Unexpected values in submissions can occur when multiple fields within the same gate use the same field name. This can cause values to be combined or duplicated when the submission is sent to your marketing automation platform or CRM.
Common symptoms include:
A comma appearing before a value
A comma appearing after a value
Two values being combined together unexpectedly
Duplicate values being sent to the receiving platform
Why This Happens
This typically occurs when a gate contains two or more fields that use the same field name, but only one field is visible to the user at any given time.
For example:
Field 1: Company
Field 2: Company
A rule determines which field is displayed, meaning the user only sees and completes one of them.
However, unless configured otherwise, both fields may still be included in the submission payload.
Depending on how your receiving platform processes duplicate fields, this can result in unexpected data being submitted.
Note: This behavior is the default behavior of HTML/web browser form submissions and is not specific to Formulayt. When multiple fields share the same field name, browsers submit all matching field values. How those values are then processed depends on the receiving platform, which may concatenate them, separate them with commas, or handle them differently.
Symptom 1: Unexpected Commas
A common symptom is an additional comma appearing before or after the submitted value, this can look like either of the below.
The first company field was hidden and the user did not interact with the field:
, Acme Ltd
The second company field was hidden and the user entered their company name into the first field:
Acme Ltd,
Why It Happens
One field contains the user's value, while the hidden field is blank.
When the receiving platform combines the values from both fields into a single destination field, the blank value may still be included, resulting in a leading or trailing comma.
Symptom 2: Values Being Concatenated
Another issue could be multiple values being combined together into a single field such as:
Acme Ltd, Acme Limited
Why It Happens
This can occur when a hidden field has been pre-populated with a value before the user completes the visible field.
For example:
Field | Visible to User | Value | Data source |
Company (Hidden) | No | Acme Ltd | Pre-population from CRM |
Company (Visible) | Yes | Acme Limited | User interaction |
Because both fields share the same destination field name, the receiving platform may concatenate the values during processing.
Solution: Enable "Don't submit value if hidden"
To prevent hidden fields from being submitted:
Open the field configuration.
Locate the Don't submit value if hidden setting.
Toggle the setting to Yes.
Save your changes.
When enabled, fields hidden by rules are excluded from the submission payload.
This prevents blank hidden fields from creating unwanted commas and prevents hidden pre-populated fields from being submitted alongside visible fields.
Recommended Approach
Where possible, avoid having multiple fields with the same field name mapped to the same destination field in your MAP or CRM.
If you have multiple fields that map to the same destination field in your MAP or CRM, and are shown conditionally using rules, we recommend enabling Don't submit value if hidden on all affected fields.
This helps keep submission data clean and avoids unexpected formatting issues in downstream systems.