Managing Fields on Form Templates

The Form Templates are at the heart of EdSmart. You can have as many templates as you like, and completely customise the fields on the Form to your requirements. This article describes the many field variations and options available to you.

There are 12 types of fields available:

1. Human Body - a human body outline, front and back views.
2. Long Description - a mini word processor where you can style the font, size and colour of the text, embed URL links, or just paste it in from another document.
3. Text Field - a single line text field.
4. CheckBox List - a group of one or more checkboxes, where the user can select one or more of the options. You can have as many options as you wish.
5. Option List - a drop-down list of one or more options, where the user can select one option. Like the checkboxes, you can have as many options as you like.
6. Read Only Text Block - a large formatted text field that will display as read-only text to users, great for explanatory text, notes, instructions and other information.
7. Date Field - select a date from a calendar (day, month and year).
8. Venue Address - these work just like a normal Text Field but, if you enter a valid address, a Google Map will be created and displayed in the Form.
9. File Upload (Parent/Student Slips Only) - this field allows Parents/Students to upload attachments to Slips before submitting the Form.
10. Student Attribute Field - user-defined fields of information you wish to maintain about a Student.
11. Contact Attribute Field - user-defined fields of information you wish to maintain about a Contact.
12. User Attribute Field - user-defined fields of information you wish to maintain about a User.

There are different fields, and different numbers of each field available, depending on whether you are in the School section or the Parent/Student section of your Form design. All of the field types, except for the Human Body and Attributes, allow for additional customisation. For example, when you edit a Venue Address or Text Field you will find a number of options:

Field Name

The label that will be displayed for this field on the Form

Field Group

You can group fields into sections, and lock/unlock those fields as the Form moves through the Workflow.

Field Required?

Is the user required to enter a value in this field? This applies to both School and Parent/Student fields.

Field Visible?

The default is Visible, but this allows you to Configure a field in your Form to only become visible if certain conditions are met. It also allows you to carry information in your Form that does not need to be visible, such as fields used to hold Calculation values or to trigger other Forms in a Process.

Read Only Label

Is this a Read Only field? This means the actual field will not be displayed, and instead, the Field Name text will display read-only. It's a great way to display a piece of text amongst the fields on your Form. Read Only Text Blocks are read-only by default.

Default Value

If you are working with a Text Field you can enter a line of text that will be pre-filled to that field when the user opens the Form. For Option Lists and CheckBox Lists, you can select the option(s) you wish to be selected by default when the user opens the Form.

Validate value?

Here you are able to specify what type of data should be entered into the field. There are 11 options including email, address, number and time formats. The default is No Validation.

In addition, some field types (Read Only Text Block, Long Description, Option List or CheckBox List with Enable 'Other' field selected), allow you to change the formatting (font, size, colour, background) of the text you enter.

School Fields

Fields available (number available)

• Human Body (x1)
• Long Description (x12)
• Text Field (x58)
• CheckBox List (x30)
• Option List (x36)
• Read Only Text Block (x25)
• Date Field (x10)
• Venue Address (x6)
• User Attribute (set by School)

Parent/Student Fields

General Fields available (number available)

• Long Description (x8)
• Text Field (x47)
• CheckBox List (x16)
• Option List (x66)
• Read Only Text Block (x15)
• Date Field (x10)
• File Upload (x1)
• Student Attribute (set by School)
• Contact Attribute (set by School)

Parent/Student fields are very similar to School fields, but you have an additional option for Default.

The Default has two choices:

1. Enter value

This is the same as for School fields, you can either enter or select the default value.

2. Use last value entered by parent

In this case, if a Parent has filled out this Form once before, and is now completing a new one, the values they entered last time will be pre-filled by default. This is obviously a huge time saver if the Parent does not need to re-type all the responses, but instead simply checks over the information and makes any necessary changes.

More articles in this category:

• Building a Slip Template in EdSmart
• Creating a Form Template
• Designing a Form Template
• Improvements to Form Designer
• Adding an Approval Workflow to a Form Template
• Managing Fields on Form Templates
• Lock and Unlock Fields on Form Workflows
• Managing your Form Template Workflows
• Conditional Workflows
• Allow parents to create multiple forms of the same type
• Form Template Categories - how to create and edit
• Parent Initiated Form (PIF) - Form Template Packets
• Form Template Library
• Duplicate a Form Template
• Process Module
• Send a School Form to Staff
• School Form for Student and Parent Response
• Workflow scenarios for School Form for Student with Parent Response
• Field Configurations in Template Designer
• Validate Feature to enter and capture correct data
• Add a Web Page Link in a Long Description Field
• Parent Slip File Uploads
• Create Slips from the Form Templates page
• How To Create a Form With a Notification That Is Sent To The Form Creator On Behalf Of The User.
• Assign User Groups to Workflow Steps
• Streamlining Template Creation with Default Approval Workflows