Forms Module

• Forms Admin
• Viewing Form Entries
• Form Field Types
• Forms

Forms Admin

The Forms module allows organizations to create and manage digital forms for special requests and communications with users. This article is for OPS-COM administrators who need to set up, configure, and manage these forms.

Setup & Configuration

The Forms module has been refactored with new functionality and new forms are only operational on the OPS-COM app. Any existing forms created in the old format are not compatible and will need to be recreated using the new form builder.

To manage forms, administrators require specific permissions:

1. Hover over System Configuration, Admin Management, and click Manage Roles.

2. Select the relevant administrator role and click Permissions.

3. Under the Users tab, ensure the Edit Forms and View Forms checkboxes are enabled.

4. Click Save.

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Using this Feature

Administrators can view, edit, or create new forms from the Forms page.

Accessing the Forms Module

1. Hover over User Management, Forms, and click List Forms.  A list of all existing forms will display.

Available Actions & Buttons

• +Add Form: To create a new form, click the +Add Form button. This will open the new form builder, allowing you to design and configure your form from scratch.
• Edit Form: To modify an existing form, click the Edit icon (pencil icon) next to the form in the list. This will open the form builder where you can make changes.
• Entries: To view all users who have filled out this form, and their information.
• Copy: To create a copy of a form, click this button. It is added to the bottom of the list.
• Archive: To archive a form so it can no longer be used, click this button. Its entries and information will remain saved.
• Export: This button downloads the form to your device through the browser's download manager in a '.xls' format (Microsoft Excel Spread Sheet)

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Best Practices & Considerations

• Recreate Old Forms: Remember that existing legacy form data is not compatible with the new format. You must recreate any old forms using the new form builder for them to function on the OPS-COM app.

• Permissions: Regularly review and ensure that the appropriate administrator roles have the necessary Edit Forms and View Forms permissions to manage the forms effectively.

• Form Design: When creating new forms, consider the user experience on the OPS-COM app. Keep forms concise and clearly structured to ensure ease of use for end-users.

Viewing Form Entries

Accessing User Form Entries

Access the forms module under the menu tree:

• User Management → Forms → List Forms

Click on the entries button for the form in question.

 

Form Entries Search Form

The form entry search page will be presented.

Several search options are available.

• Start date - the starting date for the search.

• Up to and including - the ending date of the search.

• Show in results - which columns to include in the search results. Only fields marked as searchable will appear here.

 

Additional search options can be shown by clicking the toggle more options button in the top right.

Any fields marked searchable will appear here, providing a text box a search query can be placed in.

This can be used to narrow the search to specific values on each field.

 

The search results will show the selected columns in the output.

From the search results, each individual entry can be viewed to see the entirety of the user’s submission, including fields not marked as searchable.

Entries can also be deleted from here.

 

Entry View

The submitter’s information will be displayed at the top of entry, and their answers below.

The field entries can be edited as needed, and values can be added to any admin-only fields.

To save any changes, press the button at the bottom of the menu.

 

Admin-Only Fields

Form fields marked as admin-only will be marked by a blue border.

Hovering the mouse over top of the border will show a tool-tip about the field.

 

Replying to User Submissions

An email can be sent in response to a user entry by clicking the prepare email button at the top of the entry menu.

 

This will open the email users page, pre-filling the user’s information into the email form.

The form name will be set as the email subject line.

 

Form Field Types

Introduction

A variety of field types are available when building form questions.

The functions of each field are detailed here.

 

Field Types

Checkbox Group

Used to allow the user to choose one or more options from the options listed.

• Enable “Other”: Allow the user to input an option that isn’t provided as an option here.

• Options: The list of options for the user to choose from. options can be added by clicking on the Add Option button.

  • Options can be pre-selected for the user by checking the corresponding box.

 

Date Field

Used to get a date from the user.

• Type: the type of date field

• Min: the minimum allowed date

• Max: the maximum allowed date

• Step: date steps

When the user clicks on the date field, they get a calendar date picker.

 

Header

Used to set a header or subheader for the form.

This is a field used to display information to the user, and is not editable by them.

• Label: Header text

• Type: Header size (H1 is the largest)

 

Number

Used to input only numerical digits.

• Type: The type of number field.

• Min: The minimum allowed number.

• Max: The maximum allowed number.

• Step: The amount the user can increment/decrement by clicking on the up and down arrows without entering the number using a keyboard.

 

Paragraph

Used to set a paragraph of text.

This is a field used to display information to the user, and is not editable by them.

• Content: The paragraph text or content.

 

Radio Group

Used to allow the user to choose one option from the options listed

• Options: The list of options for the user to choose from. options can be added by clicking on the Add Option button.

  • Options can be pre-selected for the user by checking the corresponding radio button.

 

Select Menu

Presents a drop-down list the user can select an option from.

This is similar in function to radio-groups and checkbox groups, ideally used when there are many options to choose from to save screen space.

• Allow Multiple Selections: To allow the user to select more than one option (similar functionality to a checkbox group).

• Options: The list of options for the user to choose from. options can be added by clicking on the Add Option button.

  • Note: options can be pre-selected for the user by checking the corresponding radio button

 

Text Field

Used to allow the user to input text.

• Type: Select what type of input is needed:

  • Text Field: is used for regular text.

  • Password: is used for sensitive information.

  • Email: is used to only accept email addresses.

  • Tel: is used to only accept phone number, will display a number pad keyboard instead of the regular keyboard.

• Max Length: maximum number of characters allowed.

 

 

Text Area

Similar to a text field, but allows for a larger area to enter text.

• Max Length: The maximum number of characters allowed.

• Rows: How many rows/lines does the text area initially takes up.

 

Forms

Introduction

The forms module has been refactored, and has new functionality.

Existing form data is not compatible with the new format, which means any old forms will need to be recreated in the new form format.

Accessing Forms

The forms module can be found under the menu tree:

• User Management → Forms → List Forms

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Forms List

This will open the forms list page.

Several options are presented to the user from this page.

• Add new - creates a new form.

• Edit form - existing forms can be edited by clicking on the pen icon next to the form title.

• View entries - entries submitted by users for a form can be viewed by clicking the buttons in the column.

• Options:

  • Copy - this will create a duplicate of the form without any of the entries. Useful when changes are to be made to the form structure without affecting existing entries.

  • Archive - this will archive the form and all its entries, removing them from view.

  • Export - this will export the form and all entry data to an Excel file.

Creating a New Form

To create a new form, click on the Add Form button.

Upon opening the add new form screen, the user is presented with a menu with three tabs.

• Form Basics

• Post Form Actions

• Questions

Form Basics

The initial form setup.

• Title - the name of the form. The orange box to the right of the text field is used to set the title in each language installed on the site.

• Visible - whether or not the form is visible to users.

• Description - text describing the purpose of the form. The orange box to the right of the text field is used to set the description in each language installed on the site.

• Show At - the date and time at which the form becomes visible to users.

• Hide At - the date and time at which the form becomes hidden from users.

• External Form - a URL to a form on an external site. If this field is provided, below sections can be ignored.

Clicking one of the orange boxes next to a text field will open a modal where the translation for the field can be set for each language installed on the site.

Post Form Actions

Set the actions to take after the user submits the form.

• Perform After Submit

  • Mail to specific email - after a submission is made, a notification email will be sent to the email address specified below in the email to field.

  • Show form back to user - after a submission is made, the form data will be shown back to the submitter.

• Email Subject - the subject line of the email notification to be sent back to the creator of the form when a submission is made by a user.

• Email To - the email address the notification email is sent to.

• Email From - the from address assigned to the notification email.

• Completion Text - the message shown back to the user after making a submission.

Questions

Under this tab is where the form questions are built.

The right side of the form builder contains the field types that can be added to the form. This can be done by dragging and dropping the fields from the box on the right into the questions area on the left.

After the question has been created, the details can be filled in.

Each field can be removed, edited, or copied by using these buttons:

Question Types

For a detailed breakdown of form field types, refer to the Form Fields Type wiki documentation.

Checkbox Group - presents the user with a list of checkboxes, from which they can choose multiple options.

• Date Field - a selectable date time for user input.

• Header - a header or title to present information to the user. No information is entered by the user.

• Number - a number for the user to input.

• Paragraph - a paragraph of text to present information to the user. No information is entered by the user.

• Radio Group - presents the user with a list of radio buttons, from which they can choose one.

• Select - presents the user with a dropdown menu of multiple pre-defined options. Multiple items can be selected if enabled, or only a single when not.

• Text Field - a short text field used for user input.

• Text Area - a long text field used for user input.

Question Options

When editing a field, there are some common attributes to lookout for:

• Required - enabling this will make it so the user must answer the question before they are able to submit the form.

• Label - the name or title of the question.

• Help Text - will give the user additional information or context about the question. Makes a question mark icon appear next to the question that will display the text in a tooltip when clicked.

• Placeholder - for a question where the user provides the answer, will display the text in the background of the text field before the user enters a value.

• Value - the default value for a question.

• Searchable - this enables the field contents to be searched on when searching through form entries.

• Admin Only - questions marked as admin-only will not be shown to users. It is used for admins to add comments or notes to a form entry submitted by a user, such as if an application was approved or denied.

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Form Options

Editing a Form

A form should only be edited when it doesn’t have any user entries, as it may cause existing entries to display their data incorrectly.

If changes need to be made to an existing form, it should be copied first, and the changes be made on the copy while it doesn’t have any entries.

Archiving a Form

Archiving acts as a form of deletion for forms.

When a form has been archived, the form and all its entries will be removed from view and can no longer be accessed.

Exporting a Form

Exporting a form will take all user entries given for a form and place the contents into an Excel document that will be downloaded by the browser.

Viewing Form Entries

User form submissions can be viewed by clicking on the view entries button next to the form title.

Further details can be found in the Viewing Form Entries wiki documentation.