Overview

Form submission logs offer full visibility into every interaction your users have with your forms — both successful submissions and those that encounter errors. With Formnex, logs are automatically recorded and made accessible through a real-time dashboard so you can monitor, debug, and optimize form performance with ease.

Whether you're analyzing form delivery reliability, diagnosing validation errors, investigating spam attempts, or reviewing historical data, the Logs section provides all the critical insights you need.

In this guide, you'll learn how to view, filter, and manage logs efficiently within the Formnex dashboard.

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Viewing Logs

All form submission logs are displayed in an intuitive, filterable table that organizes records chronologically. This log table includes comprehensive metadata and diagnostic context that gives you an at-a-glance understanding of each form interaction.

Log Table Columns

• ID: A unique alphanumeric identifier auto-generated by Formnex to track each submission.

• Endpoint: Displays the name of the endpoint that received the submission. This helps distinguish between multiple forms.

• Type: Indicates the outcome — either Success for properly received and processed submissions, or Error for those that failed due to issues like schema mismatches, unauthorized access, missing fields, or malformed payloads.

• Method: Shows how the form was submitted — either via HTTP POST (common for API-style or JavaScript-based integrations) or traditional HTML Form submissions.

• Message: Provides a concise preview of the submission data or the resulting error message. Clicking this cell reveals full submission content.

• Date: A timestamp marking exactly when the submission occurred, useful for audits, trend monitoring, and debugging.

• Options: Offers additional actions such as viewing full logs or deleting entries.

Logs are updated in real time and paginated to support high submission volumes without performance issues. This makes it ideal for businesses that receive hundreds or thousands of form interactions daily.

Filtering Logs

When dealing with large datasets, filters are essential. Formnex provides advanced filtering tools so you can pinpoint logs that matter most.

Filter Options:

• Search by ID: Instantly locate a specific form submission using its unique ID. Great for tracing specific records.

• Type Filter: Toggle between Success and Error logs to isolate successfully processed data or troubleshoot problematic submissions.

• Method Filter: Filter logs by how they were submitted — HTTP for programmatic API-style forms or Form for HTML-based ones.

• Endpoints Filter: For accounts using multiple endpoints (e.g., contact form, newsletter signup, quote request), this filter helps you view logs relevant to a specific workflow or integration.

You can combine filters for even more granular control. For example: find all Error logs from the Newsletter Signup endpoint submitted via HTTP POST.

This flexibility is particularly useful for developers, QA teams, or support engineers investigating specific issues.

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Viewing Submission Details

Formnex allows you to drill down into each log entry to view the complete submission payload and relevant diagnostics.

How to view detailed information:

1. Click the Message cell of the desired log.
2. A modal will open displaying:
   • Submitted Form Data: All fields submitted by the user, displayed in raw JSON or a structured key-value format.
   • Error Details: Includes the exact validation or system error, failed schema paths, or response status.
   • Request Metadata: May include IP address, browser user agent, submission origin (referrer), and location data.

   💡 Note: The availability of metadata depends on your permissions from Formnex

This information helps you:

• Validate whether the payload matches your expected schema
• Understand why a submission failed
• Detect bots or malicious attempts
• Reproduce bugs in test environments

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Managing Log Entries

Although Formnex logs are retained by default, it's important to periodically manage them — especially if you handle sensitive data or need to comply with regulations like GDPR.

Log Management Actions:

• Delete Logs: Remove a specific log entry permanently. This is useful when you need to purge sensitive information or clear out old logs to reduce clutter. Click the Options (••• icon) next to the log entry and select Delete. A confirmation modal appears to prevent accidental deletions.

⚠️ Caution: Deleted logs are permanently erased and cannot be restored. It's highly recommended to export or archive critical logs before deletion.

• Search and Review: Use filters such as Type, Method, Endpoint, or date range to narrow down which logs you want to display. Reviewing logs before deletion can help avoid removing important diagnostic data.

• Use Cases for Managing Logs:

  • GDPR/CCPA Compliance: Ensure user data isn't stored longer than necessary and support user data deletion requests.
  • Data Hygiene: Keep your logs clean and relevant, making it easier to identify recent issues.
  • Performance Optimization: A leaner log table loads faster and improves UI responsiveness.
  • Audit Preparation: Export logs for audit reviews or compliance checks without needing live access to the dashboard.

• Batch ManagementComing Soon

  • Bulk Delete: Select multiple log entries and delete them in one action. This is especially useful after filtering a group of logs by error type or endpoint.

  • Logs Export: Download selected or filtered logs in CSV or JSON format. Useful for archiving, compliance reviews, or sharing with development or QA teams.

  • Custom Retention Policies: Set auto-deletion rules per endpoint. For example, error logs from your test environment may only need to be retained for 7 days, while user consent logs from production might be retained for a year or more.

Formnex plans to introduce automated cleanup policies and intelligent suggestions to help you manage log volume more proactively. Until then, make log management a part of your regular maintenance routine to stay organized and compliant.

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Best Practices

To get the most value out of Form Submission Logs in Formnex:

• Regularly review error logs and act on frequently occurring issues
• Use filters to track errors by endpoint, method, or date range
• Archive sensitive data if you're handling personal or financial information
• Automate alerts for failed submissions via Webhooks
• Maintain a changelog of resolved log errors for internal team reference

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By offering transparent, filterable, exportable, and actionable logs, Formnex empowers developers and teams to build resilient, debuggable, and high-performance form workflows.

💡 Tip: Want to be alerted automatically when a log error occurs? Set up Webhooks to receive real-time alerts in Slack, Discord, or your backend.