Web Form Integration

Centerbase has the ability to receive data from an online form and automatically create and/or update records in Centerbase. 

There are 3 parts to submitting a form to Centerbase: build the form, determine what Centerbase will do with the submitted data, and submit the form to Centerbase.

Build the Form

You can use existing forms that are already on a website, or create custom ones with any data and style you would like.  You can use tools like HTML, PHP, WordPress, etc.

Determine What Centerbase Will Do With the Submitted Data

Centerbase can do a variety of things with the data that is submitted:

• Send a test e-mail:  If you specify a value in your form or in your code that submits to Centerbase called TestEmail with an e-mail address, instead of updating anything in Centerbase, it  will send an e-mail showing it successfully received and validated the data along with what data it received.  This is a good way to test the integration initially.
• Validate submitted data: You can mark certain fields as required.  If they are not submitted, the form will be rejected and an error will be returned.
• Create new records in Centerbase:  Centerbase can take the data from the form and create new records in Centerbase (such as a contact, matter, potential new client, note, etc.)
• Update records in Centerbase: If you specify one or more fields as Duplicate Checking fields, Centerbase can find records that are already in Centerbase and either link them to new records being created or update their fields.

We do not currently have a UI for this, so you will need to submit the details to Centerbase on how you want it to interact.  They will need the following information:

• A list of names of fields on your form.  Include:
  • Name
  • Whether it is required
  • Whether you want a default value to be used for this field if nothing is sent from the form (and if so, what the default value is)
• The types of records you want to create/update in Centerbase.  Include:
  • Type of record to create/update (e.g. contact, matter, note, etc.)
  • Update Type(s): Always Create, Create if Not Found, Update Existing
  • If you are intending to Update Existing records, specify what Centerbase field(s) to use to find existing records based on the data submitted.
  • Field Mapping:
    • The Centerbase field to map data to
    • The Web Form field to get data from
    • Field Update Type: Always Set, Only Set If New Record, Only Set if Empty
  • Records to link to.  For instance, if you are having the web form create a contact, a matter, and a note you could have the matter be linked to both the contact and the note.
  • Lookup Fields to set.  For instance, if you are having the web form create a contact and a matter, you could have the matter's client set to the contact that is being created/updated.

Once this is complete Centerbase will give you a Public Key, Private Key, and Form ID for this mapping.  You can re-use this mapping on multiple web forms as long as at least some of the fields have the same name.  For instance, let's say you had a long detailed form prompting for name, phone number, e-mail address, and various pieces of detailed information about the case they want to open.  You could setup a web form map for all of this data, and then re-use it on a smaller form that just asked for name and e-mail address.

Submit the form to Centerbase

Once you have a form, you can submit the data to Centerbase.  The preferred method is to submit it server-side using a language like PHP.  This is more secure as it will allow you to keep your private key and form ID hidden.  You will typically include your Public Key as a hidden field on your form, have the form submit to your own server side code, POST the data to Centerbase, and then show a landing page which will say whether the submission was successful.

You also have the option of submitting the form directly to Centerbase, but this is less secure as it exposes your private key and form ID in your web page.  When doing it this way, you should also specify a redirect page (on your website) which will be the page Centerbase redirects to whether the submission is successful or not.  This page will be sent whether the submission was successful or the error that was returned.

Example HTML and PHP:

• HTML page submitting to your own PHP server side code
• PHP page POSTing to Centerbase using cURL
• PHP page POSTing to Centerbase using WordPress
• HTML page submitting directly to Centerbase (not recommended)