Using the Forms Publisher

Creating Forms

Forms are typically created by users in a Business Analyst or other business role who are tasked with designing simple forms for Mobileforce FSM. Typically, such users are not software developers nor have an IT role, so the process of creation, modification, and publication of Simple Forms is kept simple, making use of a wysiwyg tool with a browser-based UI.

Actions that might otherwise require coding are made simple in this interface. These simple forms are implicitly laid out, as there is no user ability to specify the layout of the forms.

Each simple form is defined by two elements:

During form creation, users can specify details of each individual form fields:

Note: Only users who have Admin Roles can access the UI for creating simple forms.

Forms are created by Admins using the Forms Publisher. A form creation workflow consists of two sections (or tabs): the General section and the Forms section.

General Section

This section provides some general information about the form such as (a) core fields including the form name (b) form screen elements such as location/placement in the UI, icon (c) visibility and access control, and (d) the database table that form submissions are stored in. The following screenshot shows these fields:

Forms Section

The Forms section has the form input fields organized in sections, as shown in the screenshot below.

Note: Forms have a limitation that the overall combined size of all the field types cannot exceed 8000 characters, in terms of space taken by various field types, in internal representation. So, for instance a "Text" field takes up 255 characters, a "Multi-Line Text" field takes up 4 characters (since it is represented as a blob). If a form has 100 fields, it makes sense to make these fields "Multi-Line Text" so as not to exceed the 8000 character overall limit.

Using the Forms Publisher

To access the form creation UI, select Forms Publisher from the Admin page.

The Forms Publisher page is displayed, showing the forms that have previously been created.

Note: Each form in the table lists both the current Version as well as the Released Version. This versioning creates flexibility for creators so they can create and test their forms without impacting the end users who will complete and submit the forms.

From here you can:

Additionally, each form supports the following actions:

Create Copy

Create Copy offers a simple way to duplicate a form which you can use as the basis for creating a different form, without having to go through the entire form creation process. Create Copy only duplicates the structure of the form; it does not copy the data collected in the field.

This action is useful for creating two or more similar forms, or for starting all forms from a single template form.

Copy Into

Copy Into copies the data of the form into a form with a similar database structure.

Export

The Export action provides a simple way to copy a form from the Mobileforce system to an external file system, where you can manipulate its structure outside of the Mobileforce form creator and then import the form back into Mobileforce.

Mobileforce exports the form as an XML file, which you can open and then modify, using a simple text editor or as an XML table in a spreadsheet application, such as Excel.

Release

Mobileforce provides basic version control through its Release action, which allows you to continue to edit and develop a form without affecting the use of the form in the field.

Once you release a form, any subsequent changes made to the form go into a newer version. Each time you are ready to promote a new version of the form, replacing the current version, you will release it again, and the latest version will become the new release, replacing the previously released version.

Note: A new form will not appear in Mobileforce FSM until its initial release.

Note: There can only be one released version of a form in Mobileforce FSM. As soon as a new version is released, the previous released version is no longer accessible.

Import Simple Forms

The Import button allows you to import simple forms from an external file system. Typically, most users import forms that were previously exported and modified using a text editor or spreadsheet application.

Click Choose File to select the XML form from your external file system. Once selected, Mobileforce FSM automatically generates an application name and database table name, which you can override if desired.

When finished, click Import.

Import from Spreadsheet

The Create from Spreadsheet button allows you to create forms from data in an existing .xlsx spreadsheet.

Click Choose File to select the .xlsx spreadsheet file from your external file system. Once selected, Mobileforce FSM automatically generates an application name and database table name, which you can override if desired.

When finished, click Import.

Create a Simple Form

Clicking opens the Create New Form App window, where you specify the form name and its corresponding (backend) database name.

Note: The database/backend name of your form must meet specific input requirements, similar to requirements for database table names.

These restrict the use of blank and special characters in the name. For example, if you created a form named Daily & Periodic Health Reporting, the following would be a valid table name: daily_and_periodic_health_reporting.

When finished, click Create. Mobileforce creates the form and adds it to the Forms Publisher page. To modify the form, click Edit.

Info: When a new form is created by Mobileforce FSM, it provides an initial list of fields that are required for the form to function, and as such, cannot be deleted or modified.