SilentForms

Make

Start a Make scenario on every form submission with a custom webhook, then route the data to any app.

Make (formerly Integromat) can run a scenario every time a form is submitted and pass the fields on to any of its apps: add a CRM contact, post to a chat channel, create a task, save to a database. The connection is a Make custom webhook that receives the SilentForms webhook. No code is involved.

1. Create the webhook in Make#

  1. Create a new scenario.
  2. Add the first module: search for Webhooks and choose Custom webhook.
  3. Next to the Webhook drop-down, click Add.
  4. Give it a name you will recognise later, such as "Contact form". Leave API key authentication empty: SilentForms cannot send custom headers, so a key would make every delivery fail.
  5. Click Save. Make generates a URL and starts listening for requests.
  6. Copy the webhook URL Make shows.

2. Set the webhook in SilentForms#

Sign in to the dashboard, open your form and save the Make URL as its webhook URL.

The URL is the only thing protecting your scenario, since SilentForms webhooks carry no signature. Saving it in the dashboard keeps it out of your page source. A hidden webhookUrl field also works, but anyone viewing the source could then send data to your scenario. If both are set, the dashboard wins.

3. Send a test submission so Make learns the fields#

Right after the webhook is created, Make waits for the first request and uses it to learn the data structure: which fields exist and what type they are. Until that happens, later modules have nothing to map.

  1. With the scenario open and the webhook listening, submit your form with realistic values. Fill in every field, including optional ones and at least one box in each checkbox group, so all of them are detected.
  2. Make shows that it has determined the data structure. The webhook's output now lists your fields, such as name, email, message and receivedAt.

If you add a field to your form later, Make will not know about it yet. Open the Custom webhook module, click Detect new values, and send another submission. (Older Make interfaces label this action Redetermine data structure.)

4. Add modules and map the fields#

Add the next module, for example Google Sheets "Add a Row", HubSpot "Create a Contact" or Slack "Create a Message". In its fields, click and choose values from the Custom webhook output.

Notes on the data:

  • Field names are your form's name attributes. Renaming a field in your HTML breaks the mapping until you detect the new structure and re-map.
  • Checkbox groups arrive as arrays, for example "interests": ["Design", "Hosting"]. Make treats them as arrays; use its array functions, such as join, when the destination expects text, or an iterator to handle each value separately.
  • receivedAt is an ISO 8601 timestamp in UTC. Make recognises it as a date if you map it into a date field, and its date functions can format it for your time zone.
  • Special fields are removed. subject, from_name, redirect and the access key never reach Make. Send anything you need in the scenario as an ordinary field.

Click Run once and send another test submission to check that the whole scenario works end to end.

5. Turn the scenario on#

A scenario only processes webhooks automatically when it is active. Save it and switch it on. Webhook-triggered scenarios run as soon as data arrives, so submissions are processed within seconds.

Requests Make cannot process straight away are kept in the webhook's processing queue; see Make's webhook documentation for how the queue behaves. A webhook that is not connected to any scenario for more than five days is deactivated and answers 410, which SilentForms reports as "failed", so do not leave the URL saved in the dashboard after deleting the scenario.

Delivery and failures#

By default, Make's webhook answers 200 "Accepted" as soon as it receives the request, and SilentForms marks the delivery "sent" in the dashboard. If Make cannot be reached, the delivery is retried after 1 minute, 5 minutes, 30 minutes, 2 hours and 12 hours; if the URL is wrong or the webhook was deleted, it eventually gives up. Either way the submission stays in the dashboard and in your inbox, shows how its delivery went, and has a Retry now button once you have fixed the webhook.

If Make should be the only destination, turn email notifications off for the form in the dashboard. Leave them on while you are setting up so nothing is lost if the scenario misbehaves.

Next steps#

  • Payload format and delivery rules: Webhooks.
  • Other automation tools: Zapier or n8n.
  • A free spreadsheet log without an automation service: Google Sheets.