's responses.

Analysis

The Analysis tab gives you summary information, such as how many users filled each field, counts of the values for option components, and character count values for text fields. You can add or remove components to be analysed.

Table

The Table tab shows all the data in a table/spreadsheet view, one row per submission.

Download

Click Download to export a copy of the form results to your computer. You can export the data as either Microsoft Excel or Delimited text (where you choose the character to use as the delimiter: comma, tab, semicolon, etc.) format.

There is also an option to Include files with the downloaded submissions. This option is always un-checked by default. By checking this box, any files that have been uploaded with each submission will be included with the results.

In addition, you have the following options for exporting data:

• SELECT LIST OPTIONS: ability to display values as full, human-readable text vs. machine-readable keys, and ability to choose between separate columns for each option vs. a single column, compact option.
• INCLUDED EXPORT COMPONENTS: allow you to select which of the form components you want to export.
• DOWNLOAD RANGE OPTIONS: allows you to export a subset of the total form submissions.

When Include files is selected, the export will consist of a .zip folder containing the submission results as well as a subfolder labelled “files” containing all the associated files.

NOTE:

When including attached files, the archive may be too large for the system to generate before the page times out. In this case, use the download range options to get the submissions in multiple batches.

When you download webform submissions, the results display UTC time (Coordinated Universal Time). When accessing the submissions directly on your site, the time you see in the SUBMITTED column depends on the actual time zone you are in while viewing the site in your browser, e.g., in Montreal, it would be 5 hours (EST) behind UTC.

Clear

Click Clear to permanently delete all form results.

Submission expiry

The webform submission storage period, available under Form settings, allows you to control how long the data submitted by users remains available in the database.

WARNING: 40-day maximum retention period

Webforms are set to expire after a 40-day maximum retention period to reduce risks associated with the collection and storing of certain types of sensitive data. 

The expiry can also be changed for a shorter expiration time based on the relevant data handling regulations (e.g., when collecting confidential user information).

To configure this in a webform, go to the Form settings, and change the Webform submission storage period, located under the submission settings:

To ensure that webform submissions are never written to the database, select Delete submissions immediately.

IMPORTANT:

In order to have a copy of submissions:

• Use the Download option described above;
• If the form collects confidential user information (e.g., McGill ID), you should set the form to email the submissions to an appropriate McGill address (either @mcgill.ca, @mail.mcgill.ca or @affiliate.mcgill.ca), and expire the submissions immediately from the database. See detailed instructions in Webform emails and confirmation pages in the WMS.

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES:

• Send webform submissions to different email addresses
• Webform Security Considerations
• Index of documentation for the McGill Web Management System
• Known issues in the Web Management System