Web Forms 

Web Forms are a way for patients to fill out forms online.  The forms are hosted on our web server available only to our customers on paid support.  The forms are designed by you at the dental office as Sheets, and then uploaded.  If you are interested in Web Forms, you must first learn how to use Sheets, and then use the interface below to upload those sheets to our server.

From the Main Menu, select Tools | WebForms.

At the upper left, click Setup.

This grid will show all forms that you currently have set up on our server.  To upload forms, click the Add button.

From the list, select the Sheets you would like to upload to our server.  The sheets can be internal sheets that come included with Open Dental, or they can be customized sheets that you have created.  The sheets must be one of two types: Patient Forms or Medical Histories.  Forms can be uploaded or deleted from our server at any time without damaging any patient records.  Once uploaded, a URL will be available.  Provide that URL on your web site as a link for your patients to fill out.

A patient will be presented with a form that will look nearly identical to the original sheet.  It will be pure HTML with a little bit of JavaScript to validate certain fields.  Signatures and free-form drawing will not be functional on the web form. Every uploaded sheet must contain fields for LastName, FirstName, and Birthdate in order for the filled-out form to be matched to the correct patient at the dental office database.

After the patient clicks the Submit button, the data from the form is saved on our server. The user at the dental office downloads the form by using the Retrieve New Forms button. 

Once the data is successfully downloaded, it is permanently deleted from our server.  The list of forms in this window is pulled from the database at the dental office, not from our server.  Each web form is stored as a Sheet and is immediately and automatically attached to the correct patient. It may create a duplicate patient occasionally, and you will need to use the Patient Merge tool to bring the sheets into the correct patient.  Right click on a row to view and manage the forms for a patient.  All forms for the current day will remain in the list, even after you have reviewed them.  To import the data on a form such as the address and phone into the database, see Patient Forms.

Resellers and freeloaders should see the Programming Resources page for information on setting up their own web forms server.