The palette offers a rich variety of controls that let you create virtually any form. All controls provide functionality as soon as you drop them into your form and can be customized to suit the form you are designing. The purpose of each control is described below.
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The Time control is used to denote the time of the day. This means it has no dependencies on time zones or offsets. It will not shift based on whether or not Daylight Savings Time is observed in a time zone.
The Date/Time control relies on the timezone of the browser. The time portion will be calculated based on the date and whether or not Daylight Savings Time is observed in that time zone. The Date/Time control type is meant to represent a point in time, so certain functions in the Visual Rule Builder (year, month, day, hour, minute) are not available on this control type.
The Date control is used to denote a day and has no dependencies on time zone.
For example, A time of 5:00 PM is entered into a Time control and a date of 2/5/2014 plus 5:00 PM into a Date/Time control by a user located in the America/New_York (Eastern Standard Time). When the submission is viewed in the EST time zone, the Time Control displays 5:00 PM. This value will not change. The time portion of the Date/Time control also displays 5:00 PM, because it takes on the timezone of the browser (EST) and it is not further adjusted because Daylight Savings Time is not observed in EST on February 5th.
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Requires users to enter a valid EMail address. The address must conform to the following syntax: <name>@<name>.<string><string> Multiple emails can be entered in the email control separated by either a comma or a semicolon.
Money
Allows users to enter U.S. currency. Users may type commas and a decimal point but will not add them to the data automatically. The form also will round all entries to two decimal places. For example, if the user enters 4000, it will display as 4000.00 when the user exits the field.
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LDAP customers often use the ComboBox control if they have many users/roles configured on their LDAP server. What if the designer wants to pull a list of users or roles from their LDAP server into a form or workflow for user selection? Using a traditional dropdown control is not ideal especially when you have thousands of users to pick from. The ComboBox control allows users to type characters in the ComboBox control that filter the choices to the entered characters and display those that match. You can also type a value that is not in the list. You may limit responses to the available options by selecting "Options Value Only" (available only for frevvoUsers and frevvoRoles.)
Drag/drop the ComboBox from the Palette or import it from schema. When you drag/drop the ComboBox from the Palette, it does not have a Control Type property. You cannot change the ComboBox to a different control by changing the value in the Control Type dropdown. You must delete the ComboBox and then add the control that you want.
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The control options default to "true=Yes" and "false=No". When you drag the control from the palette, only the "Yes" option will be visible. You can change the option labels from Yes and No to whatever you want. It is important to note changes to the label for false are irrelevant as it will never be visible on the form. The option values cannot be changed and will always stay as true and false. Blank labels for options are not allowed. Checking the “Yes” checkbox of the Boolean control results in a true value in the XML document.
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The upload control contains special properties to control the max attachment size allowed (in bytes), the min and max number of attachments to accept per form submission and to allow the form designer to specify restrictions on the types of files allowed to be uploaded to the control/form. When a user uploads content to an upload control with a content filter applied, will check the upload against the filter and if there is no match, reject the upload with an error message.
Attachments are viewable in the Submissions Repository. You can configure your form's Doc Action property to send attachments to a URL endpoint (ex: servlet) that can save the attachments locally within your company. For more details see handling attachments.
The File Name property allows designers to specify a naming convention for the attachment in the form/workflow submission.
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You can specify the minimum and maximum number of attachments that can be uploaded to your form using the Min # and the Max # properties. Setting the min and max values to 0 or if the maximum # field is left empty means an unlimited number of files can be uploaded. Setting the min # to a value greater than zero makes the field required. Set the min # to 1 to ensure that the user uploads at least one attachment to your form. Use the max # for the maximum attachments allowed. Clicking on Add Files will not display the upload lightbox when the maximum # of attachments have been uploaded. No further uploads will be allowed. Setting the Max # to 1 disables the multi-select feature. See below for more information.
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- Adding custom client-side JavaScript to your form/workflow.
- You can use the Message control as a spacer to center controls. Click here to see how to use the Message control to center images uploaded to your form/workflow.
- Message controls can also be used to display a message to the user if a form/workflow contains invalid controls and cannot be submitted. Refer to the Invalid Form Notification for Users to see how to implement this feature.
Type the text of your message into the textarea in the Message control properties pane. You can add HTML to format your message in this property as well or invoke the Rich Text Editor which will create the HTML for you.
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The editor consists of an editing area for entering text and an icon in the top left that shows/hides the editor toolbar and menus.
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| Warning |
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Use caution when adding templates and applying formatting to them in the Rich Text Editor. The RTE changes underlying markup. This could result in an HTML tag such as the <strong> tag in the HTML that could disrupt the template. may not recognize it as a template and the templates will not resolve to the entered values. |
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The Rich Text editor will be vertically expanded when you show the menus in Message Controls or any group control that you drop a Message control into that is less than 4 columns wide.
Message Control in a Repeat
You can drag and drop a Message control from the palette into a repeat or into a section that then gets dropped into a repeat. You can write Rules affecting the Message controls in repeats. Message controls in Repeats can contain templates. Repeat controls containing Message controls can be converted to Tables. Refer to the Control Type property for the details.
Horizontal Layout using the Message Control
Let's say you wanted to modify a section of your form to reflect a horizontal layout. One approach would be to use the Table and Radio Controls. Another alternative is to use three Message controls and three Radio controls. Follow these steps:
- Drag and drop a Panel onto the designer canvas.
- Drop Message controls into the panel for the user instruction and the labels Fellowship announcements, Conferences and workshops and Other major news and events. Select None in the Message Control Type field.
- Click on the Style tab. Set the width of the Message Controls to half the size of the panel.
- Place 3 Radio controls with Yes/No options to the right of the Message Controls for the 3 choices. Check the Hide Label property for each.
- Click the Style tab and enter 50% in the Item Width property
- You may have to insert a single line break HTML tag in the Message property to align the Message Control text with the Yes/No options of the Radio Control.
Here is what the form looks like in the Forms Designer:
Here is how the form looks in use mode:
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The message informs the designer what the configured limits are so they can take corrective action.
Centering Images using the Message Control
You can add a Message control on the left side of an image uploaded to your form to center the image. Message controls can be set to an empty string. Delete the default text in the message control. Change its Message Type to None. This will add a blank area on the left of that image and move it into the center. Click the Style tab if you need to modify the width of the message control.
Trigger Control
The trigger control adds a button to your form and is used in conjunction with rules. If your form does not have rules you will not need the trigger control. If your form does have rules, see Triggers & DynamicOptions for details on how to use trigger controls and examples of when you might want to use them.
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A table/grid layout in a form is a useful space saving technique. The use of panels to create columns can be replaced by using the table control. This control makes table/grid form layout easy by allowing you to create a table with user designated columns and rows. You can edit the table name, column names, drag and drop new controls from the palette, and set the widths of the columns. You can control the number of rows in the table by clicking on Add/Remove icons that appear to the left of the first column in the table. You can hide the delete icon to eliminate deletion of a row in a table rows using the deletable property or allow only a certain number of items based on user input using a business rule. You can also use business rules for computed values, enabling/disabling fields, showing/hiding fields etc. When tabbing through a form, use Shift-Right arrow or click on a table cell to begin tabbing into a table. Tables are always 12 columns wide when you drag/drop it from the palette. Table controls do not have an identifying icon like Panels 902594575 and Repeats 902594575 do.
When you drag the table control into your form, the control will have three rows and three columns. The Table is assigned a default name i.e.Table95. The columns will display the default names of col 0, col 1 and col 2 respectively. The and
icons will display for each row in the table, allowing addition and deletion of rows. Deleting all the rows will result in a table with one row. Notice the name of each tables column is unique.
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Other controls can be dragged into the table (Dropdown, Radio, Checkbox, Message, Text, Text area, Date, Email, Money, Phone, Quantity, Number, T/F). Drag the control from the palette. The new control will appear as a column positioned to the right of the column where it is dropped. For Example, a date control can be dragged from the palette and dropped over the Description of Expense column. Adjust the column widths in the table if necessary. Notice that the cells in the added control column do not have the Required property checked. The form designer must set the Required property as appropriate for newly dragged columns. Help icons for a column with a label that has multiple lines may not align properly. Adjust the column widths if possible.
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Dragging a message control from the palette and dropping it into a table will provide a column in the table that can be used to label the table rows. Move the message column to the desired position. The text of the message control of each cell in that column can then be set as desired. The days of the week in the Day column of the Timesheet form shown below is an example of using the message control with modified text for row labels. Remember the Rich Text Editor is available for easy creation of your Message control content.
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- Drag a Table control from the palette and drop it on the designer canvas.
- Drag a Message control from the palette and drop it into the table to create a column. Click on the column header and check the Hide Label property on the Settings tab. Delete unwanted columns.
- Modify the rows of the Message control column for the labels. The Rich Text Editor is available for easy creation of your Message control content.
- Drag a Radio control from the palette to the canvas.
- Set up the Yes/No options for the Radio Control.
- Specify the item width on the Style tab so that the options display horizontally.
- Drop the Radio Control into the table to make a second column.
- Click on the column header and check the Hide Label property.
- This is what the table will look like in Use mode.
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Let's try another example. You are designing a form for mobile devices. You drag and drop one control on the form. Now you want to add the PageBreak control and then add other controls below it. You cannot drop the PageBreak below any control so you will have to add the other controls first and then drop the PageBreak control where you want it. Once you add more than one control to the form, you can drop controls from the palette or the form above or below the page break. You can drag and drop the PageBreak itself anywhere at the root of the form. The PageBreak control should not be dropped inside sections, panels, tables or repeat group controls. The only exception is the Tab control. See below for the details.
PageBreaks in a Tab Control
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The Date/Time control relies on the timezone of the browser. The time portion will be calculated based on the date and whether or not Daylight Savings Time is observed in that time zone. The Date/Time control type is meant to represent a point in time, so certain functions in the Visual Rule Builder (year, month, day, hour, minute) are not available on this control type.
The Date control is used to denote a day and has no dependencies on time zone.
For example, A time of 5:00 PM is entered into a Time control and a date of 2/5/2014 plus 5:00 PM into a Date/Time control by a user located in the America/New_York (Eastern Standard Time). When the submission is viewed in the EST time zone, the Time Control displays 5:00 PM. This value will not change. The time portion of the Date/Time control also displays 5:00 PM, because it takes on the timezone of the browser (EST) and it is not further adjusted because Daylight Savings Time is not observed in EST on February 5th.
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LDAP customers often use the ComboBox control if they have many users/roles configured on their LDAP server. What if the designer wants to pull a list of users or roles from their LDAP server into a form or workflow for user selection? Using a traditional dropdown control is not ideal especially when you have thousands of users to pick from. The ComboBox control allows users to type characters in the ComboBox control that filter the choices to the entered characters and display those that match. You can also type a value that is not in the list. You may limit responses to the available options by selecting "Options Value Only" (available only for frevvoUsers and frevvoRoles.)
Drag/drop the ComboBox from the Palette or import it from schema. When you drag/drop the ComboBox from the Palette, it does not have a Control Type property. You cannot change the ComboBox to a different control by changing the value in the Control Type dropdown. You must delete the ComboBox and then add the control that you want.
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The control options default to "true=Yes" and "false=No". When you drag the control from the palette, only the "Yes" option will be visible. You can change the option labels from Yes and No to whatever you want. It is important to note changes to the label for false are irrelevant as it will never be visible on the form. The option values cannot be changed and will always stay as true and false. Blank labels for options are not allowed. Checking the “Yes” checkbox of the Boolean control results in a true value in the XML document.
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| Warning |
|---|
Use caution when adding templates and applying formatting to them in the Rich Text Editor. The RTE changes underlying markup. This could result in an HTML tag such as the <strong> tag in the HTML that could disrupt the template. may not recognize it as a template and the templates will not resolve to the entered values. |
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The Rich Text editor will be vertically expanded when you show the menus in Message Controls or any group control that you drop a Message control into that is less than 4 columns wide.
Message Control in a Repeat
You can drag and drop a Message control from the palette into a repeat or into a section that then gets dropped into a repeat. You can write Rules affecting the Message controls in repeats. Message controls in Repeats can contain templates. Repeat controls containing Message controls can be converted to Tables. Refer to the Control Type property for the details.
Horizontal Layout using the Message Control
Let's say you wanted to modify a section of your form to reflect a horizontal layout. One approach would be to use the Table and Radio Controls. Another alternative is to use three Message controls and three Radio controls. Follow these steps:
- Drag and drop a Panel onto the designer canvas.
- Drop Message controls into the panel for the user instruction and the labels Fellowship announcements, Conferences and workshops and Other major news and events. Select None in the Message Control Type field.
- Click on the Style tab. Set the width of the Message Controls to half the size of the panel.
- Place 3 Radio controls with Yes/No options to the right of the Message Controls for the 3 choices. Check the Hide Label property for each.
- Click the Style tab and enter 50% in the Item Width property
- You may have to insert a single line break HTML tag in the Message property to align the Message Control text with the Yes/No options of the Radio Control.
Here is what the form looks like in the Forms Designer:
Here is how the form looks in use mode:
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The message informs the designer what the configured limits are so they can take corrective action.
Centering Images using the Message Control
You can add a Message control on the left side of an image uploaded to your form to center the image. Message controls can be set to an empty string. Delete the default text in the message control. Change its Message Type to None. This will add a blank area on the left of that image and move it into the center. Click the Style tab if you need to modify the width of the message control.
Trigger Control
The trigger control adds a button to your form and is used in conjunction with rules. If your form does not have rules you will not need the trigger control. If your form does have rules, see Triggers & DynamicOptions for details on how to use trigger controls and examples of when you might want to use them.
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