Flow and variant management

Flows and variants are the building blocks of how you structure, test, and maintain your form experiences in Formsort. This section covers how to organize and edit your flows, archive and restore them, manage variant versions, and monitor flow start activity. Whether you're iterating on design, setting up redirects, o r keeping track of usage, this guide will help you stay in control of your flow lifecycle.

Editing Flows

You can update the Display name of a flow to help you stay organized.

Archiving Flows

To archive a flow, select it from your list of flows and click Archive. Archiving will:

• Remove the flow from the visible list in your Studio

• Prevent both new and returning responders from accessing it

• Automatically archive all of its variants

Archiving is reversible—you can re-activate a flow at any time if needed.

Redirect to URL

When archiving a flow, you can optionally set a Redirect to URL. This ensures that any new or returning responders who attempt to access the archived flow are automatically redirected to a URL of your choosing.

Redirects are especially helpful when:

• There are existing links (e.g. in emails or ads) still pointing to the archived flow

• A returning responder has a cached variant URL and attempts to revisit the flow

If no redirect is set, users will see a generic “failed to load” screen.

Viewing archived flows

To view an archived or deleted flow, change the filtering options to the right of the flow table's search to make archived and deleted flows visible.

Variants

Variants are versions of a flow that allow you to test different content or styles while maintaining the same core objective. Think of them as A/B tests for your form. By using variants, you can continuously iterate on your flow to enhance the responder experience.

The Integrations editor for a flow is located in the variant-list view of the studio. Since all variants within a flow collect the same data, it makes sense to direct all submissions to the same integrations endpoint.

Duplicating variants

The duplicate variant feature allows you to make variations. These changes can be wildly different from one another in terms of style and content, but should still have the same goal and collect the same information as the other variants in the same flow.

To make a copy of a variant, you can either:

• Select Duplicate from the dropdown while in the variant list section (seen in pic above).

• Click Duplicate variant at the top right when you have a variant open.

In both cases, you'll be prompted with a modal offering three options:

1. Create a new variant in the current flow.

2. Duplicate this variant into another flow.

3. Create a completely new flow with the duplicate variant.

You'll also need to provide a new name for the duplicated variant. Optionally, you can assign a new URL slug.

Changing the URL Slug

If you're not happy with your flow's current URL slug, the duplication process is the only way to create a new URL slug.

Archiving Variants

To archive a variant, select it from the list and click Archive. Once archived, the variant becomes inaccessible to both new and returning responders—similar to the behavior of archived flows.

You can also set a Redirect to URL when archiving a variant. This ensures that:

• Returning users with a cached variant ID are redirected to the new location.

• Anyone accessing a direct link to the archived variant is taken to the URL you specify.

Redirects are especially useful when links to the variant are already in circulation or bookmarked by users.

Restoring Archived Flows and Variants

To restore an archived flow or variant:

1. Adjust the filter controls next to the search bar to display archived items.

1. Hover over the archived item to reveal the Restore icon.

1. Click the icon to unarchive the flow or variant.

Flow Starts

A flow start is recorded when a responder:

• Loads a flow and completes at least one step, or

• Restarts a flow, submitting a new set of answers.

If a responder returns to a previously started flow without starting over, it does not count as a new flow start.

Flow Start Limits

Each workspace has a monthly limit on flow starts, tracked per calendar month. Flow activity in non-production environments does not count toward your limit.

Flow starts are counted at the workspace level—this includes all flows and their variants. Once the monthly limit is reached, your workspace may incur overage charges.

To view your current usage, visit the Subscription tab in the Studio.