4. Form Editor

4. Form Editor

The system allows you to configure both the fields and forms within the system to match your specific requirements. This is achieved through the Form Editor.

Standard fields

The default system is provided with a set of standard fields to provide a starting point when first starting to configure the system. Some of these fields are required by the system in order to provide the core functionality and cannot be hidden or removed from the forms. For these fields certain options within the From Editor are not enabled. This ensures your forms contain the minimum set of data required for the system to operate correctly.
If you do not wish to use one of the standard fields, and it is one that can be switched off, then it can be configured to be 'hidden' when adding new records and editing existing records. 

Form

When viewing a form in the Editor the Overall form tab displays general configuration options that relate to the form.

Each page of the form has it's own tab.


Item

Details

Main title

Text displayed in the main page header

Sub title

Text displayed in smaller font next to main text in the header


Adds a new page to the form. New pages are added at the end of the existing pages


Re-orders the pages of the form


Allows different versions of the form to be viewed. Only draft versions of the workflow can be amended


Save any changes made to the form


Discard any changes made and return to the list of workflows


The overall form settings can be configured separately for adding new records and when viewing existing records.

Reordering pages & groups

The same functionality is used in the Form Editor to reorder pages and groups. All items that can be reordered are displayed in a list and you are able to move them up and down in a number of different ways.


Items can be reordered by:

  • Dragging and dropping the page to the new location
  • Clicking on the arrows to the right of the page to move it 
  • Highlighting a page and then using the cursor keys to move it up and down

Form pages

Page heading

Allows the name of the page to be updated. 


Item

Details

Main title

Title of the page displayed on screen

Sub title

Sub title of page displayed next to main title in smaller font


Adds a new group to the form. New Groups are added to the end of the existing groups 


Allows the groups on the current page to be reordered


Deletes the form page. This does not delete the fields or the data that those fields contain

Group

Form pages are made up one or more groups. Fields are then displayed inside these groups. A field cannot be displayed on a form unless it is inside a group.


Item

Details

Main title

Title of the group displayed on screen

Sub title

Sub title of group displayed next to main title in smaller font

Expand group on page load

Determines if the group is expanded or closed when the form is first loaded


Adds a new field into the group


Allows the existing fields in group to be re-ordered


Allows the existing fields in the group to be moved to another group on this page or another page


Opens the Logic Editor to allow rules to be applied to the Group as a whole


Deletes the group (if allowed). This does not delete the fields or the data that those fields contain


If a group contains any standard fields that have been marked as 'hidden' then a checkbox is displayed in the header of the group.

If the checkbox is clicked then the hidden fields are displayed in their correct position within the group. The field properties can then be updated and the field made active again if required. A standard field is marked as 'hidden' if both the Visible on add and Visible on edit options are set to hidden.

Adding a field

When adding a new field to a form you need to specify which record type the new field is associated with. 

The system will only display those record types that can be displayed on the current form.

As well as standard fields there may be special field types that can be added to the form as well. 


All existing fields associated with the selected record type are displayed, along with their field description if one has been created. 


Each field that can be added to the form is listed along with its type and whether it is a standard field or a custom one that has been created. The search option at the top of the list allows fields to quickly be found based on their labels.
Fields can only be added to a form once. They cannot be added to more than one page.
One or more fields can selected and then added to the form by clicking the button. The fields will be added to the form in the order that they are selected.


Clicking the  button allows a completely new field to be created and added to the form.


Item

Details

Field label

Name of the field

Field description

Detailed description of the field

Data type

Type of field to be added

PII Data

Specify if the field will contain Personally Identifiable Information


Return to the field selection page


Add the new field


Cancel the process and close the window

Alert
You should always use a consistent naming convention when creating new fields

The system allows the creation of the following field types: 

Type

Details

Date

Stores a date value

Date and time

Stores a data and time value

Decimal number

Stores decimal number and displays as standard decimal 

Multi select

Allows the user to select multiple values from a configurable list of options

Single select

Allows the user to select a single value from a configurable list of options

Tags

Allows users to select multiple values from a list, but also create new ones

Text

Stores text and displays it in either single line, multi-line, email or password format

Whole number

Stores whole numbers

Yes/No

Stores a Yes/No value and allows the data to be displayed as a checkbox or a toggle


If the field is specified to be multi select or a single select then a lookup needs to be assigned to the field.


A new lookup can be created or an existing lookup can be used by a field.

A single lookup can be used for multiple fields to ensure values remain consistent when capturing the same data on multiple forms. Any changes made to the lookup affect all fields that use that.

Alert
Once a lookup has been assigned to a field it cannot be changed.

Editing a field    

Each field displayed on a form can be configured with a large number of options. Some of these options are dependent on the field type and not available to all types.

Item

Details

Field label

Name of the field

Display type

How the data is displayed in the field. This varies depending on the field type chosen. Details can be found in the table below

Visible for new records

Is the field displayed when creating a new record

Visible for existing records

Is the field displayed when editing an existing record

Display width

How wide should the field be when displayed on the form

Automatically expand to fit contents

Resizes the height of the field to show all text (Multi-line text fields only)

Number of lines to display

How many lines of text should the field display (Multi-line text fields only)

View/edit dropdown items

What items are displayed in the list (List and Multiselect fields only)

Default to current user
Assigns the current user to any records that are created (User picker fields only)
Restrict to roles
Limits what users are displayed in the dropdown based on their role (User picker fields only)

Editable for new records

Can the field be updated when adding a new record

Editable for existing records 

Can the field be updated when editing an existing record

Input mask

A mask can be applied to the field to ensure only certain characters are entered. The possible masks are:

  • # - Any digit (0-9)
  • A – Any uppercase letter (A-Z)
  • a – Any lowercase letter (a-z)
  • N – Any uppercase alphanumeric character (A-Z or 0-9)
  • n – Any lowercase alphanumeric character (a-z or 0-9)
  • X – any symbol or space

Mandatory for new records

Does the field have to be completed before saving a new record

Mandatory for existing records

Does the field have to be completed before saving an existing record

Min and Max lengths

Specifies the minimum and maximum length in characters of any data entered (Text fields only)

Single line text fields have a maximum limit of 1,000 and multi-line text fields have a maximum limit of 4,000 characters.

Min and Max values

Specifies the minimum and maximum values allowed (Decimal and whole number fields only)

Min and Max dates

Specifies the minimum and maximum dates allowed (Date fields only)

Number of decimal places

The number of allowed decimal places for any number entered (Decimal number fields only)

Is zero a valid answer

Is zero allowed to be entered as a number (Decimal and whole number fields only)

Field hint

Text displayed underneath the field when the cursor is placed in it

Field placeholder

Text displayed in the field when it is empty

Field prefix

Text displayed in front of the field

Field suffix

Text displayed after the field


Previews of how the field will look when adding a new record and editing an existing record are displayed at the bottom of the field configuration.


Fields can be assigned a display type that determines how the data is viewed.

Type

Details

Email (Text)

Requires text entered to be an email address

Multi line text (Text)

Allows multiple lines of text to be entered

Single line text (Text)

Allows a single line of text to be entered

Decimal number (Decimal)

Displays a standard number 

Money (Decimal)

Displays a £ symbol in front of the number

Checkbox (Yes No)

Displays a box that can be checked, , and unchecked, 

Toggle (Yes No)

Displays a toggle that can be switched on, , and off, 

Alert
When changing a text field from/to 'Multi line text' display type you need to save the workflow before the configuration options for this type can be set

List and multiselect fields are linked with a specific lookup when they are created. The items associated with a lookup can be amended at any time.

Clicking  displays the lookup detail and its associated items.

Further details on editing lookup and their values can be found here - 5. Lookups

Reordering fields

Fields can be re-ordered and moved around on the form.

By default fields are displayed on the form one after another. The system calculates the space left on the row after displaying a field to see if the next field can be placed alongside it, or if it is too big and needs to be placed on a new row.
To provide more control over the layout of fields, and to ensure those fields that are based on conditional logic are displayed in the right place, the system allows fields to be grouped together.
Each group of fields are always displayed starting on a new row, irrespective of how much space might be available on the previous row.
If you would like certain fields to always be displayed on a new row, but not have to set their size to be 100%, then they can be set to be in a group on their own. 

Moving fields

Fields can be moved from one group to another, either on the same page or a different page.


Item

Details

Select new group

Displays all available groups on all pages that fields can be moved to


Selects all fields listed


De-selects all fields selected


Moves the fields to their new location


Close the window without moving the fields

Logic Editor


The Logic Editor allows rules to be assigned to Groups or Fields on a form. The options available in the Logic Editor vary between different groups and fields as not all of them support the full range of options.

Logic rules

Logic rules can be created that are either visibility rules or validation rules.
  1. Visibility rules allow a field to be displayed based on the values of other fields
  2. Validation rules allow you to make sure a field is completed in a certain way based on the values of other fields
A field can have both visibility and validation rules assigned to it at the same time.
Alert
Only one rule of each type should be Active at any one time

A new logic rule can be created by clicking  
An existing rule can be edited by clicking on it to expand it.

Item
Details
Rule name
Assign a name to the rule
Rule type
Sets the rule to be either a 'Validation' or 'Visibility' rule
Active
If set to 'Yes' then the rule will be run

Delete the rule
Description
A longer description of the rule

Allows a field to be selected which will be used for the rule
Operator
Allows an operator to be set that will be used to determine when the rule will be run
Value
Allows a value to be set that will determine when the rule is run

Allows additional fields to be added to the rule
Validation message
The message displayed to the user under the field when the rule is triggered.
Only available for validation rules.
When creating a rule using a date field there are 2 different ways to set the rule up:
  1. Value - allows the rule to be based on a specific date
  2. Age - allows the rule to be based on how old something is
This allows you to create logic rules that are triggered if something is before or after a certain date, or alternatively create ones that are based on when something is older or younger than a certain age.

The way the rule works is defined by the Property dropdown underneath the Field dropdown.
When combining multiple fields together in a rule it is important to put them in the correct order if you are using the OR operator. Each field is calculated in turn so is always compared to the results from the previous step.
Notes
For example, if you wanted to show a field if an applicant has pets that are either cats our dogs, and has more than 3 of them then the logic should be defined as follows:
      Number of cats > 2
            OR
      Number of dogs > 2
            AND
      Pet type = Cat, Dog
            AND
      Has pets = Yes

Public portal

The Public portal page is only shown when editing a form that is displayed on the public portal.


The Do online changes to this field require approval by a member of staff setting determines if a update made by an applicant to this field is flagged as a Pending change, or saved straight away.
By default all fields are set to require approval by a member of staff.

Special fields

As well as being able to add normal fields to a form it is also possible to add other 'special' fields.

Text content

Static text can be added to forms by adding Text content areas. These text areas can be assigned different display styles so that they can either appear as buttons that need to clicked on before the detail is displayed, or appear inline so the text is visible straightaway.

A content area can display up to 2 buttons that can be configured to link to other websites. These can be useful for signposting users to other sources of information.

Text content areas have different configuration options compared to fields.


Item

Details

Field label

Heading used for the text section/dialog

Content

The information text that will be presented on screen

Content display style

Specifies the format that will be used to display the information. Text can be displayed in line with the other fields or displayed in a separate dialog when a button is clicked.

The Field preview shows how the content area will display on the form based on the selected style.

Link 1 & 2 URL

Website addresses to be assigned to buttons displayed alongside the text

Notes
Text content areas can have logic rules assigned to them just like any other field. This allows them to hidden and then displayed based on how other fields have been answered.
This approach can be used to provide Housing options advice to applicants based on their current circumstances, and also signpost them to other websites of interest.

People sub form

People sub forms can be added to forms to ask specific questions that are related to other people on the application. This information is then stored in fields against each of the person records. For example, you may want to ask for details of who is working in the household and then list those people that are over 16 years old for their information to be updated.

People sub forms can be added to the following forms:
  1. Housing Register - Admin
  2. Housing Register - My Housing register
  3. Homeless application- Admin
  4. Homeless application - My Homeless application
  5. Health assessment - Admin


Item

Details

Select which people to show

Determines what people will be displayed to enter the data against; All except primary, Primary applicant only, Primary applicant and partner, Primary applicant and any joint applicants, Age restrictions or All

Minimum age of people to include

Displayed when Age restriction is selected. Only displays people over the specified age

Maximum age of people to include

Displayed when Age restriction is selected. Only displays people under the specified age

People fields

The fields that will be displayed for each person in the sub form. Only fields related to the person can be added, as well as text sections 

Groups can be added to people sub forms to help organise fields on the forms. Conditional logic rules can then be applied to these groups to show and hide sets of fields without needing to apply rules to each individual field. This approach reduces the overall size of the form and the time required to load it.

Ineligibility check

An Ineligibility check area can only be added to the My Pre-assessment Housing Register form.

It is configured like a normal Text content area and is used to explain to an applicant why they are ineligible to join the Housing Register.  It's display on the form should be controlled by logic rules to ensure it is only shown when an applicant is ineligible.
If the Ineligibility check area is visible when the applicant submits the form then the Pre-assessment is put in the Ineligible state and they cannot proceed any further.
If the Ineligibility check area is not visible when the applicant submits the form then the Pre-assessment is put in the Pre-assessment submitted state and they will be allowed to continue and complete their application.





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