Field: General Settings
The General Settings tab allows to set a number of general Field settings. The different elements are grouped. Click on the titles to open or close the different groups. Based on the Type selection of a Field, more or less groups are shown. Specific groups for Specific Field types are listed is this manual.
- Type Of Field
- Other settings
Field Types
The General Field settings group will first ask for the Type of Field you want to add or edit:
SSP 7 supports multiple Field types to be used in Forms. This is the complete list, the following chapters highlight the different options per Field type:
Simple Fields
Date & Time Field : Same as a Date Field, but with added functionality to enter the correct time ( hours & minutes ).
Password Field: Same as a Text Field, but the entry is hidden.
Read Only Display Field: With this field information from the form or derived from information on the form can be displayed as read-only information. This functionality is especially useful to show a hidden datastore parameter value, that belongs to a selected value in an earlier question.
Header: This is a piece of text, that is inserted between Fields. Adding a Header allows for shorter forms, as only the first Header is shown by default. The others remain closed. Headers also help in organizing and structuring the Forms.
Tab : This field allows you to split the form in separate pages. tabs
Section: A Section is a group of Fields, that is optional. Based on Antecedents ( see Edit Form : Section ), this Section is shown or not.
Repeatable section buttons : Show the buttons when using repeatable sections. These buttons should be added to the repeated section, and allow users to add a new instance, copy or delete it. clip0241
Sub Form : Insert the fields of another Form into this Form. The fields are copied over when the user opens the base Form. When the linked Form is changed, the changes will also be shown to the User.
Static HTML (descriptions): This is a pure text field, with options to set text bold, italic, etc.
Hidden Field (default value) : This field is hidden for the User, and always has the same label and default value. Hidden fields can be used to send form specific information to a process shared by multiple forms, or to store values for dynamic list filtering.
Selection Fields
Selection Fields show a list of options, in different ways. The list is created as a Parameter in the DataStore. Selection Fields can show their values in different formats:
Cascading Drop downs: The same as Drop down, but multiple drop downs are defined. Based on the selection in the first drop down, the contents of the following drop down(s) is filtered.
Grid (multiple selection) : Shows a list of the values, similar to the Grid (single selection), the user can now select multiple values (by holding down SHIFT or CTRL). This method is not commonly known by end-users and should be avoided.
Other General Settings of a Field
The General Field settings group contains the following options for this Field:
Internal Label : the internal label of this field. This field is used when referencing to this field in the process and reporting. Spaces & special characters are not allowed, except for underscore '_'. It is allowed, but not recommended to give multiple fields the same internal label. If you do, please ensure that they are in sections that can not be activated at the same time.
Admin documentation : Enter any comments about the field here, that are useful for administrators or yourself. This information is shown in the Fields overview, but never to the end-users.
Section : if Sections are available in the selected Form, they are listed in the drop down box. When a Section is selected, the Field will be grouped under the Section. New Sections can be defined as discussed in the Sections topic.
Live on website: When this box is checked, the Form will be shown to the Users.
Required: When this box is checked, Users are required to fill in this field ( or make a selection ) in order to be able to submit the Request Form. For some Field types ( like Header or Section) this selection has no meaning and is disregarded.
Allow Sticky answers : When checked, the form will remember the last entry of the User. So when the same form is used at a later time, the previous answer will be filled in by default. This also applies to fields on other forms that make use of the same Internal Label.
Show On Overview : When checked, the field will not be included on the Review page, the [All Form Fields] variable and the Request details of the process page.
Encode HTML on Overview: When this option is checked, the contents (what the user entered) of this field get encoded, meaning that when it contains HTML or javascript, the pure source is shown, rather than interpretated. When not checked, the browser will execute the content of the field as HTML or javascript. Your safest option is to check this field, which avoids the risk that someone enters a javascript source in a text area field that may cause security issues.
Searchable via Search Tickets : When checked, this field is available to be searched on the Advanced Search panel.
Value under label : When checked, the question and answer box are displayed underneath each other.
Read Only : when checked, this field is not editable by the end-user. For some field types, like 'read-only display'-field, this is always the case and this option is greyed out.
Hidden : when checked, this field is not visible by the end-user. For some field types, like 'hidden'-field, this is always the case and this option is greyed out.
Location : Select here where the field should be displayed on the form. Please note that the option selected here, may have impact on the location of other questions. There are 3 possible options to position a field: Under previous field (default): With this option selected, the field will be displayed at the same level as the question prior to the current field. Please note that this may also be a question within a section, even if the 2 questions are not located in that same section.
Right of the previous field (under last table split): With this option selected, the question is displayed at the right of the last question that started a new table. By default the first form field starts a new table and headers start a new table. By choosing the option "On New line under previous field" a new table can be enforced manually. Please note that the previous field may also be located within a section, even if the 2 questions are not located in that same section.
On New line under previous field, creating a table split: With this option a table split can be enforced and all indents that may have occurred through the setting of fields at the right of other fields is reset by this. The next question that is placed right of previous field, will be displayed next to the last question with this option (with the exception of header, which also cause a table split).
Label Column Class: If you want to use a different CSS class for the Label, enter it here. Classes need to be available in the customer.css
Value Column Class: If you want to use a different CSS class for the input part of the field, enter it here. Classes need to be available in the customer.css
Current Icon : Fields can have an icon linked, which will be displayed under the question or within the header bar. There is no sizing done on the icons, so take care in which resolutions the icons are loaded. Icons can only be added to fields after it has been saved once.
Translations
The General Settings tab allows to set a number of general Field settings. The different elements are grouped. Click on the titles to open or close the different groups. Based on the Type selection of a Field, more or less groups are shown. Specific groups for Specific Field types are listed is this manual. The Translations group contains the following options:
Label English : Enter the Label for the Field. This text appears in the first column, before the actual Field. This label can contain a calculation, if they do, please check this box. Additionally, you can choose to hide any errors resulting from these calculations, by checking the box 'Hide calculation info from users'. More information on calculations can be found on the wiki : http://wiki3.smt-x.com/index.php?title=AllFunctions
Options:
Person Field: Any information from the Requestor or the Requested For can be selected. These fields are defined under Admin > Adapters > Person Data.
Form Field: The drop down list shows all questions. By selecting a question, all fields of the parameter become available. The selected column will be used as default answer of the current question.
Main/Sub Form Field: When Subforms are used in a form, use this option to select it, and see the Fields belonging to it. This can be used both when defining the main form, as well as the sub form.
Base Form Field : When a form is used in a process, you might want to use a field from the form that was used to start the process. This is where you can select those fields.
Process Instance Variable: when a form is used in a process, you have access to the Variables that are defined in that process. Select the process and the variables are presented for selection.
Repeatable section index : when using repeated sections, you might want to know the sequence number of that section. use this option to implement it in your form (for example to show the number of entries).
Dynamic Answer English: Enter the default answer, which is pre-filled in the field. This is not a required field. The contents of this field changes per Field Type. We refer to the different Field Types for a detailed explanation on these differences. This box can contain a calculation, if they do, please check this box. Additionally, you can choose to hide any errors resulting from these calculations, by checking the box 'Hide calculation info from users'. More information on calculations can be found on the wiki : http://wiki3.smt-x.com/index.php?title=AllFunctions
Options:
Person Field: Any information from the Requestor or the Requested For can be selected. These fields are defined under Admin > Adapters > Person Data.
Form Field: The drop down list shows all questions. By selecting a question, all fields of the parameter become available. The selected column will be used as default answer of the current question.
Main/Sub Form Field: When Subforms are used in a form, use this option to select it, and see the Fields belonging to it. This can be used both when defining the main form, as well as the sub form.
Base Form Field : When a form is used in a process, you might want to use a field from the form that was used to start the process. This is where you can select those fields.
Process Instance Variable: when a form is used in a process, you have access to the Variables that are defined in that process. Select the process and the variables are presented for selection.
Repeatable section index : when using repeated sections, you might want to know the sequence number of that section. use this option to implement it in your form (for example to show the number of entries).
Helptext English : Enter the Support text for the User. When this field is filled in, a 'Help' icon will appear next to the label, and will show the text on mouse-over. This field supports HTML tags
Label, Default answer, Helptext & Suffix Français : Enter the French texts here. If left empty, the text of the default language will be shown. More or fewer language input sets ( Title & Description) can be shown, depending on the number of preset languages for SSP 7.
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