Use conditions to ask only the questions that apply to a person. For example, show a question about team size after someone says they need training for their team. A condition checks an earlier answer or, on a Checkout form, a detail about the booking.
This guide is for course providers. A field is a question or a piece of information on a form. The field being shown or hidden has a rule; the earlier question supplies the answer that rule checks.
Before you start
Sign in to the Admin dashboard at admin.cademy.io. You need the Course Owner or System Admin role to manage forms.
Creating or changing conditions requires Teams or Custom, or an account with Conditional Fields specifically included. Conditional fields must also be enabled for your account. If the controls below are absent, ask Cademy Support to check availability.
Rules work on General and Feedback forms, including those used inside lessons, and on Checkout forms used for course bookings or membership signup. A learner’s My Profile contact-details card is configured separately and does not use these rules.
If the account no longer includes conditional fields, saved rules still work. You can view an existing rule and use Switch to Always Show to remove it, but cannot add or change conditions without access. Previewing existing rules remains available while the conditional editor is enabled.
Show a question after a matching answer
The following example uses a fictional General form named Group Training Enquiry. First add a Single Choice Options question, Who is the training for?, with the choices Just me, My team and My organisation. Make that choice question Required in its Field Options. Add a Number question, How many people need training?, below it. For creating the form and questions, see Create and Share a General Form.
Open Forms, select Group Training Enquiry and open Form Editor.
Point to How many people need training? and open Field Options. For this example, turn on Required and set Minimum to 1.
Under Visibility, select Only When….
Choose Who is the training for?, then is any of. Select My team and My organisation from its answers.
Select Save in the options window, then Save at the top of the form. Reopen the field’s options to check the saved condition.
On the completed form, Just me hides the number question. My team or My organisation shows it in its place below the first question. This also applies when the General form is embedded on your website or used in a lesson.
To remove the condition, reopen Field Options > Visibility, select Always Show, save the options and save the form.
Choose what a condition checks
A question can depend only on a suitable question above it. It cannot depend on itself or a question below it. The available comparisons follow the answer type:
Single choice or Dropdown: choose one or more of that question’s own answers with is any of or is none of.
Multiple Choice Checkboxes: check whether the selected answers include any, all or none of the answers you choose.
Text: match the text or check whether it contains particular words.
Number, Rating or Scale: compare a number, such as is at least or is at most.
Date: check whether the answer is before or after a date.
True/False (Boolean): use is Yes or is No.
Other supported question types offer is empty and is not empty where applicable. Statements do not have answers, and file uploads cannot supply a condition. You can still show or hide an eligible Statement or file-upload question using a different question’s answer.
Locked fields and internal questions cannot be made conditional. Checkout always asks for First Name, Last Name and Email. The required Email field on a General form also stays visible.
Combine conditions with All or Any
In the rule, select Add Condition for each additional check. Choose All when every condition must match, or Any when one matching condition is enough. This choice applies to the whole list; there are no separate nested groups.
For example, show Site Address when All of these match: Who is the training for? is any of My team or My organisation, and Can we train at your premises? is any of Yes. With Any, one matching condition would be enough. Save the options and the form after changing the list.
Make a follow-up depend on another follow-up
You can build a sequence of questions. Add Can we train at your premises? as Single Choice Options with Yes and No, and show it for a team or organisation. Add a Site Address question below it and use is any of Yes to show that follow-up. Keep each follow-up below the question it checks. If the premises question is hidden, Site Address is hidden too.
Understand what happens to hidden answers
A hidden question is not required and its answer is not saved. If someone types an answer and then changes an earlier answer so the question disappears, the typed answer is cleared. If it appears again, check its answer before submitting. A required visible question still needs an answer. Reopening an existing booking can show a saved or prefilled value; hiding a question does not erase answers saved by an earlier booking or submission.
A hidden Contact field does not replace the person’s saved contact detail. A blank answer in a submitted response does not tell you whether a question was hidden or simply left unanswered. Cademy does not add a “Not asked” label.
Read General and Feedback answers under Forms > the form > Responses > the response > Answers. Checkout answers belong to the relevant Contact, Registration or Organisation record; Checkout forms do not have a Responses tab. See Read and Manage Form Responses and Create and Use Checkout Forms.
Preview rules before using the form
In Form Editor, every field stays visible while you are editing. Conditional fields have a blue line and a caption describing the rule. Select that caption to open its options. A question used by other rules shows a Controls count.
Open Forms > your form > Form Editor. After adding a rule, select Preview Logic above the form.
Choose answers that match the rule, then answers that do not. Check which fields appear and disappear. On Checkout forms, change the preview’s booking details as well.
Select Exit Preview to return to editing. Save the form if you want to keep changes you made before previewing.
Preview Logic does not save a response. It appears only when the form has a condition or an existing attendance-hiding setting. It helps you check rules; check the relevant customer journey as well before relying on the form.
Use conditions on other forms
Checkout and membership forms
Checkout rules can also check Number of People, Order Value, Primary Contact Attending and Booking as an Organisation. Order Value is before discounts and fees. On-request courses priced on enquiry or as a range have no known value, so their Order Value conditions do not match. You can make the whole Organisation Section conditional through its section settings. For the exact booking, guest, membership and after-booking behaviour, see Create and Use Checkout Forms.
Feedback and the Public Review block
Use an earlier feedback answer to show a follow-up question, such as whether the participant wants a call. The whole Public Review block has a separate Show This Block… action. For example, ask whether the participant wants to leave a public review, then show the block when they answer Yes. See Set Up a Feedback Form for Your Courses.
Change questions without breaking rules
Keep a conditional question below the question it checks. Form Editor prevents a move that would put it above its controlling question. If moving a question is blocked, check the rule caption and the question’s Controls count.
Remove a question used by other rules
When you remove a question that controls other fields, a warning lists the affected fields, including later follow-ups. Choose what happens to them:
Always show them: keep the affected fields. Conditions that read the removed question are taken out. A rule with no conditions left is removed, so its field always shows.
Remove them as well: remove the listed dependent fields too.
Check the remaining rules before saving. Keeping fields does not mean every remaining condition has been removed. If the account no longer has access to conditional fields, removing a controlling question instead removes each affected rule in full. Recheck which questions will be shown before saving. Earlier submitted responses are separate from the form’s questions.
Rename or remove an answer choice
If a rule uses an answer choice you change in Form Editor, Cademy warns before saving. Review the listed rules. Update Rules removes the missing answer from those conditions; it does not automatically substitute your new wording. An empty condition is removed; if no conditions remain, the field becomes Always Show. Reopen the affected field’s options and choose the intended replacement answer. If its rule was removed, select Only When… again and rebuild it. Save the options and form.
Shared fields are also used on other forms. When changing choices under Settings > Fields, read the warning and its links to affected forms. After saving the shared field, open those forms and fix any Rule Needs Fixing marker. Choose a valid earlier question, comparison and answer, or remove the rule with Always Show; save the form. Do not rely on a broken rule to show a follow-up question.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Only When… unavailable?
You need a suitable earlier question, or a booking detail on a Checkout form. Locked and internal fields cannot be conditional. Account availability and plan access also apply; check Before you start.
Can I make a question required only when it is shown?
Yes. Turn on Required in Field Options and add its visibility rule. The required check applies while that question is shown. Save both the options and the form.
Do rules change questions on My Profile?
No. Rules belong to the form. My Profile contact fields are configured separately under Settings > Fields > Contacts.
Will editing a shared field change other forms?
Yes. Its shared name and choices affect forms using that definition. Visibility conditions belong to each form. Check the warning links when changing a choice used by rules.