Set Up Form Properties

This topic describes the Form Builder The Form Builder is the tool that form designers use to create forms. In the Form Builder, accessed from the TrueContext Web Portal, form designers can add and edit pages, sections, and questions, as well as attach data destinations and configure the form's settings. 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.

Available on all tiers, with more options on the Advanced and Enterprise tiers:

Contents

• Set Up Form Properties
  • Form Builder Settings page
  • Form Information
  • Mobile App Settings
  • Exception Categories
  • Documents
  • Workflow Settings
  • Advanced Properties

Form Builder Settings page

To set up the properties of a specific form:

1. Forms & Integrations > Form Name > Edit Form

   or

   Forms & Integrations > Create New Form, select the form type, and then enter the form name and description.

   Tip:The Summary Page Options view displays the description in the Mobile App.

2. 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

Form Name

A name that clearly identifies the form, such as Vehicle Inspection.

Note: Changes to the Form Name could affect Documents and 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.. 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.

Form Description

Enter a short description of your form for future reference. The description also displays on the Summary page of the Mobile App.

Tags

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.

Languages

Available as an add-on to the Advanced and Enterprise tiers:

If your team has the Multi-Language Forms add-on, you can add up to ten languages.

Info:The topic Set Up a Multi-Language Form provides detailed steps to set up multiple languages.

Info:The Multi-Language feature does not include app framework content (navigation, action buttons, and error messages, for example). This content is translated based on the user’s device locale, as described in the topic Language Settings and Translations.

Mobile App Settings

The Mobile App Settings control how Mobile App users navigate through the form and whether they can access a summary view. They also control whether they can store images locally on their devices.

Form Options

Form Options control form navigation.

Navigation index

The navigation index is a list of the pages in a multi-page form.

• 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.

• 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.

Summary Page Options

Users can access a Summary Page to review their answers before they submit the form.

The Summary Page:

• Helps field users to confirm that they’ve entered all data correctly.

• 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:If you want to limit access to sensitive data, clear the option to allow users to share the Summary Page. They won’t be able to print the summary or share by text or email.

Image Options

Image options control whether field users can save photos taken in the TrueContext Mobile App to their device.

Exception Categories

Available on the Advanced and Enterprise tiers:

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 TrueContext 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, TrueContext Teamwork TrueContext 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 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 Mobile App.

Info:If you're on the Enterprise tier, you can dispatch a record to a user, a group, or to all groups in a FormSpace FormSpaces are where forms are stored and organized in the TrueContext Web Portal. A TrueContext Team may have multiple FormSpaces, depending on their needs. Admins can set FormSpace permissions to control which users have access to the forms in that FormSpace.. Mobile users can claim records from the Group Inbox. Once a user claims a record, it moves to their Inbox. The topic Set up Group Dispatching describes all of the required settings.

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 TrueContext REST API). Declined.

Note:If you enable the TrueContext Teamwork setting, users can’t decline dispatched forms.

Refresh on Form Open

Available on the Enterprise tier only:

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, TrueContext checks and updates the following types of data:

• The latest version of the form.

• Any Resource Images and Resource Documents used in the form.

• Data Source values from the most recent fetch.

• User lists for TrueContext Teamwork-enabled forms that field users can transfer directly to another user.

The following table describes the options you can choose if a refresh fails to complete.

Form setup	Description	Reason for failed refresh	Alert displayed on the Mobile App
Ignore	Least restrictive, field users can open and work on the form. Users can work without interruption but might not have the latest form version and data.	Device is offline	None
		Network or system error	None
Warn	More restrictive, notifies the field user that their form and data might not be up-to-date. Users can decide whether to proceed without the latest form version and data.	Device is offline
		Network or system error
Block	Most restrictive, user must refresh before they can start work on the form. Ensures that the form version and data are up-to-date before the user starts work. If the system can’t perform the data freshness check or updates, it blocks the user, even if their data is up-to-date. Warning: This option prevents field users from starting work if the data freshness check or updates fail. Use this option only when you know that field users will be online when they open the form.	Device is offline
		Network or system error

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

Available on the Advanced and Enterprise tiers:

Users can search for submitted forms or incomplete TrueContext Teamwork-enabled forms.

Editing

Available on the Advanced and Enterprise tiers:

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.

Info:Unlike dispatched forms, forms sent for editing can’t be declined. The topic Editing Form Submissions describes how editing works in more detail.

TrueContext Teamwork

Available on the Enterprise tier only:

The TrueContext Teamwork feature supports team collaboration by enabling your mobile users to transfer forms between them. With the TrueContext 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 assign work) as needed.

Note: This feature supports consecutive workflows. Only one mobile device user at a time can be assigned to a form.

Tip: With any TrueContext Teamwork configuration, supervisors can always unassign and assign forms as needed.

App‑to‑App Callbacks

Available on the Advanced and Enterprise tiers:

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 form 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

Sent Box Options control whether a mobile user can view submitted records in the Sent box. You can also set the number of records the Sent box stores and how long a record stays in the Sent box.

Remember to switch on the Sent box in the team settings if you want users to access their submitted records. The topic Team Settings: Mobile Device Settings describes how to select the tabs that display for your team on the Mobile App.

By default, the Sent box stores 20 records per form for seven days. You can change those values to store a maximum of 250 records per form for up to 45 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:

• Dispatched forms—in the Mobile App Inbox and in the TrueContext Web Portal The TrueContext Web Portal is a web application used to manage security settings, forms, FormSpaces, other users, Data Sources, and Data Destinations.

• Saved forms—in the Mobile App Drafts

• Submitted forms—in the Mobile App Search, Outbox, and Sent lists and in the TrueContext Web Portal

Data Passthrough

Data Passthrough is a setting you can enable on a form when you don’t want the TrueContext 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 TrueContext 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 TrueContext 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:

• 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.

• The date and time of the dispatch or submission, displayed in UTC.

• 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.

Related topics

• Form Building Basics
• Form Builder Icon Glossary
• Question and Data Types in the Form Builder