Configuring Forms

Forms are used in interactive "Create" and "Step" Actions for requesting user input through customizable pop-up dialog boxes or wizards. The main benefit of using Forms is that you can design them to request only the information needed for a specific situation.

IMPORTANT: This page describes Forms for interactive Actions. If you are configuring View Forms that the Self Service Portal (SSP) uses to display the object details, note that SSP View Forms do not support all aspects of Action Forms. For details, see Specifying workflow for the Self Service Portal.

Understanding Forms

Before you begin configuring, read this section to understand the following aspects of Forms:

• Form contents

  A Form contains input fields, including input text fields, calendar date pickers, check boxes, and drop-down lists. Input fields displayed on a Form can be either physical or virtual:

  • Physical fields represent an object’s values and allow the user to modify them directly.

  • Virtual fields are temporary fields for passing values to other components of a workflow item: Functions and E-mail Notifications. For details, see Types of virtual fields.

  Forms allow you to specify suggested values for important fields, filter field values, and provide instructions. Typically, a Form has a general instruction at the top, right under the caption. You can also specify hints for those fields that need additional instruction to fill in. If your Form has many fields, you may want to divide it into sections to make it easier to read and complete. Each section would have a caption and individual instructional text, if needed. Text may include URL hyperlinks.

  You can control the visibility of each section by its condition, a logical operation based on object field values and system macros. When the user opens the Form, Alloy Navigator checks the condition and displays the section if only its condition is met.

  Click here to view an example of a dialog-style Form.

  

• Window style: dialog box or wizard

  By default, Forms appear as pop-up dialog boxes, as illustrated in the screenshot above. However, when your Form has many sections, it would be more convenient to display it as a wizard, where each section appears as a wizard page. You can control the visibility of each wizard page by its condition, a logical operation based on object field values and system macros. Alloy Navigator checks those conditions every time the Wizard Form is shown, and displays only those wizard pages whose conditions evaluate to True.

  NOTE: When your wizard-style Form have some fields above the first section separator, they would appear on the first General wizard page. When your wizard-style Form allows the user to add attachments, the wizard would display the last Attachments page.

  Click here to view an example of a wizard-style Form.

  

• Form validation

  You can control user input on Forms by using validation rules. A validation rule is a criterion that Alloy Navigator checks after the user fills in the Form. Wizard-style Forms can have separate validation rules for wizard pages; Alloy Navigator checks those page rules after the user leaves the page.

  When a validation rule meets its criterion, Alloy Navigator displays a pop-up message to the user. Three types of messages are supported:

  Error – An error message alerts the user about the error and prevents the invalid data from saving.

  Confirmation – A confirmation asks whether the user wants to confirm the input. Confirmation messages consist of a question and two respond buttons: Yes and No. Clicking Yes confirms the changes and simply closes the message window, when clicking No allows the user to correct the entered data.

  Information – An information message informs the user of something useful, but not critical. Information messages display the OK button and do not affect the user input.

  Click here to view an example of a confirmation message in the Desktop App.

  

Configuring Forms

You configure Forms for a particular object class in the Workflow and Business Logic > [Module] > [Object Class] > Workflow > Components > Forms section.

To configure a Form:

1. On the General tab, specify the general properties of the Form:

• Object Class (read-only) - the object class for which the Form is created.

• Name - the Form name.

• Description - the description of the Form.

• Form Caption - the caption of the dialog box or wizard displayed to the user. If you want to use the Action caption as the Form caption, keep this field clear.

• Instruction - the introductory text displayed to the user at the top, right under the caption.

• Window style - defines how the Form appears to the user: as a pop-up dialog box or as a wizard. For details, see Window style: dialog box or wizard above.

• Under Fields, configure the Form contents. For details, see Form contents above.

• New - click and select the element to add to the Form:

• Field - brings up the Form Field window, where you can configure a new field on the Form.

TIP: You can first add fields and then organize your fields in sections (or wizard pages, if your Form has the wizard style). Alternatively, you can first add sections, or pages, and then add fields to them.

• Attachment Area - brings up the Attachment Area window, where you can configure a new control for attaching files to the object using the workflow form.

• Section/Page - brings up the Section/Page window, where you can configure a new section for the dialog-style Form or a new page for the wizard-style Form.

  NOTE: In addition to the wizard pages that you add explicitly, Alloy Navigator may implicitly create the first wizard page:
  - General page - When there are some elements above the first page separator, they would appear on the first General wizard page. If you want a different caption for the first page, insert a page separator before the first field and specify the desired page caption.

• Text - brings up the Text window, where you can type in text or a hyperlink to be displayed on the Form.

• Edit - opens the Form Field window, Section/Page window, Attachment Area window, or Text window, where you can modify the selected field, section/page caption, attachment area, or text.

TIP: If you Form contains drop-down lists, you can filter list items using tags. For details, see Tagging list items.

• Delete - deletes the selected field, section/page separator, attachment area, or text.

• Move Up / Move Down - moves the selected field, section/page separator, attachment area, or text up or down on the Form.

NOTE: When you move or delete a section (a wizard page), you move or delete only the separator but not the fields.

• Copy / Paste commands in the pop-up menu - copy the selected section/page separator or text.

2. On the Validation tab, you can specify the validation criteria for the Form. For details, see Form validation above.

• New - brings up the Validation window where you can configure a validation rule for checking the user input on the Form. For wizard-style Form, you can specify validation rules for particular wizard pages.

• Edit - opens the Validation window where you can modify the selected validation rule.

• Delete - deletes the selected rule.

• Move Up / Move Down - changes the execution order of validation rules by moving the selected rule up or down.

3. On the Usage tab, view the workflow Actions that use this Form.

• Open - opens the selected Action.

4. Click OK.