Field types

Forms support 10 field types. Here's what each one is for, and exactly what big checks before accepting a submission.

Text and numbers

Short text — a single-line answer, up to 5000 characters.
Long text — a multi-line answer, also up to 5000 characters.
Number — must be a finite number (no Infinity, no NaN).

Email

Validated against a standard email format. big checks the shape of the address, not whether it's deliverable.

Validated for format only — lowercase letters, numbers, periods, and underscores, 1–30 characters ([a-z0-9._]{1,30}). big does not verify that the handle belongs to a real, existing Instagram account — there's no public API for that lookup. Treat a submitted handle as "shaped like a handle," not "confirmed to exist."

Choice fields

Single choice — pick one option.
Multi choice — pick one or more options.
Dropdown — pick one option from a dropdown list; big also validates that the submitted value is one of the configured options.

All three share the same option limits: 1–50 options, each up to 200 characters.

Rating

An integer rating scale. Both ends are configurable per field: the minimum can be from 0 to 9 (default 1) and the maximum up to 10, with the minimum always lower than the maximum. You can also flip the scale so the highest value renders first.

Likert

A fixed 5-point agree/disagree scale (for example, Strongly disagree → Strongly agree). Unlike Rating, the points are fixed at five and stored by their label. You can flip the rendered order (strongly-agree first) without changing what's stored.

Identity field

You can flag exactly one field on a form as the identity field — a short text, email, or instagram field is eligible. Whatever a respondent enters there is copied to that submission's identity value, which is what big uses to recognize or de-duplicate who responded.

The identity value is the only form answer big matches against anything else (it's also what connects a response back to the short link that brought the person in). No other field is looked up or cross-referenced.