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 comes with a built-in submissions repository. The repository can run on top of most SQL databases. By default, your form data is stored in the repository and can be viewed from the Submissions page. Fields in your form/workflow, set up as Searchable fields by the designer, can be used as criteria when searching submissions. You can also filter by default fields such as error, error description, submitter id, lock user id, started date, etc. The Insight Server and the Insight service must be running for the Submission view to work.

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Warning
  • The Export of submissions to Excel feature has been replaced by Download to CSVYou can still use the Export to Excel feature by accessing it from the Submissions Legacy view. However, the Legacy Submissions view and the Export to Excel may be removed in a future release.
  • Customers running with Confluence will not see the legacy submissions view from the Confluence Screen. It is only available when you log into your Confluence tenant.

Accessing Submissions

To access submissions for a particular form/workflow, the designer who created the form (owner) navigates to the Forms and Workflows Home Page and clicks the  Submissions icon for that form or workflow. The designer can grant permission to view/edit submissions to other designers and non-designer users/roles via the Access Control feature. Non-designers granted view/edit permissions, access submissions from the Shared Items tab.

A Shared Items link is added to newly created Spaces automatically and can be added to existing spaces.

Searchable Fields

Searchable fields can be used as search criteria for submissions and tasks. They also define the fields that will be displayed and exported in the export to a csv file. Once defined,  can also go back and re-index your existing submissions so you can search them using the same fields.

Submissions View

When you click the Submissions icon a Submissions view consisting of two sections displays:

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Initially, the Submissions Filter section is collapsed. Click on the blue arrow to expand it.

Submissions Filter

The Submissions filter section contains:

  • Section A - From Date and To Date fields to specify a date range.
  • Section B - Check the status of the submissions you are searching for
  • Other Filter Items section - setup your search criteria, including the capability to edit the logical expression used as the search criteria.
  • Reset button - To start over with a new set of filter criteria, click the Reset button. This will clear all criteria, including the from/to dates, state and all rows of the other filter items.



    When the expression or any of the sub-expressions change in any way, the submissions query is automatically re-run and the results are updated in the Submissions Table.

Submission From Date and To Date

The two date controls specify the time period for the submissions you see. The dates default to the current date and one month earlier, so you see one month of submission results when the Submissions page first displays.  Adjust the dates if you want a shorter or longer time period.

Submission Status

The Submissions table will show submissions in the following states: SUBMITTED, SAVED  PENDING, ABORTED, ERROR and WAITING. Simply check the appropriate check box in the State section. For example, It would be easy for a manager to check  the current status of Expense Report approvals by checking one or all the submission types in the State box. The Submission Table dynamically changes as the submission state choices are checked/unchecked.

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  1. SAVED/PENDING: This will give you all the tasks which are saved or pending. This helps when you want to see all open tasks for a certain form/workflow
  2. SAVED: This will return only those tasks which were created when users clicked the Save button on the form/workflow to save their partially filled forms
  3. PENDING: This will return all tasks which are pending, meaning someone else put these tasks in the users task list
  4. SUBMITTED: This will return all tasks which are completed, i.e. the form/workflow for which this task was created has been submitted
  5. ABORTED: This will return all the tasks that were deleted/aborted so the form/workflow never got submitted
  6. WAITING: The WAITING status can be used to find workflow tasks that have an Email or HTTP activity. A submission will show a state of WAITING  when a workflow is routed to an anonymous user and the workflow is suspended until the this step is completed.

Choose Search Criteria from Form/Workflow Data

The Other Filter Items section describes the conditions that submissions must match in order to be included in the Submission Table. Here is how the grid works:

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Let's take a closer look at the columns in the Other Filter Items grid.

Field Column

The Field column includes a dropdown where you can select any fields that were specified in the Searchable fields wizard in your form/workflow or you can choose from default columns that are available across all form and workflow types. 

Expand
titleClick here for a list of the default columns

Default Columns


Description
Submitted DateTime/Date of the submission. Also The Submitted Date is 'A' in the Submission Filter.
ErrorShown as a yellow triangle if the there is a submission error.
StateSubmission status: SUBMITTED, PENDING, ABORTED, SAVED, ERROR WAITING. This column displays the submission types selected in the State section. The submission status is 'B' in the submission filter.
Submitter IdID of the last submitting user.
Submitter NameThe first and last name of the user who submitted the form/workflow.
Lock User IdIf the submission is currently locked (and not SUBMITTED), this is the user id of the user who has it locked.
Lock DateDate and time a workflow last locked.
Lock User NameIf the submission is currently locked (and not SUBMITTED), this is the first and Last name of the user who has it locked.
Started DateDate and time a form/workflow first started.
Age/DurationFor completed submissions (State=Submitted) this is the time interval for how long it was in process - from the first incomplete submission (Pending, saved, etc.) until it reached SUBMITTED status. If the submission is currently incomplete (i.e. SAVED, PENDING or WAITING), then the time interval shows how long has it been in process so far (Age).
Error DescriptionDescriptive text about a submission error.

Condition Column

The Condition column choices depend on the data type of the selected field. Click below to see a list of the data types and their corresponding options.

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Section
Column

Condition Choices when a Date field is selected from the Fields list.

Column

Condition Choices when ProjectName, a text field in the Expense Report workflow, is selected from the Fields list.

Value Column

The values entered into the Value Column depend on the field type and also sometimes upon the condition chosen. Click below to see a table of the allowed values for Field Type(s) and conditions. The Values column is not case-sensitive, so entering "apple," "Apple," or "APPLE" will return the same list of results that contain those letters either upper- or lower-case.

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Info

A Date/Time field with the "is within last" condition selected, requires a special time duration entry. The duration must be entered in this format: Years:Months:Days:Hours:Minutes. Fields to the left may be omitted. For example, if you were searching for submissions that were submitted within the last 2 hours you can enter 02:00 or as 2:0. To search for submissions created within the last 2 months and 12 days, enter 02:12:00:00.

If you enter an invalid value, an error will display with instructions: 

Editing the Logical Expression

If you want to modify the logical expression, click the Edit button. The logic expression becomes editable.

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Upon selecting the Save button, the logic expression is parsed for correctness. If there is any parsing failure, an error message describing the failure is displayed and the screen remains in edit mode. If there is no error, then the screen returns to read-only mode.

Recap

In summary, let's say Jerry, a manager wants to create a submission query to check the status of all Expense Reports for Sales Demonstrations performed by the Sales department within the last month:

  • Make sure you have a field in your Expense Report to specify the Project Name - for example, a dropdown with Infrastructure, Sales Demonstration and Customer Meeting options.
  • Make sure Jerry has been granted permission to view submissions in the Access Control List for the Expense Report workflow.
  • Create a Space and distribute the link to the Space to Jerry
  • Jerry access the Space and logs into .
  • Jerry clicks on the Important Items tab in the space.
  • Jerry clicks on the Shared Items tab.
  • Jerry clicks the Submissions tab for the Expense Report workflow.



  • On the Submission Filter screen, Jerry selects:
    • The Project Name field from the Fields dropdown
    • The contains condition from the Condition dropdown.
    • Types "Sales Demonstration" in the Value column.
    • In the Submission Table, Jerry can quickly see that Ricard Walker has saved an Expense Report for a Sales Demonstration to his Task List, Maria Myers has an Expense Report for a Sales Demonstration pending approval and an Expense Report for a Sales Demonstration was completed for Deborah Morris.

Submissions Table

Submissions matching the submission filter are displayed in the Submissions table. The table has the following features and behaviors:

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Expand
titleClick here for a list of the buttons on the Submission Table and their functions

Action Button


PurposeSubmissions SelectedBehavior/Description
RefreshRefresh the submission pageN/ARe-runs the query using the filter and re-loads the current page of data. Not often needed as most changes and actions automatically refresh the results table as needed.
View/EditView or edit submission detailsOne must be selectedThis action is disabled unless one and only one submission row is selected. Double-clicking a row (desktop only) displays the submission details.
DeleteDelete Submission(s)One or more must be selected.Only enabled when one or more submissions is selected. The user is prompted with an ok/cancel dialog to make sure they want to delete the selected submissions. If ok/yes, the submissions are deleted and the filter re-run and the page of data refreshed. Only submissions in the SUBMITTED, ABORTED or ERROR state may be deleted.
DownloadDownload to CSV fileN/ADownloads a CSV data file containing rows for all of the matching submission records with all columns included. This csv file can easily be uploaded to Excel.
ColumnsShow/hide table columnsN/AUsed to show/hide columns in the  Submission Table. See below for the details.

Submission Table Columns

The Submission Table displays all of the default columns plus columns for Searchable fields configured by the form/workflow designer. Click below for a list and description of the default columns.

Default Columns

The table list the describes the default columns that appear in the Submission Table. You cannot change the order of the default columns but you can Show or Hide them in the Submission Table.

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This image shows a PENDING submission for a Purchase Order workflow. The first step of the workflow was submitted by a designer user (Submitter ID), Giorgio Armani (Submitter Name). It is currently pending approval by his manager, Jerry Mouse (Lock User Name). Jerry's user id is jerry (Lock User ID).

Searchable Field Columns

In addition to the default columns, the Submission Table contains columns for each searchable field setup for the form/workflow. Notice the Report Date, Project Name, Employee Name, Reviewer, Expenses Approved, Paid On Date and Check in the Expense Report workflow submission shown in the image. These columns are generated by fields in the workflow configured as Searchable fields.


You can change the order of the Searchable Field columns by moving field positions in the Searchable Fields wizard. The changes will not reflect in the Submission Table until a new submission is created or existing submissions are resubmitted.

Show/Hide Columns

Clicking the Columns button in the Submission Table, allows the user to toggle the visibility of each table column. Initially, all columns are visible indicated by displaying their respective button in yellow. You will see the default columns and columns for each of the Searchable fields defined in the form/workflow.

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Once you select your columns, the modified column view displays until you go back to the Forms and Workflows Homepage. If you redisplay the submissions, the original column view displays. If you use your computer function key to refresh the screen, the original column view displays. Use the Refresh button on the Submissions Table if you require a refresh.

Submissions Detail

When you click the  Submissions icon, you will see submissions for the previous month for that form/workflow. Notice the View/Edit and Delete submission buttons are greyed out. Checking the checkbox preceding the submission in the table enables these buttons.

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  • The Data Tab shows the user’s view of the data. This means for money controls you’ll see dollar signs, decimals and commas, for example. The Label column corresponds to the labels on your form, and the Value column shows you what the user entered in each control. This tab is view-only; you cannot edit any data shown here. This tab displays only form fields setup as Saved Fields in the form designer. If you do not see a specific form field then go back and edit this form to add the field to the Saved Fields tab.

    Warning

    Remember that Saved Fields are only used if you want to Export your submissions to Excel. This feature is only available from the Legacy submission view. The Export of submissions to Excel feature has been replaced by Download to CSVYou can still use the Export to Excel feature by accessing it from the Submissions Legacy view. However, the Legacy Submissions view and the Export to Excel may be removed in a future release.

  • The Signature Tab shows you all the users that signed the form using ' wet and digital signature features.
  • The Documents Tab shows you the exact XML document that was generated when the form was submitted.

Viewing Attachments & PDF Images

Scroll to the bottom of the Data Tab to see all attachments uploaded to the form submission. If you selected Save PDF for this form in the form designer, you will also see an attachment named <form name>.pdf. This is an image of your form exactly how the user saw it when they filled it in and submitted it to you. Remember, decorators and placeholders do not appear in PDF's. The image below also shows W4-pdf and I-9.pdf attachments. These are additional Pixel Perfect PDFs generated for the Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate and the Employment Eligibility Verification federal forms. Click the links on the Data Tab to view the PDFs or attachments.

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The File Name property allows the designer to rename attachments uploaded using the Upload Control.

Viewing XML Documents

 always stores your form data as XML documents. To view the XML data, click the Documents tab in the Submission Details panel.

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Most business users can safely ignore the xml, but it can be helpful when debugging a form and when integrating with another entity such as a database.

Submission Errors

If your submission has an error, you'll see an icon  in the Error column in the submissions list.You can get more information about the error in two ways:

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Reports will show the message "No data available in table". Once the Insight server is restarted, the submissions will show in the Recent Submissions report and submissions will redisplay reporting the error. Remember, the Error Description column is the last default column in the Submission table.

Editing Submissions

Only submissions in the SUBMITTED state can be edited. If you have the correct permissions, submissions can be edited easily by clicking the form name rendered as a clickable URL on the submission. In this image below click on "Product Order Form" to edit the submission.

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Cloud users can edit submissions by default. In-house customers can turn off the edit link for all users by modifying the frevvo.submission.edit.link configuration property in the <frevvo-home>/WEB-INF/web.xml or the <frevvo-home>/tomcat/conf/catalina/localhost/frevvo.xml files.

Restarting a Workflow

To restart a workflow that has already been submitted:

  1. Logged into frevvo as the flow/form designer user and edit the submission.

  2. Once you have the submission open, click the "Save" button. This will save it to your (workflow designer's) task list.

  3. Go to your task list and click "Modify this Task."

  4. Select the first step of the workflow.

Instantiate Older Submissions

This submission view does not expose the submission id. The submission id is needed in order to instantiate a form/workflow from a submission. You will need to use the submission legacy view to collect the submission id for a submission. Refer to the Instantiate Older Submissions on the Submissions Stored Inside of Live Forms - Legacy View page for the details.

Sorting Submission Results

Columns in the Submission Table that are sortable display the up and down arrow icon in the column header. Clicking on the up section of the arrow icon in one column sorts all the columns in the table in the ascending direction. Clicking on the down section of the arrow icon in the column header in one column sorts all the columns in the table in the descending direction. This icon can also be used to toggle the sort direction. Submitter Name, Lock User Name and Age/Duration columns are not sortable.

At any time as a shortcut you also can click anywhere inside the column header to toggle the sort of the results in ascending or descending order.



Changing the sort of a column from a submission table page > 1, goes back to page when when displaying the results. This is as designed.

Deleting Submissions

The ability to delete submissions from the Submissions Table depends on your role, assigned Access Control permissions and the type of submission.

Who Can Delete submissions

The form/workflow owner ( the designer who created the form/workflow) and any user given the Edit Submission permission by the designer, can delete submissions in the SUBMITTED, ABORTED and ERROR states.

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The ability to delete PENDING, SAVED or WAITING states is not available in the Legacy Submissions View

How do you Delete Submissions

The Delete button is only enabled when one or more submissions is selected. The user is prompted with an ok/cancel dialog to confirm deletion of the selected submissions. If ok/yes, the submissions are deleted, the filter re-runs and the Submission Table is refreshed.

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A successful deletion displays the following:

Download Submissions to CSV file

Warning
The Export of submissions to Excel feature has been replaced by Download to CSV. You can still use the Export to Excel feature by accessing it from the Submissions Legacy view. However, the Legacy Submissions view and the Export to Excel may be removed in a future release.

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  1. Perform the submission query so the data that you to download displays in the table. The default columns in the submission table appear in the spreadsheet even if you are not displaying them in the table. Hide the columns in Excel if you do not want to display them in your spreadsheet.
  2. Click the Download button to save the csv file.
  3. Open the file in Microsoft Excel.
  4. Show/Hide columns in the spreadsheet if desired.

Switching from Export to Excel to CSV Download

  1. Cloud Customers:

    1. The maximum number of Searchable fields is 20 per form/workflow. 

    2. Edit each form/workflow where Export to Excel is configured
      1. Click the Setup Searchable Fields link

      2. Click the Saved Fields tab and review the fields previously set up as Saved Fields

      3. Click the Searchable Fields tab and add every field into the Searchable Field list that was in the Saved Fields list

      4. Save your changes

    3. Email support@frevvo.com to request that the Refresh Searchable Items  process be run on your tenant if you want to update older submissions with the changes.

  2. In-house Customers:
    1. If you have forms/workflows exporting more than 20 fields to Excel, add the frevvo.max.searchable.fields parameter to the frevvo.xml file

      1. Change the value to the number of searchable fields that you want.

    2. Edit each form/workflow where Export to Excel is configured

      1. Click the Setup Searchable Fields link

      2. Click the Saved Fields tab and review the fields previously set up as Saved Fields

      3. Click the Searchable Fields tab and add every field into the Searchable Field list that was in the Saved Fields list

      4. Save your changes

    1. Manually run the Refresh Searchable Items process if you want to update older submissions with the changes.

     

Changing the Column Order in the CSV file.

To change the order of the columns created from the Searchable fields in your form/workflows:

  1. Change the order on the Searchable fields tab using the setup wizard
  2. Create a new submission to reflect the new column order in the Submissions Table.
  3. The csv file will reflect the new column order.

Repeating Data

Forms containing repeat controls designated as Searchable Fields generate comma separated data in a single row in the exported csv file.

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Section
Column
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Airline Reservation Form with a Table Control

Column
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Airline Reservation Form Submission View

Column
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CSV Download for the Airline Reservation Form with a Table control

Date and Time Controls exported to the csv file

Date controls are stored in the XML document in the YYYY-MM-DD format. Time controls are NOT converted to UTC in the XML document. Date/Time values are converted to the XML standard YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ.

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Even though the Data and Time fields are stored in the xml as shown above, when you export the submissions, Date,Time and Date/Time controls are displayed in UTC in the csv file and in Excel. Note the -05:00 indicates Eastern Standard Time while the -04:00 represents Daylight Savings Time.

Numbers or Text Controls with Leading Zeros

When you open a csv file in Excel, number or text control submissions that contain leading 0's will have the leading zero removed. For example a zip code entered "06405",

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This happens because Excel makes assumptions about the way imported data should be formatted; usually leading zeros are mathematically insignificant, so they are removed. You can keep the leading zeros in CSV files by using Excel's Text Import Wizard. (These instructions may vary based on your Excel version.)

  1. Launch Excel Spreadsheet. Click the Data tab. 
  2. Click the From Text/CSV icon. Use the file manager to locate the CSV file you want import.

  3. Click Import.

  4. Select Comma from the Delimiter dropdown. 
  5. Click Transform Data.

  6. Select the column(s) that contains the data with leading zeros. Change the Data Type to "Text". The preview will refresh to show your data with leading zeros.

  7. Click Close & Load.

Submissions View on Mobile Devices

The Submission view screen is designed to be responsive to different screen sizes. You will notice a different layout for small screens (< 640px) such as the iPhone.

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Info

Viewing submissions from the Shared Items tab (inside or outside of a space) on an IOS device (iPad,iPhone), may require an application to edit and save Excel.xls files. This requirement is browser specific.

Processing submission data using the frevvo API

 provides a complete API for interacting with the system. Using the API, you can query submissions, download submission PDF/XML etc. Using the API is documented in its own Tutorial.

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