Troubleshooting:Form Pages

'''This is a troubleshooting guide specifically for Form pages. For general ClickTale troubleshooting, please see Troubleshooting.'''

What is a standard HTML form?
A standard HTML form is a form where:
 * 1) The submission element is either INPUT with type submit, INPUT with type image, or BUTTON with type submit. This is to ensure that the onsubmit event is triggered by the form.
 * 2) Submission is done via the standard form methods (POST or GET) rather than being performed via a JavaScript function.
 * 3) After a successful form submission the page is reloaded - could be on the same URL.

Why is my form showing zero submissions?
The are two main reasons as to why you would see zero submission in a Form Analytics report based on recording which contain visitors submitting the form:

Form submission isn't recognized at all
This is characterized by all recordings of the form displaying question marks as entered text. This is due to use of a non-standard submission element, and you are required to change it for submission to be recognized. The list of standard elements can be found here.

Form submission is recognized, but successful submission isn't
This is characterized by having recordings of form submission display text, but zero or little submissions in the Form Analytics report. This is mostly typical of forms submitted via AJAX, and can be easily solved by adding the ClickTale Events for form submission.

Why aren't numbers shown next to some form fields?
This is often the result of aggregation by date - if you aggregate several versions of the form which are significantly different, determining which number corresponds to which field can sometimes be impossible. Try aggregating by version or investigating the different versions of your form to see what causes the difference.

Why are some numbers skipped?
If your form fields show a skip in numbering (e.g. 1,2,3,9,10,11...) this might be due to one of the following reasons:
 * 1) As a result of aggregating several versions of the form (see above).
 * 2) Because the fields with the missing numbers are normally hidden in the form, and only appear once a visitor has performed a certain action (e.g. selected an element from a drop-down box in the form). To have these fields appear when the report is viewed, add code which makes them visible during that time via the CTIsPlayback function, similar to the code noted here.

My form occasionally shows question mark
If a visitor submits a form (in a standard submission process) and the fields still show question marks, it could be due to one of the following reasons:
 * 1) ClickTale only captures text that is a result of visitor's keystrokes. Therefore, if content of any field was pasted, typed before ClickTale started recording, auto filled or pre-filled by a "go back" operation it will show question marks since the visitor didn't fill them in manually.
 * 2) ClickTale "decided" to censor the text. This is by design. Our most controversial feature is keystroke capturing, and especially the capturing of strokes and text that the visitor decides not to submit. Even though this data is entered voluntarily, visitors generally assume that the information isn't sent until they click to submit it. As a result, it has been decided that ClickTale will mask all textual data in a pageview except for when a form is submitted by a visitor. We believe that this is the best solution to the delicate challenge of balancing privacy and access. Non-shared information is masked while the flow of the keystrokes remains visible, thus protecting your visitors while still providing you with data about browsing patterns. You can still generate "Form Analytics" reports on submitted and non submitted interactions but only submitted text will be visible.

My form always shows question marks
Prior to reading any further please note that in order to view keystrokes in Recordings it is necessary to have the corresponding setting in your ClickTale account set to enable the recording of keystrokes. In order to enable this feature please read the following section.

If after checking the above check box the form still exhibits question marks and conversion is not detected, although the "Submit" button is pressed during recording, it is because you are probably not using a standard form submission element (Standard elements are: ,  or ). If you are using a link tag or an image tag with a JavaScript onclick handler, submission will not be detected - if ClickTale is not able to detect submission, the content will be blocked due to privacy considerations. When making the change you will need to move your validation to the form.onsubmit handler.

If you have a form similar to the below: Note: here 'validate' executes 'form.submit' if the data is valid.

Change it to this identical form so it can be properly recorded: Note: Here 'validate' returns true if the form is valid.