Form groups and defaults at scale

When a project grows past a handful of forms, the control panel gets noisy and new forms drift from your standards. Form groups organise the forms index, enforce policies, and layer group-level defaults on top of global Formie settings — without changing how forms render on the front end.

Prerequisites

• Form Groups
• Configuration — global defaults in config/formie.php and Settings → Defaults

When to use groups

Form groups help when:

• Several teams each own a set of forms
• You want sidebar filters instead of one long forms list
• New forms should land in a known bucket with consistent defaults

If you only have a few forms, skip groups — All forms works fine.

Groups do not change front-end rendering, templates, or existing submission behaviour until you change form settings.

Step 1 — Plan your group structure

A typical agency or enterprise layout:

Create groups under Formie → Settings → Form Groups. Each group has a name, handle, and sort order. Definitions live in project config and travel with the repo.

Step 2 — Configure site policy (multi-site)

On multi-site Craft installs, each group restricts which sites forms may exist on and how new forms propagate.

Under General → Site Policy:

• Enabled Sites — tick only the sites forms in this group may use
• Site Propagation — control how new forms spread (all enabled sites, created site only, same language, same site group)

Example: an Australia Forms group with only the Australia site enabled, propagation set to All enabled sites. Forms in that group never appear on Global or New Zealand sites.

See Translating forms across Craft sites for how availability differs from translation.

Step 3 — Set group defaults

Blank group settings inherit from global Formie → Settings → Defaults. Override only what the group needs:

New forms created in the group pick up these defaults. Existing forms are unchanged until you edit them.

Submission limits vs groups

Submission limits are per form, not per group. If your group often uses per-user or per-IP limits, preset Collect User or Collect IP on the group Form Defaults tab so new forms inherit the privacy settings those limits need.

Global abuse throttling lives under Settings → Spam Protection — separate from form submission limits.

Step 4 — Custom field palette

Enable Use custom field palette on the Field Palette tab when a team should only see a subset of field types — for example, no Payment or Repeater for marketing self-service authors.

When disabled, the group inherits the global palette from Settings → Fields.

Step 5 — Allowed submission statuses

Restrict which submission statuses forms in the group may use. Choose All to allow every status, or pick a subset for workflow consistency (for example, Support forms may only use New, In progress, Closed).

This policy applies to all forms in the group; individual forms cannot override it.

Step 6 — Work in the forms index

When at least one group exists, the sidebar shows:

• All forms
• Groups — one source per group
• Ungrouped — forms with no group

Creating a form from a group source pre-assigns that group. Use Move to group bulk actions to reorganise later.

The submissions index groups forms under the same headings when groups exist.

Step 7 — Layer config file defaults

For developer-controlled defaults that apply before the control panel, use config/formie.php:

return [
    '*' => [
        'defaultFormStencil' => 'contactForm',
        'formDefaults' => [
            'collectIp' => false,
            'submitMethod' => 'ajax',
        ],
        'notificationDefaults' => [
            'from' => '[email protected]',
        ],
    ],
];

Precedence in practice:

1. Global config (formie.php) — baseline for all environments
2. Global CP defaults — Settings → Defaults
3. Group defaults — override global where set
4. Individual form — final authority once saved

Document which layer owns which setting so editors know where to look.

Step 8 — Combine with stencils

Groups organise where forms live; stencils define what new forms start with. Set defaultFormStencil globally or train authors to pick a stencil when creating forms in each group.

See Stencils for repeatable form types.

Related

• Form Groups
• Configuration
• Stencils for repeatable form types
• Translating forms across Craft sites