Configure shop forms (Registration, Inquiry, Order)

This article will help you choose which fields your customers fill in on the Registration, Inquiry and Order forms, and how they are checked

You can set up your shop forms yourself. For each field you choose whether customers see it, whether they must fill it in, and which input rules apply. For business customers you can also check VAT numbers against the EU VIES register and check company registration numbers against a format for each country.

Where in admin: Settings → Shopping → Forms

On this page

• The three forms and where they appear
• Editing a form
• Choosing how a field appears
• Fields that are always required
• Registration type
• Input rules: length, placeholder and pattern
• Checking VAT and company registration numbers
• The newsletter checkbox
• Saving and when changes go live
• Who can change forms
• Need help?

The three forms and where they appear

Go to Settings → Shopping → Forms. The list shows each form, where it appears in your shop, and how many of its fields are mandatory or hidden.

The product sample popup applies only Required and the pattern, and only to Full name, Email, Phone number and Inquiry text.

Editing a form

1. Go to Settings → Shopping → Forms and click the form you want to change.
2. The fields are grouped into cards, for example Contact details, Account, Company and tax, Billing address and Delivery address. Each field is one row that shows its current state (for example Required or Hidden) and a short summary of its rules.
3. Click Customize on a field row to open its settings. Use Expand all to open every field at once.
4. Under On the form, choose how the field appears (see the next section). Under Input rules, set the length, placeholder and pattern.
5. Click Done to close the field. A changed field is marked Edited. To undo your changes to one field, click Undo changes to this field.
6. Click Save at the bottom of the page. To throw away all unsaved changes, click Discard changes.

If something can't be saved, the editor shows the reason next to the field, or in a list under The form was not saved:.

Choosing how a field appears

Under On the form, each field has one choice. The text under the choice says what the customer will experience.

On the storefront, required fields are marked with an asterisk, and the form shows the note * Required field.

Fields that are always required

Some fields are needed for every account, inquiry or order. They are marked Always required and can't be hidden, made optional or locked. You can still change their input rules.

On the Order form, if Company name is hidden or left empty, the order uses the customer's first and last name as the company name.

Registration type

The Registration form has an extra card at the top, Registration type. Full registration also asks for the address and company details.

The address and company fields (Street, Street number, Additional address info, City, ZIP, Company registration number, Tax number, VAT number) are marked Full registration only. With Simple only they show as Not asked.

Input rules: length, placeholder and pattern

Open a field with Customize. Under Input rules you see only the settings the shop really applies to that field on that form:

• Minimum length and Maximum length: the number of characters allowed. Each field has a built-in maximum (shown as Built-in limit). You can lower it but not raise it. An e-mail field needs a maximum of at least 50 characters (or its built-in limit, if that is lower), so ordinary addresses fit.
• Placeholder: grey example text shown in the empty field, for example +420 123 456 789.
• Input type (free-text fields only): Text, Email or Telephone Number. It decides which keyboard phones show and how the browser treats the field.
• Pattern (regex) (free-text fields only): a regular expression the value must match. Leave it empty to use the built-in check. Upper and lower case are treated the same.

E-mail and password fields, and the VAT number and Company registration number, have no Pattern (regex). E-mail addresses use the built-in e-mail format check and passwords the built-in rules; the VAT number and the Company registration number are checked by their country patterns. The editor says so on the field.

Checking VAT and company registration numbers

On the Registration and Order forms, the VAT number and Company registration number fields have extra checks. Both are checked against the country the customer selects in the billing address. They are checked only when the customer fills them in, so to make a number compulsory, also set the field to Required.

Check in VIES (VAT number)

Tick Check in VIES in the VAT number's Customize panel. For a customer from an EU country, the shop then:

1. checks that the number has the right format for that country (for example, for the Netherlands: 123456789B01). The customer may type it with or without the country prefix, spaces, dots or dashes;
2. asks the EU VIES service whether the number is registered.

If the number is not registered, the customer sees: “This VAT number is not registered in VIES. Check the number or contact us.” VIES only knows EU VAT numbers, so customers from outside the EU are not checked in VIES.

Country patterns

Under Country patterns, click Add country pattern, choose a Country and enter a Pattern. Each country can have one pattern. Tick All other countries on one row to set a pattern for every country you haven't listed.

• VAT number: a country pattern replaces the built-in EU format for that country. Write the pattern with or without the country prefix (for example ^\d{9}B\d{2}$ or ^NL\d{9}B\d{2}$ for the Netherlands), without spaces or dots.
• Company registration number: there is no public register to look it up, so the shop only checks the format. The pattern is matched against the number as the customer typed it.

When VIES is unavailable

The VIES service is run by the EU and is sometimes down or slow. The shop then behaves differently on each form:

What is saved

After a successful VIES check at registration, the customer account stores the VAT number in a clean form: upper case, without the country prefix, spaces or dots (for example NL 1234.5678.9B01 is saved as 123456789B01). On an order, the VAT number is kept as the customer typed it.

For the delivery region VAT settings, see Delivery regions - creating, updating, deleting and Dynamic VAT.

The newsletter checkbox

The Send newsletter field is the newsletter checkbox on the Registration and Order forms. It can be shown or hidden. Customers are not subscribed unless they tick it.

Saving and when changes go live

Nothing changes in your shop until you click Save. Until then the editor shows how many fields are changed but not saved yet. After you save, the changes are live in your shop on the next page load.

If your shop runs in Demand & Quotation mode, the checkout does not apply the address and VAT rules of the Order form.

Who can change forms

• To open Settings → Shopping → Forms, a user needs View settings. Users with only this permission see the forms marked View only and can't save.
• To change and save forms, a user needs Manage settings.

Need help?