Breadcrumbs

Email Action

The Email action sends an email when a form is submitted, for example to tell a team a new request has arrived or to send the person who submitted a copy of their answers.

Before you begin

GlobalForms needs a mail service to send through. See Email (SMTP) Settings.

Add an Email action

  1. Open the form in the form builder and select the Form Actions tab.

  2. Choose Email and select Add Action.

  3. Complete the settings below and select Save Action.

  4. Submit the form once and check that the email arrives, including in junk mail folders.

Settings

Setting

What to enter

Transport

The mail service set up in Email (SMTP) Settings. If other forms on the server already send email, use the same transport they use.

From:

The sender address. Replace the default with an address your mail service is allowed to send from. Many services, including SendGrid, silently drop email from an unapproved sender.

To: Email Address

One or more recipient addresses.

Send a separate email to each recipient

Sends each recipient their own copy, so they don't see each other's addresses.

Subject

The subject line. Include something that tells requests apart, such as a name or number. With the same subject on every email, mail apps group them all into one conversation.

Email Template URL

Leave empty.

Message

The body of the email, in HTML. Line breaks are removed when the email is sent, so use <p> and <br> tags to separate lines.

Choose when the email is sent with the action's Methods and Conditions, for example only for new submissions, or only when a field has a certain value. See Form Actions Overview.

An email sent on Update with a condition such as "Status equals Approved" is sent again every time the submission is saved while the status is still Approved, for example when an administrator corrects a typo.

Using form values in an email

The subject, message and recipient settings can include placeholders in double braces:

Placeholder

Inserts

{{ data.firstName }}

The value of a field, by its property name

{{ form.title }}

The form's title

{{ form._id }}

The form's ID

{{ id }}

The submission's ID, for example as a reference number

{{ submission(data, form.components) }}

A table of all the answers. This is the default message.

For a Select whose options come from a resource, include the field inside the record, for example {{ data.office.data.name }}.

Example

HTML
<p>{{ data.employeeName }} has requested time off.</p>
<p>Reference: {{ id }}</p>
<p><a href="https://forms.example.com/view/#!/form/{{ form._id }}/submission/{{ id }}">Open the request</a></p>

Replace https://forms.example.com with your GlobalForms server's address.

Rules for email placeholders

Emails are built on the server, with different rules from placeholders on the form:

  • Don't use filters such as | date or | truncate. If a filter fails, the email isn't sent, and nobody is told.

  • Use {{ id }} for the submission's ID. {{ _id }} is empty in emails.

  • A Date / Time value appears as a full date and time, such as 2026-11-02T05:00:00.000Z. To show a readable date, add a hidden Text Field with a Calculated Value such as value = data.startDate ? moment(data.startDate).format('MM/DD/YYYY') : '';, select Calculate on server, and use that field in the email.

For placeholders elsewhere on a form, see Placeholders.

Sending to an address entered on the form

To send a copy to the person who submitted, add an Email component to the form and put its placeholder, such as {{ data.email }}, in To: Email Address.

On a public form, anyone can then make your server send email to any address, including text they typed into the form. Keep the message short and fixed, keep typed values out of the subject, or send to an internal address and reply from there.

If an email doesn't arrive

GlobalForms doesn't show email errors to the person submitting. Check one thing at a time:

  1. The recipient: a placeholder recipient that is empty, for example an optional email field left blank, means nothing is sent.

  2. The submission: check that it was saved on the form's View Data tab.

  3. The mail service: submit another form that sends email through the same transport. If that email doesn't arrive either, check Email (SMTP) Settings and your mail service.

  4. The sender: try a From: address that other forms already send from.

  5. The message: replace it with plain text, then add your placeholders back a few at a time. Remove any filters.