Modifying the registration form - Things to keep in mind
In “Customizing Registration Form,” you learned how to set up a registration form for your activity and how parents will answer these questions while signing up. You also understood that the form applies to all schedules of the activity. This is important because as we’ll explain in this article, any changes you make to the form may impact all rosters of the activity, even past ones.
In this article, we’ll look at how to remove or modify registration questions and its options. But most importantly, we’ll cover what happens when you do so, to ensure you don’t accidentally mess up already collected answers.
💡 TIP: Remember the roster is the place where you can see who has registered to your schedule, and their registration form answers. You can find more information about rosters and how to access them in this article.
💡TIP: Have you ever created a Google Form? The logic of what happens to previous answers when you make changes to the form is very similar in Village, with the main difference that your answers may be spread across multiple rosters (one for each schedule of your activity).
How to edit the registration form
- Locate your activity in the Activity tab.
- Open details and tap the "Edit" button.
- Navigate to the “Registration Form” tab.
- Click on “Edit” or “Delete”buttons of the question you want to modify, or press the “Add new question button” to add a new one.
You will be able to change question title, description and options, but let’s see how each change works:
What happens when you change a question that has never been answered
If you’ve just added a new registration question and want to change it or remove it, do so confidently. Since no parent has answered yet, you can simply delete it, and it will be as if you never added it. Or, you can edit it, and it will be as if you added it correctly from the start.
What happens when you delete a question that has been answered before
When you delete a question that has been answered before, you won’t lose any data. Rosters will still show every answer collected, even if the question was afterwards removed from the registration form.
Let’s look at an example. Imagine you offer a “Nature Camp” every year. You will most likely have set up “Nature Camp” as an activity, and you create a new schedule every year. Last year, you offered transportation as a service, so you had added a registration question asking if the family wished to reserve a spot on the bus. This year, you’re not offering transportation, so you need to remove that question. When you delete the question, you won’t lose last year’s answers. Parents signing up this year won’t see the transportation question, but last year’s rosters will still show what last year’s parents had replied.
However, if you add the question back again, it will be treated as a new question. As a result, in the roster, previous answers and new answers will be shown in separate columns.
What happens to existing registrations when you edit a question title or description?
When you change a question title, it updates in all activity rosters, so make sure you’re not changing the essence of the question.
Edit a question’s title if you need to fix a typo or add more description for clarity. However, don’t change the title to something completely different. For example, if you originally set up a question as “What are your expectations for this camp?” and some parents have already answered, renaming it to “What prior experience does your kid have with bird watching?” will cause confusion. You’ll end up with answers like “Having fun!” under the new question title “What prior experience.” Instead, delete the original question and create a new one.
Single or multiple choice questions: What happens when you alter an option that has already been chosen by parents
As a reminder, free text questions are the ones that allow parents to type in their own answers, as opposed to single-choice or multiple-choice questions, where parents select one or multiple from a list of options you predefine.
When you change an option’s description, it updates all answers that chose it, so make sure you are not altering the meaning.
Modify an option only if you’re fixing typos or tweaking its phrasing, but do not change its essence. For example, if you originally set up a question for “What is your preferred lunch option?” with two options: “Chicken” or “Spaghetti,” and some parents already answered, don’t change “Chicken” to “Salad.” If you do, all past answers of “Chicken” will now show “Salad.” Instead, delete the option “Chicken” and add a new one for “Salad.” That way, answers where “Chicken” was chosen will remain as they were, but new sign-ups will not be able to choose “Chicken” anymore.
What happens when you delete a question that is tied to a price condition
When you delete a question that is used in a pricing rule, the pricing rule will also be deleted. However, this won’t affect prior registrations, for which you can still see their original answer and how the pricing rule modified the price of their order.
How can parents change their answers and what happens if the questions were modified after they signed up
Remember that parents can change their answers to the registration form through the platform until the schedule registration period ends.
If you make changes to the registration form after parents have first answered, they will see the updated form when they edit their answers. This means if a parent initially chose an option that you no longer offer, that option won’t be available when they go to modify the form.
Confirmation email as the evidence of original answers
When a registration is made, both you and the parent receive a confirmation email listing their answers to the registration form. This email can be used as a source of truth in case of a dispute or if you accidentally mess up your roster by altering the questions.
If you need further assistance please reach out at hello@village.com
