Question Type: Text Field
Contents
About
The Text Field is one of the most common question types, and the most flexible in what it can collect. You can use it to collect contact information for a person who does not yet exist in your back-office system, for a customer's email address (so that you can email them a copy of the form submission later), numeric quantities, or numeric readings about an asset.
If you're looking for something to hold larger blocks of text, use the Text Area question type.
An example of a Text Field on an iOS device is shown below:
Form Builder
In the Form Builder, the Text Field question appears as shown below:
The Question Edit screen for the Text Field has three tabs: General, Properties, and Help Options Help Options are ways to add help content, such as YouTube videos, web pages, text, or images, to questions in a form. Mobile users simply tap the help icon next to a question to see the help that the form designer provided.. This article will go through each of the tabs.
General
Unique ID
The Unique ID A Unique ID refers to the specific identifier of a question, form page, form section, or Data Destination. Unique IDs are used as reference points when pulling data for conditional logic, Analytics projects, Data Destinations, and Documents. is the reference for the question. For more information on Unique IDs, read: Overview: Unique IDs. It can either be auto-generated based on the question text, or customized.
Data Types
Data Types are the kind of information your mobile users will be putting into these questions. Setting a data type forces users to enter the kind of information you want in the correct format. This also ensures that the entered data can be used elsewhere in your business process, whether that's by other questions in the form, or in a data destination.
The Text Field supports the following data types:
Free Text | URL | Phone Number | Integer | Decimal | Currency | ||
Text Field | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
- Free Text: This data type can collect anything text, or a mixture of text and numbers, e.g., postal codes or addresses.
- Email: Use this data type if collecting an email address that you need to send an email to with an Email Data Destination.
- Integer, Decimal, and Currency: Use one of these data types if the answer needs to be used in a calculation or aggregation later in the form.
- Make sure your Data Type reflects what kind of information your mobile users will be entering. A lot of Data Destinations 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. (such as Salesforce or SharePoint List, for example) are extremely picky about data types; fields in those systems may require that you send a numeric data type.
Restrictions
Restrictions control how your mobile users interact with a question. They can be set on the question itself or controlled by Conditional Logic.
The following table shows which restrictions you can set for the question type. Note that:
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✓ indicates a restriction that you can configure.
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✓* indicates a restriction that is always on.
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✘* indicates a restriction that is always off.
Required | Read-Only | Hidden on Device | Hidden on Reports |
Keep question width to 100% |
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Text Field | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Properties
Properties allow you to set up your question in various ways. The Question Properties enable you to apply a validation rule and a default value. You can also apply the Router Setup property to parse and route data to other subsequent questions.
Question Properties
Question Properties change depending on the data type chosen.
Free Text | Email/URL/Phone Number | Integer/Decimal/Currency |
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Help Options
Adding "Help" content to forms gives mobile users access to support and other resources out in the field. Help content is available to users through a button embedded beside a question. Any question in the form can include a link to YouTube videos, web pages, or work instructions.
For more information on Help Content, please read:Add Help Options to Questions
Router Setup
The Router Setup property is a question property available for Text Field, Text Area, File Upload, and Barcode Scanner question types. You can use the Router Setup to parse (subdivide) long strings of data captured by a question—such as from a barcode scan—into smaller substrings. You can then push the substrings to subsequent questions in your form.
You can use the Router Setup property to route data from Text Field questions (source questions) to the supported target question types.