What is an action?
An action is an automated trigger attached to a form template. When a specified event occurs — such as a form being submitted, saved, or created — the action fires automatically without any manual intervention.
A form can have multiple actions, so a single submission can notify your team, send a confirmation to the user, and push data to an external system all at once. Actions are configured in the Actions tab of the form template and work independently of Form Logic — where Logic controls what happens within the form as the user fills it in, Actions control what happens outside the form once an event is triggered.
Add a new action
- Open the form template and click the Actions tab.
- Click + Add new. The Add action form opens.
- Complete the fields described below, then click Save.
The action will appear in the Actions list. Repeat the process to add further actions to the same form.
Status
Status sets the form event that triggers this action. Choose the point in the form lifecycle when you want the action to fire:
- Submitted — fires when the user completes and submits the form. The most common trigger for confirmations, notifications, and integrations.
- Saved — fires when a user saves a partially completed form using the Save and Resume feature. Useful if you need to capture in-progress activity, such as logging a partial application in your CRM.
- Created — fires when the form session is first created. Use this if you need to record that a user has started a form before they've completed it.
- Expired — fires when a saved/resume link reaches its expiry date. Useful for sending a follow-up nudge or closing out an incomplete record.
Type
Type sets the kind of action to perform. There are three options:
CX Engine sends a communication via the Send module — an email or SMS triggered by the form event. When this type is selected, the CX Application code and Channel fields become relevant.
Webhook pushes the form data to an external URL of your choice. Use this to integrate with a CRM, workflow automation tool, API, or any other system that can receive an HTTP request. See the Set up Webhooks for Form Submissions guide for full setup details.
Azure Message Queue sends the form payload to an Azure Storage Queue. Use this when your integration architecture routes messages through Azure — for example, triggering downstream processing in an Azure Function or Logic App. When this type is selected, configure the connection details and payload in the fields below.
Description
A short internal note about what this action does. It's only visible to your team but makes a real difference when reviewing a list of actions later — particularly when a form has several actions on the same status event. Be specific: something like "Email confirmation to submitter — New member form" is far more useful than "Email".
Enabled
Tick Enabled to activate the action. If it's unticked, the action is saved but won't fire. This is useful for setting up actions ahead of time before a form goes live, or for temporarily pausing an integration without deleting the action configuration.
CX Application Code
Only relevant when the Type is set to CX Engine. Select the Application in the Send module that contains the communication template you want to send when this action fires. This maps the form event to the correct outbound email or SMS.
If the Application you need isn't listed, it may not have been set up yet in the Send module — check with your team or refer to the Application setup guides.
Channel
Only relevant when the Type is set to CX Engine. Set the delivery channel for the outbound communication — Email or SMS. This should match the template type in the CX Application you've selected.
Payload Encoding and Fields
Payload encoding type controls how the form data is formatted when it's sent to the receiving system or CX Engine template. Choose from:
- None — sends the data without additional encoding.
- HTML/XML — formats the payload as HTML or XML. Use this when your receiving system or template expects markup.
- JSON — formats the payload as JSON. The most common choice for modern API integrations and CRM Webhooks.
Payload is the data included with the action. The default token %%FORMDATA%% sends the complete form submission. You can customise the payload to include only specific fields or structure it to match the exact format your receiving system expects.
Multiple actions on the same status: You can add more than one action triggered by the same status. A Submitted event can fire a CX Engine email to the user, a CX Engine SMS to your team, and a Webhook to your CRM — all from the same form submission, all configured as separate actions.
Edit or remove an action
All actions for a form are listed in the Actions tab. Click the edit icon next to an action to update it, or the delete icon to remove it. To pause an action temporarily without losing the configuration, untick Enabled in the action editor instead of deleting it.
Once your actions are saved and enabled, they'll fire automatically whenever the configured status event is triggered. Use Test Form to submit a test response and confirm each action fires as expected before publishing.