---
title: Managing form controls
related:
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k82/custom-development/developing-form-controls/defining-form-control-parameters.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k82/custom-development/developing-form-controls/example-developing-custom-form-controls.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k82/custom-development/developing-form-controls/reference-field-editor.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).

The **Form controls** application allows you to view the catalog of available form controls. Click **New form control** to register custom form controls.

When you edit () a form control, the following properties are available on the **General** tab:

| Display name   | Sets the name of the form control used in the administration interface, for example when selecting form controls in the field editor.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    |
| -------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Code name      | Serves as a unique identifier of the form control (for example in the API).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              |
| Type           | Assigns the form control to a category. The type can be used to filter form controls.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    |
| File name      | Contains the relative path to the _.ascx_ file that implements the form control.<br>Example: _\~/CMSFormControls/Basic/TextBoxControl.ascx_                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              |
| Inherited from | Only available for [inherited form controls](https://docs.kentico.com/k82/custom-development/developing-form-controls/inheriting-from-existing-form-controls.md).<br>Displays the name of the parent form control. Replaces the **File name** (inherited controls use the same source file as their parent).                                                                                                                             |
| Description    | A text description of the control or comments for other administrators.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| High priority  | When selecting a form control in the field editor, controls with high priority appear at the top of the list and are highlighted.<br>Additionally, only high priority form controls are included among the form controls offered in the [Form builder](https://docs.kentico.com/k82/managing-website-content/forms/designing-forms-using-the-form-builder.md).<br>Only enable this option for form controls that are most commonly used. |

### Control scope

Use the properties in the **Use control for** section to choose the data types for which the form control is available. Possible data types for fields include standard options (Text, Long text, Decimal, Integer, Long integer, Boolean, Date-time), as well as several other options:

| Unique identifier (GUID) | Fields that store 32‑character strings used as globally unique identifiers for objects.                                                                                                                                                                  |
| ------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| File                     | Fields that provide file management.                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Page attachments         | Fields that allow the management of page attachments.                                                                                                                                                                                                    |
| Visibility               | For form controls that modify the visibility options of other fields.<br>See [Allowing users to change the information they share](https://docs.kentico.com/k82/managing-users/allowing-users-to-change-the-information-they-share.md) for more details. |

The **Show control in** determines in which types of forms the control can be used:

| Page types             | Allows use in [page type](https://docs.kentico.com/k82/developing-websites/defining-website-data-structure/page-types.md) fields, which you can edit in **Page types -> edit page type -> Fields**. The editing forms are displayed when editing pages on the **Form** tab in the **Pages** application.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| ---------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Forms                  | Allows the control to be used for the fields of [forms](https://docs.kentico.com/k82/managing-website-content/forms.md), which you can edit in the **Forms** application. If you wish to make the form control available in the [Form builder](https://docs.kentico.com/k82/managing-website-content/forms/designing-forms-using-the-form-builder.md), you need to enable the **High priority** flag.<br>If you allow a form control for forms, you also need to enter the following default values:<br>**Default data type** - the data type of the field used by default when a user chooses to create a new field of this type.<br>**Column size** - only applies to the _Text_ data type. Sets the maximum size of the database column used to store the field, which also limits number of characters that may be entered into the field. |
| Custom tables          | Allows the control in [custom table](https://docs.kentico.com/k82/developing-websites/defining-website-data-structure/custom-tables.md) fields, which you can edit in **Custom tables -> edit custom table -> Fields**. The corresponding data editing form is displayed in the **Custom table data** application.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |
| System tables          | Allows use in the fields of system objects. You can edit the fields in **Modules -> Edit module -> Classes -> Edit class -> Fields**. The editing forms of system objects are located in various sections of the administration interface or on the live site.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
| Reports                | Allows the control for the user interface of [report parameters](https://docs.kentico.com/k82/configuring-kentico/working-with-system-reports/defining-report-parameters.md), which you can define in **Reporting -> edit a report -> Parameters**. The reporting parameter form is displayed when viewing reports in the administration interface or on the live site.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        |
| Controls and web parts | Allows the control to be used for the properties of [web parts](https://docs.kentico.com/k82/custom-development/developing-web-parts.md) and [widgets](https://docs.kentico.com/k82/developing-websites/preparing-widgets-for-users.md), as defined in the **Web parts** or **Widgets** applications. This editing form provides the configuration dialog of individual web parts or widget instances.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         |

## Defining form control parameters

On the **Properties** tab of the form control editing interface, you can define parameters. See [Defining form control parameters](https://docs.kentico.com/k82/custom-development/developing-form-controls/defining-form-control-parameters.md) for further information.

## Previewing form controls

When editing form controls, you can use the **View** tab to check the appearance of the control in a sample 1-field form.
