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Submissions Stored Inside of Live Forms

Live Forms v8.2 is no longer supported. Please visit Live Forms Latest for our current Cloud Release. Earlier documentation is available too.

Submissions Stored Inside of Live Forms

 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.

Filter your submissions using form data. Create Logical expressions to narrow the search for particular submissions. Fields in your form/flow, set up as Searchable fields by the designer, can be used as criteria when searching submissions. Once your Searchable fields are defined,  re-indexes existing submissions so you can search them using the same fields.

Additional default fields such as: error, error description, submitter id, lock user id, started date, etc. can also be selected as filters.

The Submissions view works well on mobile devices and is easily embedded in a web page and wikis such as Confluence. 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.


The /wiki/spaces/frevvo82/pages/767365384 and the/wiki/spaces/frevvo82/pages/767365315 must be running for the Submission view to work.

Cloud customers will see an icon for the Submission View and another icon for the Legacy submissions view. The /wiki/spaces/frevvo82/pages/767365315 topic discusses the ability to hide the Legacy view among other options for in-house customers. 

The Export of submissions to Excel feature has been replaced by the Download to CSV. If you have not used the Export to Excel feature in the past, we recommend that you become familiar with the 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.

The various items on the Submissions page are explained below.

On this page:

Accessing Submissions

To access submissions for a particular form/flow, the designer who created the form (owner) navigates to the Forms Home Page or the Flows Home Page and clicks the  Submissions icon for that form or flow. 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.

 Click here for information about Searchable fields...

Searchable fields configured for a form or flow are the fields that may be used to filter submissions in the submissions view. By default, all your data is saved as an XML document. This is the most efficient way to store/access your data both in terms of speed as well as storage. However, if you prefer to view your data via the submissions user interface, you can choose which fields are available to the user as search criteria in addition to the XML data.

Considerations when deciding which types of fields to configure are listed below.

  • Searchable fields are indexed for easy search of form/flow Submissions. They can also be used when searching Tasks on a user's Task List. You will see columns for the controls in your form/flow designated as Searchable fields in the Submissions table. This is helpful when trying to locate a particular submission from a long list. Searchable Fields are downloaded into the Submissions Download to a CSV file along with the submission default columns.

    • Cloud customers can configure up to 20 Searchable Fields.

    • In-house customers can change change the default value by adding the /wiki/spaces/frevvo82/pages/767365315 configuration parameter to the <frevvo-home>\tomcat\conf\Catalina\localhost\frevvo.xml file.

  • Saved fields do affect performance as they are independently stored in addition to XML data. This can significantly reduce performance, especially for large forms and require additional storage in the repository. Saved fields are not rendered in the submission table and cannot be used as search criteria for submissions. The only reason to configure Saved fields is if you want to use the Export to Excel feature which is available on the Legacy Submissions view

    The Export of submissions to Excel feature has been replaced by the Download to CSV. If you have not used the Export to Excel feature in the past, we recommend that you become familiar with the 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.

Designers should carefully consider which fields to designate as Searchable fields. The selection of the correct fields as search criteria can be very helpful with submission and Task List searches.

Clicking on the Click to setup Searchable fields link displays the setup wizard. This link is on the form's properties as shown below. If you have navigated away from the form's properties and instead see a control properties panel, just click anywhere on the toolbar to return to the form's properties.

Searchable Field wizard

The wizard displays the fields from your form/flow. Only controls that are considered form data will be listed. For Example, the link, signature, image, upload, trigger, section, PageBreak, Message, Form Viewer and video controls will not show up in the Searchable field lists as there is no value to save or query against. Also, group controls (tabs, panels, repeats) will not show up on the list of Available Fields.

  • We do not recommend using columns from Tables or Repeats as Searchable fields. The data will be hard to interpret since there can be multiple data values for the same field.

  • Do not select a Textarea field as a Searchable Field if the amount of text stored in the field is greater than 32k.
  • Searching submissions using a Repeat control from schema is not supported.

  • If the value of a field contains the < sign, the data in the Submissions Table will be incomplete. For example, if the value = a<b only the "a" will show in the Submission Table.

Move the the fields listed in the Available Fields tab that you want to use as search criteria to the Searchable Fields tab. You can change the order of the fields when you move them into the Searchable Fields area. The order of the form fields will be reflected in the Submission Table and the export to a csv file once existing submissions are resubmitted or a new submission is created.

There are two ways to select/unselect or reorder Searchable fields :

  • Drag and Drop - You can drag the fields from the Available Fields list and drop them into the Searchable Fields list if you re using Firefox, Chrome or Safari browsers. Items may be dragged between lists and within the Searchable Fields list. Items may be dropped between existing items and before the top-most item and below the bottom item. Only a single item may be dragged. Currently, the drag and drop function will not work in the Internet Explorer browsers. This issue will be addressed in a future release.

  • Center arrow buttons

    • The > right arrow moves the selected field from the Available Fields list to the bottom of the Searchable Fields list.
    • The < left arrow moves the selected field from the Saved Fields list to the bottom of the Available Fields list.
    • The >> double right arrows move all the form fields in the Available Fields list to the Searchable Fields list.
    • The << double left arrow moves all the form fields in the Saved Fields list to the Available Fields list.

Click Finish to save. Selecting the X in the upper right corner cancels any changes. Remember to save your changes when you exit out of the designer.

Controls are listed in the Available and Searchable Lists using control labels. If you change the label of a control in your form that was previously added to the Searchable Fields list the control will remain in the list reflecting the new label. In a flow, the label can be different for controls with the same name in different activities. Controls are listed using the control name. If the name changes, it will unset the Searchable field. The newly renamed control will now show on the Available list and the designer must move it to the Searchable List again.

Note the first five fields in the Searchable Fields list are marked with double asterisks. These 5 searchable fields will be the key fields for the submission in the legacy view.

Maximum Number of Searchable Fields

Cloud customers can configure up to 20 Searchable fields. In-house customers can change the maximum number of Searchable Fields with a /wiki/spaces/frevvo82/pages/767365315. 

When an attempt is made to add more than the maximum configured number of Searchable fields, an error message ("Maximum Number of Searchable Fields Exceeded!"). displays on the lower right of the screen and will disappear after a short time. Any fields in excess of the maximum configured number will not be allowed.


Adding/Removing Searchable Fields

If you make changes to Searchable Fields in a form or flow, the changes will take affect for new submissions. If you want to update existing submissions to reflect your changes, run the Refresh Searchable Fields process.

Searchable fields can be refreshed for:

If refreshing production forms or flows, run the job during a time period when the forms or flows are not being used.


Saved Fields tab

You will see a Saved Fields tab in addition to the Searchable Fields tab. This tab displays only when the Legacy Submissions view is configured as it is in the cloud. The only reason to configure Saved Fields for a form/flow is if you want to use the Export to Excel which is only available in the Legacy Submissions view. Remember, Saved Fields are stored in the database when the form/flow is completed. This can significantly reduce performance, especially for large forms and require additional storage in the repository.

The Export of submissions to Excel feature has been replaced by the Download to CSV. If you have not used the Export to Excel feature in the past, we recommend that you become familiar with the 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.

In-house customers can choose to hide the Legacy Submissions view with a /wiki/spaces/frevvo82/pages/767365315. If the Legacy submission view is not visible, the Saved Fields tab is not displayed in the Form/Flow designers and the Export to Excel feature is not available.

Submissions View

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

  1. Submissions filter section
  2. Matching submissions results table.

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.

Here is an explanation of the available states:

  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/flow
  2. SAVED: This will return only those tasks which were created when users clicked the Save button on the form/flow 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/flow for which this task was created has been submitted
  5. ABORTED: This will return all the tasks that were deleted/aborted so the form/flow 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 flow is suspended until the this step is completed.

Choose Search Criteria from Form/Flow 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:

  • Click the plus / minus icon to add/remove rows. Rows are labeled numerically beginning at 1 and are color coded. You can specify up to 100 rows of filter criteria.
  • Specify the field, condition and value for the search criteria you are adding. For most conditions, all three columns are required but there are some that may not require a value. 
  • As you add fields and conditions, they are automatically added to the logic expression field by appending an "AND" and the character of the sub-expression (A for the Date section, B for the State section or the number of the row in the filter table as appropriate). Each sub-expression is color coded for quick reference. The characters for the sub-expressions are also color coded to match the row in the grid where the expression is defined.
  • Click the Edit button to modify the logic expression.
  • Click the Reset button to clear all of the search criteria.

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/flow or you can choose from default columns that are available across all form and flow types. 

 Click 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/flow.
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 flow 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/flow 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.

 Click here for a list of the conditons available for each data type

Data Type(s)

 Conditions Available in the Dropdown List
Date, Time, Date/Timeis equal to
 is not equal to
 is after
 is before
 is on or before
 is on or after
only available for Date/Time controlsis within last
 contains a value
 does not contain a value
Number, Money, Quantityis equal to
 is not equal to
 is greater than
 is less than
 is greater than or equal to
 is less than or equal to
 contains a value
 does not contain a value
Text, TextArea, Email, DropDown, Radio, Checkboxcontains
 does not contain
 begins with
 ends with
 is equal to
 is not equal to
 contains a value
 does not contain a value
Boolean Checkboxis equal to

For example, the choices in the Condition dropdown, will be different if you select the Submitted Date or the ProjectName, which is a searchable field in the form/flow from the Fields list.

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

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.

 Click here for a list of values available for field types and condtions

Field Type

 Value Entry Field TypeNotes
DateDate Picker 
TimeTime Entry 
DateTimeDate and Time Picker

The 'is within last' condition is available for DateTime controls only. It does not apply to Date or Time controls. If you select the "is within last" condition, you must:

  • Enter the value using a special time duration entry format
  • Enter a duration in Years:Months:Days:Hours:Minutes. Any field to the left may be omitted. For example, 2 days and 4 hours may be expressed as 0:0:2:4:0 or as 2:4:0. Refer to the example below.
Number, Money, Quantitynumber field 
Text, TextArea, Email, DropDown, Radio, CheckboxText field 
Boolean Checkboxdrop down containing true and false options 

For Example, if you select a Date field, the Date Picker is provided to help enter the value. If you select a Text field from your form/flow, you will be prompted to "Enter text" for the value. If you select the Error metadata field, the value choices will be True or False in a dropdown in the Value column.

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.

The Logic Expression allows you to customize and combine the filter conditions using ANDs and ORs as well as parenthesis () to group terms of the expression.

  • Each filter item (expression) is represented by a letter (A for the Date range or B for the State or a number that corresponds to the row of the sub-expression in the Other Filter Items grid).
  • Combine the letters and numbers using parenthesis to group items as needed.
  • Build the logic of the overall predicate expression using AND and OR as appropriate.
  • Click save when done to save the expression. Please correct any indicated parse errors in order to save.

For example, let's say you have a Job Application that has 3 submissions:

You want to display the submissions that were submitted on November 7, 2016 or any of the applicants that live in Connecticut (Home Phone Area Code is 203):

  • Expand the Submissions Filter.
  • Select the SUBMITTED state.
  • Select the Acknowledgement Date field from the Fields dropdown
  • Select "is equal to" from the Condition dropdown.
  • Use the Date Picker to select "11/7/2016" as the value.
  • Add a row to the Other Filter Items grid.
  • Select the Home field from the Fields dropdown.
  • Select "begins with" from the Condition dropdown.
  • Enter "203" as the value.

At this point, the expression displays only one submission that has an Acknowledgement Date of 11/7/2016 AND has a Home Phone number that begins with an area code of 203.

This is not the expected results. To display the submissions that were submitted on November 7, 2016 OR have a Home Phone number that starts with an area code of 203, the logical expression has to be modified.

  • Click the Edit button.
  • Change the expression to A AND B AND (1 OR 2)
  • Click the Save button.

The submissions that match the Date range and State conditions and either were submitted on November 7, 2016 OR contain a Home phone number that starts with an area code of 203:

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:

  • The results are displayed a page at a time. The Previous, Next page buttons  and individual page links, located in the lower right