Removed field deletes its values also from the submissions page

  • Resolved xstanley

    (@xstanley)


    1 year, 6 months ago

    Hi, we used to have a radio button in our form and received a couple of submissions. Later we removed the radio button field from the form, however, when we wanted to see the radio button anwers from the previous submissions, we found out that these values were deleted from the entries.

    Is it possible to fix this so in the future all original submitted values are kept in the database even when its parent field is removed from a form?

    Thank you.

    Kind regards,

    Stanley

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

  • Hello @xstanley ,

    I understand your concern. In the current version of Forminator, when a field like a radio button is removed from a form, the associated responses for that field in previous submissions are typically lost. This is because form data structures often rely on the presence of specific fields to store and display responses. When a field is removed, the database or form system might not retain that field’s historical data.

    To safeguard your existing data and have a backup, I recommend exporting the data to a platform like Google Sheets or another data storage format before making changes to your form. This practice allows you to preserve the existing data and have a copy that can be easily referenced.

    If you have any further questions or need assistance the support team will get in touch with you soon.

    Kind regards,
    Olumide Akintunde

    Plugin Support Kris – WPMU DEV Support

    (@wpmudevsupport13)

    Hi @xstanley

    I hope you are doing well today.

    Please refer to this part in our docs:
    https://wpmudev.com/docs/wpmu-dev-plugins/forminator/#submissions-on-form-field-deletion

    Submissions only contain information about the fields that a form currently has. If you delete any fields of a published form then the submission information of the deleted fields will get?removed.

    If you want to delete any fields of a published form, duplicate the existing form and delete the fields from the duplicated form, publish it and unpublish the old form. This will prevent the submission information from getting removed.

    Still, old data from deleted fields are stored in database. What I can suggest to you is:

    1. Duplicate your form and us new one on your site.
    2. Edit your old form and re-add fields which were deleted. If there was a field {number-1} you need to re-add it so it will be {number-1} once more.
    3. As soon you will re-add those and fresh submissions page you will see old data for those fields.

    Kind Regards,
    Kris

    Thread Starter xstanley

    (@xstanley)

    Hi Olumide and Kris,

    Thank you for your quick answers and for the reference documentation. I understand the logic behind why the data is deleted. Also thank you for the workaround tips. If there is a way to ‘fix’ this behaviour in the future versions of the plugin (my favourite, actually), it would be very appreciated.

    Thank you!

    Plugin Support Kris – WPMU DEV Support

    (@wpmudevsupport13)

    Hi again,

    We do not have plans to correct this behavior as it was designed in such a way that the submissions could only contain information about the fields that a form currently has. It was discussed by Forminator developers and such change will give more problems than benefits.

    Kind Regards,
    Kris

    Plugin Support Nithin – WPMU DEV Support

    (@wpmudevsupport11)

    Hi @xstanley,

    Since we haven’t heard from you for a while. I’ll mark this thread as resolved for now. Please feel free to re-open the thread if you need further assistance.

    Regards
    Nithin

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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