Set Up Form Properties
This topic describes the Form Builder Settings that you can customize. These include settings to control what’s displayed on the Mobile App, the documents that a user can download, and other form-level properties.
Contents
Form Builder Settings page
To set up the properties of a specific form:
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Create or edit the form that you want to set up.
Manage Forms > Form Name > Edit Form
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Manage Forms > Create New Form, select the form type, and then enter the form name and description.
Tip:The Summary page view displays the description in the Mobile App.
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Select Settings.
Result: The system displays the Settings page. From here, you can set up the form properties.
The following sections describe the properties in more detail.
Form Information
General Information
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Form Name
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A name that clearly identifies the form, such as Vehicle Inspection.
Note: Changes to the Form Name could affect Documents and Data Destinations. Check all Document and Data Destination
A Data Destination specifies where to send data from a submitted form. You can use Data Destinations to automate data sharing and storage, routing data to a specific service (such as email or cloud storage) in several different formats. settings to determine the potential impact of any changes to the Form Name.
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Form Description
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Enter a short description of your form for future reference. The description also displays on the Summary page of the ProntoForms Mobile App.
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Tags
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Tags help your field users quickly find the form they need in the Forms, Inbox, Drafts, and Sent lists. Field users can select or type tag names to display a list of matching forms.
To add a tag, type it in the Tags field, and then select Return or Enter.
Tip:Tags are not case-sensitive.
The following example shows how to add the tags inspection and campus:
Tags can have up to 12 alphanumeric, -, and _ characters. You can add up to 250 tags per form.
Info:The topic Use Form Tags in the Mobile App to filter a list of forms describes tags in more detail.
Mobile App Settings
The Mobile App Settings control how users navigate through the form and whether they can store images locally on their devices.
Form Options
Form Options control form navigation and whether Mobile App users can access a summary view of the form.
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Navigation index
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The navigation index is a list of the pages in a multi-page form.
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Show only visited pages—Users must answer all required questions on the current page before they can move to the next page. Once they’ve completed a page, they can go back to it.
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Show all pages—Users can work through the form in any order, even jumping ahead several pages.
Note:If your form includes Conditional Logic, think carefully before you select the Show all pages option. Users might skip over a question that triggers a Conditional Logic rule. If the user goes back to a previous page and triggers that rule, some of their work could be changed or erased.
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- Summary page
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Users can access a summary page to review their answers before they submit the form.
The summary page:
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Helps field users to confirm that they’ve entered all data correctly.
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Gives customers a clear view of the work completed before they sign off. To let users share the summary page, select Allow users to share summary page.
Tip:Viewing a summary does not submit the form.
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Image Options
Image options control whether field users can save photos taken in the ProntoForms app to their device.
If you have HIPAA compliance requirements, we recommend that you do not enable the option to save images on devices.
Exception Categories
Exceptions highlight issues in real time as your field users work through a form. Exceptions provide color-coded feedback directly in the form.
This example shows three typical Exception categories, each with a different color.
Info: If an answer triggers more than one Exception, the highest priority (top) category applies. The topic Answer Exceptions describes in detail how to set up your Exception categories.
Once you define Exception categories, you can apply them to number-based and options-based questions throughout the form. You can also set up a Recap question to count the number of answers in each category. Then, you can use that value to drive Conditional Logic. For example, you can count the number of critical issues and enforce a specific workflow based on that count.
Documents
Documents display the contents of submitted forms in different formats. In the Documents section, you can make documents available for download from the Web Portal, the ProntoForms REST API, and the Mobile App Sent and Search lists. This setting does not affect documents sent to a Data Destination.
Select the Documents available for download field and choose a document from the list. To create a new document, select Add a new document.
Workflow Settings
The Workflow Settings control a sequence of processes by which a user can open a form. These include dispatched forms, edits to submitted forms, search options, ProntoForms Teamwork ProntoForms Teamwork is an Enterprise tier feature that enables mobile users to transfer incomplete forms for other users to complete as part of a multi-user workflow. This can be useful for jobs that require someone else's expertise or that span multiple shifts. options, and App‑to‑App custom callback parameters.
Form Initiation Methods
Configure how you want mobile users or supervisors to begin a workflow.
- Forms Box (User-initiated)
- Mobile users can open blank forms from the Forms list in the ProntoForms Mobile App.
- Inbox (Dispatched forms)
- Admins can dispatch a form to one or more mobile users. They can choose to prepopulate some of the answers to the form. Mobile users can access all forms dispatched to them from their Inbox in the ProntoForms Mobile App.
- Inbox and Forms Box
- Mobile users can open blank forms from the Forms list and dispatched forms from their Inbox.
Tip:Make sure that the Forms list or Inbox are enabled for your team.
If you allow users to access dispatched forms from their Inbox, you can also allow users to decline them. When a user declines a dispatch, the form submission status changes to Dispatch The term "dispatch" refers to the act of sending a form to a mobile user or customer. Typically, a dispatched form includes some information pre-filled to give the recipient context for the work to be done. Dispatch can be manual or automated (using a Dispatch Data Destination or the ProntoForms REST API). Declined.
Note:If you enable the ProntoForms Teamwork setting, users can’t decline dispatched forms.
Refresh on Form Open
Refresh on Form Open is an advanced form-level setting that activates a check for form and data freshness. When a field user or an App‑to‑App request opens the form, ProntoForms checks and updates the following types of data:
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The latest version of the form.
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Any Resource Images and Resource Documents used in the form.
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Data Source values from the most recent fetch.
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User lists for ProntoForms Teamwork-enabled forms that field users can transfer directly to another user.
Enforce a check for the latest form version and data. You can block or warn the user if the refresh can’t get the latest updates.
Use an App‑to‑App request to launch the ProntoForms Mobile App from a third-party app and enforce a check for form and data updates.
For Refresh on Form Open, remember that users must reconcile to get the form version that has this setting enabled. After that, the refresh action automatically checks for new form versions and data.
The following table describes the options you can choose if a refresh fails to complete.
Info:This feature is only available to Enterprise-tier customers. The topic Refresh on Form Open describes in detail how this option works.
Search Options
Users can search for submitted forms or incomplete ProntoForms Teamwork-enabled forms.
Info:You must Enable the Mobile Search feature at the team level to use this setting. The topic Enable the Mobile Search Feature on your Form describes the form-level setup in more detail.
Editing
You can allow Mobile App users to edit a form after it’s been submitted. You can also specify whether users can initiate editing for their own submissions, other users’ submissions, or both. Because you configure these options at the form level, you control which forms can be edited and who can initiate editing.
From the Web Portal, you can send a form for editing to the user who submitted the form or to a different user.
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If you enable Data Passthrough, you can’t send forms for editing.
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If you want users to initiate editing from the Sent or Search lists, make sure to enable these in the team-level settings.
Info:Unlike dispatched forms, forms sent for editing can’t be declined. The topic Editing Form Submissions describes how editing works in more detail.
ProntoForms Teamwork
The ProntoForms Teamwork feature supports team collaboration by enabling your mobile users to transfer forms between them. With the ProntoForms Teamwork feature, it's easy to implement a multi-user workflow.
Some jobs require more than one technician to complete an assignment. Your mobile workforce can submit incomplete forms for other team members to complete. Supervisors or team leads can track the work’s progress in the Web Portal and take action (unassign or reassign work) as needed.
Note: This feature supports consecutive workflows. Only one mobile device user at a time can “own” a form.
Tip: With any ProntoForms Teamwork configuration, supervisors can always unassign and reassign forms as needed.
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This feature is only available to Enterprise-tier customers.
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If you enable this setting, users can’t decline dispatched forms.
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The topic Steps to Enable ProntoForms Teamwork on a Form describes the ProntoForms Teamwork feature in more detail.
App‑to‑App Callbacks
App‑to‑App callback parameters define the data to send back to a third-party app on the user’s device. For example, your Field Service Management (FSM) app launches a ProntoForm that captures the job start date. You can configure a custom callback parameter to send the parameter name and value back to your FSM app.
Info:This feature is only available to Advanced and Enterprise-tier customers. The topic Configure App‑to‑App Custom Callback Parameters describes how App‑to‑App callbacks work in more detail.
Sent Box Options
The Sent box displays the user’s submitted forms. If you want users to have access to the Sent box, make sure you enable it in the team-level settings.
If you leave these fields blank, they default to 20 items and 7 days.
Note:This setting only affects the current form, not other submitted forms displayed in the Sent list.
Advanced Properties
Data Record Naming
A Data Record Naming A Data Record Naming expression provides a way to create a unique name for dispatched, saved, and submitted forms. The naming expression also applies to forms that a user saves as draft on their device. A customized name helps you and your mobile users quickly search for and identify forms. expression provides a way to create a unique name for dispatched, saved, and submitted forms. The naming expression also applies to forms that a user saves as draft on their device. A customized name helps you and your mobile users quickly search for and identify forms.
The system displays the unique, customized name at various stages of your workflow:
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Dispatched forms—in the Mobile App Inbox and in the ProntoForms Web Portal
The ProntoForms Web Portal is a web application used to manage security settings, forms, FormSpaces, other users, Data Sources, and Data Destinations.
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Saved forms—in the Mobile App Drafts
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Submitted forms—in the Mobile App Search, Outbox, and Sent lists and in the ProntoForms Web Portal
Data Record Naming does not affect the name of files sent through Data Destinations. The topic Change How Form Submissions Are Named and Organized in Cloud Services describes how to name files in Data Destinations.
Data Passthrough
Data Passthrough is a setting you can enable on a form when you don’t want the ProntoForms server to store your data. Use this feature when your organization’s security policies prohibit storing information on an external server.
The Data Passthrough setting deletes submitted data from the ProntoForms server 24 hours after submission. For this reason, any features that require data from a submitted form are not compatible with Data Passthrough.
Your form must have two different types of Data Destinations added. This ensures that you have a backup in case your main Data Destination fails.
Warning:If both of your Data Destinations fail, you will lose your data after 24 hours.
Info:The topic Enable Data Passthrough on Forms describes the Data Passthrough feature in more detail.
Advanced Options
The advanced options include geolocation and maximum submission size settings.
Note: The Collect geo location setting depends on the mobile device location settings. Location services must be enabled on the device for the system to capture the geolocation.
Info:The topic Geolocation Data describes in detail how the different geolocation options and questions work.
A smaller submission size optimizes performance and storage for forms that capture image files and minimizes the impact to data plan usage. We recommend a maximum of around 2.00 MB—the default value—for best performance on all devices.
Unique Reference Number
The Form Submission Reference Number is the ProntoForms unique identifier for a dispatched or submitted form. The Reference Number includes the dispatch or submission date (in UTC) and a form submission identifier. You can customize the Reference Number to work with your back-office systems and to provide context in lists of dispatches and submissions.
The following example shows the unique reference number displayed in the Web Portal.
You can customize the Reference Number by adding:
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A Reference Number Prefix—any string of text that helps to identify the form submission.
Note:Unlike Data Record Naming, which doesn’t affect the reference number, you cannot use a DREL
Data Reference Expression Language (DREL) is used to get form data and metadata and add it to a string, such as dates, usernames, or answers to questions in forms. expression in the prefix.
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The date and time of the dispatch or submission, displayed in UTC.
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The User ID of the user who submitted the form or was sent the dispatched form.
Info:The topic Find a User ID or Username describes how to find a User ID.