---
title: Working with form data using the API
related:
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k11/managing-website-content/forms.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k11/managing-website-content/forms/managing-form-data.md
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

You can use the Kentico API to manage the data that users submit through [forms](https://docs.kentico.com/k11/managing-website-content/forms.md). Two different approaches are available:

- [Work with existing form data](#working-with-existing-form-records) – load or modify the data stored for any form.
- [Handle form actions directly when they occur](#handling-form-events) – use event handlers to execute code before or after form actions occur in the system (for example whenever users submit records for a form).

## Working with existing form records

Use the following approach to access the data of a form at any time:

1. Get a **BizFormInfo** object representing the form itself (call the _BizFormInfoProvider.GetBizFormInfo_ method).
2. Get the form's class name (use the _DataClassInfoProvider.GetDataClassInfo_ method with the form's class ID as the parameter, access the _ClassName_ property of the _DataClassInfo_ object).
3. Call one of the following methods to get the form's data:
   - **BizFormItemProvider.GetItems(class name)** – loads all of the given form's records (or a filtered subset). You can loop through the _BizFormItem_ objects in the data.
   - **BizFormItemProvider.GetItem(item ID, class name)** – gets one _BizFormItem_ record specified by ID.

To get the values of specific fields from _BizFormItem_ objects, call the _GetValue_ methods – either the general _GetValue,_ which returns an object, or methods for specific data types, such as _GetStringValue._

To set values for fields, use the _SetValue_ method for individual fields and then call _SubmitChanges_ for the _BizFormItem_ object to save the results.

```csharp title="Example"

using CMS.OnlineForms;
using CMS.DataEngine;
using CMS.SiteProvider;
using CMS.Helpers;

...

// Gets the form info object for the 'ContactUs' form
BizFormInfo formObject = BizFormInfoProvider.GetBizFormInfo("ContactUs", SiteContext.CurrentSiteID);

// Gets the class name of the 'ContactUs' form
DataClassInfo formClass = DataClassInfoProvider.GetDataClassInfo(formObject.FormClassID);
string className = formClass.ClassName;

// Loads the form's data
ObjectQuery<BizFormItem> data = BizFormItemProvider.GetItems(className);

// Checks whether the form contains any records
if (!DataHelper.DataSourceIsEmpty(data))
{
    // Loops through the form's data records
    foreach (BizFormItem item in data)
    {
        string firstNameFieldValue = item.GetStringValue("FirstName", "");
        string lastNameFieldValue = item.GetStringValue("LastName", "");

        // Perform any required logic with the form field values

        // Variable representing a custom value that you want to save into the form data
        object customFieldValue;

        // Programatically assigns and saves a value for the form record's 'CustomField' field
        item.SetValue("CustomField", customFieldValue);
        item.SubmitChanges(false);
    }
}

```

## Handling form events

To perform custom actions directly when form actions occur, [implement handlers](https://docs.kentico.com/k11/custom-development/handling-global-events.md) for [BizFormItemEvents events](https://docs.kentico.com/k11/custom-development/handling-global-events/reference-global-system-events.md#bizformitemevents).

You need to assign handlers for the events at the beginning of the application's life cycle – create a [custom module class](https://docs.kentico.com/k11/custom-development/creating-custom-modules/initializing-modules-to-run-custom-code.md) and override the module's **OnInit** method.

To access the data of the active form in the event handler, use the **Item** property _(BizFormItem_ type) of the **BizFormItemEventArgs** parameter. The parameter is available for all form item event handlers.

```csharp title="Example"

using CMS;
using CMS.DataEngine;
using CMS.OnlineForms;

// Registers the custom module into the system
[assembly: RegisterModule(typeof(FormHandlerModule))]

public class FormHandlerModule : Module
{
    // Module class constructor, the system registers the module under the name "CustomFormHandlers"
    public FormHandlerModule()
        : base("CustomFormHandlers")
    {
    }

    // Contains initialization code that is executed when the application starts
    protected override void OnInit()
    {
        base.OnInit();

        // Assigns a handler to the BizFormItemEvents.Insert.After event
        // This event occurs after the creation of every new form record
        BizFormItemEvents.Insert.After += FormItem_InsertAfterHandler;
    }

    // Handles the form data when users create new records for the 'ContactUs' form
    private void FormItem_InsertAfterHandler(object sender, BizFormItemEventArgs e)
    {
        // Gets the form data object from the event handler parameter
        BizFormItem formDataItem = e.Item;

        // Checks that the form record was successfully created
        // Ensures that the custom actions only occur for records of the 'ContactUs' form
        // The values of form class names must be in lower case
        if (formDataItem != null && formDataItem.BizFormClassName == "bizform.contactus")
        {
            string firstNameFieldValue = formDataItem.GetStringValue("FirstName", "");
            string lastNameFieldValue = formDataItem.GetStringValue("LastName", "");

            // Perform any required logic with the form field values

            // Variable representing a custom value that you want to save into the form data
            object customFieldValue;

            // Sets and saves a value for the form record's 'CustomField' field
            formDataItem.SetValue("CustomField", customFieldValue);
            formDataItem.SubmitChanges(false);
        }
    }
}

```