Download and delete webform submissions

Owned by Hayley Stockall (Unlicensed), created
Last updated: 12 Sept, 2024 by Jo Tayler
2 min read

It’s a privacy requirement that all webform submissions are cleared from the CMS on a monthly basis.

You can choose to export the submissions first, in order to upload them to an appropriate record management system.

Instructions

Downloading the submissions

  • Roll over Structure at the top of your screen.

  • Click on Webforms.

  • Search for your form and click on its name.

  • Click on the Results tab.

  • Click on the Download link directly under the Results tab.

  • Format options: Leave the “Export format” dropdown menu set to “Delimited text” to download a CSV file, which you can open with Microsoft Excel.

  • Column options: Customise the information your downloaded file will contain by selecting and unselecting the options.

  • Download options: You can choose whether to download all the submissions, or submissions within a specific date range or submission ID range. You can also choose whether the order is ascending or descending.

  • Click the Download button at the bottom of the screen.

Have you made any changes to your webform (such as changing a field to be mandatory or adding in a new form element) before downloading the submissions you’ve already recieved?

If you have, you may need to unselect the final checkbox in the Download options section of the form (see screenshot below).

Check the downloaded file has captured all of the required submissions, and then delete these submissions from the CMS to make sure you can easily download future submissions.

Unselect the last checkbox.

Deleting the submissions from the CMS

This action is irreversible, so make sure you have checked your downloaded spreadsheet contains all the submissions first.

To clear the webform results:

  • click the Clear link to the right of the Download link

  • check the information and tick the checkbox.

  • click the Clear button.

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