File Upload Fields with Forms for Salesforce

This article takes you through how to set up and understand our file upload field on Formstack’s Forms for Salesforce. If you're looking for the article on how to set up a file upload field on our Formstack Forms product, check here. 

Supported file integrations

Files can be uploaded to Salesforce or external services. The maximum file size limit applies to each file. There are no limits to the number of files that can be uploaded on a single form. 

100% Native Plans default to a maximum file size of 2.5MB; however if you’d like to increase that file size to 25MB and either process the upload via Formstack servers into Salesforce or one of the file storage mechanisms list below, you can have our support team adjust the configuration of your account to enable this by filling out a support request here. 

If you are running into any issues around who can see attachments in Salesforce, please review this Salesforce article for visibility of attachments in Salesforce: Who Can See My Attached Files and Links?

Add the file upload field

To add the File Upload option to your form, edit your form and find File Upload under General Fields. Double-click on the File Upload field or drag and drop the field onto your form:
 

Once you've added the field to your form, click the blue chevron that appears to the right to open the File Upload field settings.

File upload field settings

You can customize various settings of your file upload field to get the perfect attachment. Some options are not available in all file upload services.

Label: The title of the file upload field on your form that is visible to end users. 

Hide Field: Turn off visibility on the form by default. This can be dynamically changed using conditional rules or javascript.

Required: Specify if at least one file upload is mandatory before the submission is allowed. Supported file sizes are listed in the table above. 

Error Message to be Shown: If you make this field required, you can create a custom error message when a file is not attached.

Upload File To: Select the service you would like to host the file with. Authentication credentials are required for all services other than Salesforce. 

If a file is uploaded to Salesforce it can be related to any one of the submission object records. Refer to the table above for details on each upload service supported.

Destination Folder: Specify the URL to the folder or bucket in which to save your files. The format will depend on the storage service you use. 

• Dropbox Integration:

  • The folder must be specific to the home or root directory of your Dropbox. For example, if you wanted to upload a file to your Formstack folder that sat at the home level of your Dropbox account, you would enter Formstack/ into the destination folder.

  • If you are wanting to select a folder within a folder, the second folder must end in a forward slash: Formstack/My Files/

File upload limit: The maximum number of files you want to accept on this field per submission. 

File upload size limit: You can specify a file size limit that is lower than the maximum supported file size.

Allowed File Types: You can choose to accept some or all common file types or define your own custom file types to accept. By default, all file extensions are accepted. Extensions are not case-sensitive. Mime types are not validated. 

Custom File Name: Enter a custom file name to use. Custom file names will overwrite the file's extension if your custom name includes an extension like MyCustomFile.pdf. This is useful if you only accept PDFs in your file upload field, for example.

However, if you are wanting to accept a variety of different file types, your custom file name can inherit the uploaded file's extension by adding the [[.EXT]] custom value at the end of your file name. When doing so, be sure to include a period at the end of your file name and before the [[.EXT]] extension. A completed custom file name with the dynamic extension looks like this: MyCustomFile.[[.EXT]]

You can also include form field values or custom formulas through Javascript. 

Overwrite Files: If the filename is the same in the destination then replace the destination file with the upload. Only available in some storage services.

Manage integrations 

Refer to the table above for details on each upload service supported and how to get the authentication credentials required for setting up the integration. 

Once the integration has been configured, you can manage it in the Admin Settings Panel where you will see a list of all integrations, update authentication information, and be notified of connectivity issues.  

File upload security

File uploads are saved temporarily on Formstack servers until the form submission can be submitted into Salesforce. Once submitted into Salesforce the uploads are removed from Formstack servers. There is no way to recover files that have been removed from Formstack servers. 

Note: No files are stored on Formstack servers for 100% Native licenses using native file upload mechanism. 

100% Native

100% licenses benefit from a native file upload mechanism where data is end-to-end encrypted and transmitted directly between the end-user and the customer Salesforce org. No external servers are involved in native file upload services. 

Native file upload services have file size limitations (2.5MB) and are dependent on your Salesforce Org’s compute resources at the time of upload. 

🔺NativeCloud customers will also have the flexibility to use Formstack’s secure file upload mechanism to save into Salesforce as well as any external file upload services that are supported. These non-native services are disabled by default for all NativeCloud customers as they may not meet your organization’s security or compliance requirements. If you wish to activate these services please contact support and we will be happy to activate them on your Org. This will increase the file size limit to 25MB as discussed above.