This documentation is for Live Forms 9.1. v9.1 is a Cloud Only release. Not for you? Earlier documentation is available too.

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Forms and Workflows Home Page

Looking for a section on this page? Hover your cursor over the Table of Contents icon  to the right to quickly navigate this page.

The Forms and Workflows homepage appears when you create or edit a project.

Navigating the Forms and Workflows Home Page

There are three icons at the top of the Forms and Workflows home page: 

  • Add Content: Install a prebuilt template, create a new form, create a new workflow, or upload a form/workflow. New content will be added to the forms/workflows list.
  • Sort the list of forms and workflows. Content will be displayed with the last modified date on top. You can resort them by last modified date or alphabetically.
  • Information about the features on the Forms and Workflows Homepage. This feature is only available for Cloud customers.

Forms and Workflows in the list can be identified by their icons:

  •  Form
  •  Workflow

To the right of each form/workflow name there is a Test  icon for quickly entering test mode, and a Form/Workflow Action Menu, which provides the following options:

  •  Edit opens your form/workflow in the respective Form or Workflow Designer. You can also open your form by clicking on the form/workflow name.
  •  Test your form/workflow. See Testing Forms/Workflows.
  •  Set Permissions brings up a quick-view Access Control wizard that allows the designer to specify view and edit access for the form/workflow and its submissions. Access Control will typically be managed in the Form/Workflow Properties Wizard.
  •  Duplicate creates a copy of your form/workflow. The newly copied content will be independent from the original; any changes you make to the copy won’t affect the original and vice versa. Access Control permissions assigned to the original form/workflow are retained in the copy.
  •  Share your form/workflow. Forms/Workflows that will be shared should have the Access Control set so it can be shared with others. See Sharing Forms and Workflows.
  •  Deploy a form/workflow to Production state and remove the Development watermark. This toggles the icon to theUndeploy icon. If your license enables a limited number of Production forms/workflows you will get an error message when you hit your license production limit. When a form or workflow is deployed, it will appear with a flag icon beside the form/workflow name.
  •  Download a zipped version of the form/workflow. A single zip file will be created with the name of your form/workflow, followed by _form.zip or _flow.zip. 
  •  Publish as Template that you can use when creating other new forms/workflows. See Templates.
  •  Submissions gives access to the form/workflows submissions. 
  •  Submissions (legacy) opens the legacy submissions viewer including the Export to Excel feature. This may be removed in a future release.
  •  Refresh Search Fields updates previous submissions when a change is made to the Searchable Fields in your form/workflow. Refer to Refresh Searchable Fields for the details.
  •  Schema downloads the automatically generated schema associated with your form/workflow. This schema will contain all the controls added from the Palette. This will not contain controls added from your own schemas. See the Schemas topic for more details.
  •  Thumbnail attaches an icon to your form/workflow. You can select one of the icons provided by  or you can upload your own. The icons will display when you access your forms/workflows from a  space on mobile devices (iPhone and iPad) mobile devices. Learn more about thumbnails below.
  •  Internationalize a form/workflow with translations in different languages.
  • Delete the form/workflow. Keep in mind there is no Undo feature so this action is permanent. Deleting a form/workflow also deletes all associated form submissions and any saved in-process form/workflow instances. See deleting forms/workflows and replacing forms/workflows below.

Refresh Searchable Fields

Searchable Fields are fields in your form/workflow that can be used to search submissions and tasks. The designer designates which controls should be set up as Searchable fields.

Adding or deleting Searchable Fields at any time will immediately take effect for future submissions, but not for past submissions. Designers, tenant or superuser administrators or any user given the permission to edit can initiate a Refresh Searchable Fields process for a particular form/workflow to reflect the changes made to the Searchable Fields in previous submissions.

For example, let's say you have an Invoice form with the First Name and Last Name fields set up as searchable fields. You can search existing submissions or tasks by setting up a filter using the data in these fields.

Your users have requested the ability to search submissions and tasks by product name in addition to the First and Last name of the customer. You must add the Product Name field to the list of Searchable Fields in your form.

  1. Login as a designer user or your production account if the form is deployed.
  2. Edit the Project where your form is located.
  3. Edit your form. Click on the toolbar to display the form properties.
  4. Add the Product Name control in your form to the Searchable Fields list using the Setup Searchable Fields wizard.

     Click here to to see how to do that.

    Searchable fields configured for a form or workflow 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/workflow 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/workflow 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 frevvo.max.searchable.fields 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.

    The wizard displays the fields from your form/workflow. 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 Searchable 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 Searchable 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 names. 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. Hover the cursor over any control name for a tooltip showing the section where it is located, which is helpful if multiple controls have the same name.


    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 configuration parameter. 

    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 workflow, 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:

    • All forms/workflows in all tenants (in-house) or a specific tenant (Cloud or in-house) - must be initiated by the frevvo Cloud or customer in-house superuser administrator. Cloud customers must contact frevvo to request a refresh of Searchable fields for your entire tenant. 

      frevvo will run the Refresh process during a time when your users are NOT using .

      In-house superuser administrators should refer to the Refresh Searchable Fields topic for the instructions.

    • An individual form/workflow - can be initiated by Designers (owners), Tenant Admins or any designer user given permission to edit forms/workflows for a Cloud or in-house installation. Refer to Refresh Searchable Fields for a Form for the details.

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

  5. Follow these steps to run the Refresh Searchable Fields process. 

    Run the Refresh Searchable Fields Process during a time period when the form or workflow is not being used.

    1. Select  Refresh Search Fields from the form/workflow Action Menu for the form/workflow you want to update.
    2. Information about previously run Refresh processes for the form/workflow display in a table.

      • Starting and Ending date/Time of the process
      • Status of the process - completed/failed/stopped
      • The user id and name of the process initiator
      • A description providing the Project/Form Name
    3. Click theicon to start the Refresh Process.
    4. Click Submit.
    5. The message "Index batch was successfully started" displays and the submitted process shows in the Refresh Process list table.
    6. Click the  Refresh icon to update the table with the most recent information.
    7. Click the Back to Forms and Workflows link to return to the Forms and Workflows Home Page.

Once the Refresh Searchable Fields process for the form is completed, the Product control and the associated data displays as a column in the Submissions Table.

The Refresh Process can be stopped or abandoned once started.

Stopping the Refresh Searchable Fields Process

Once you have initiated the Refresh Searchable Fields process, the UI allows for the job to be stopped or aborted. The process can be stopped if it is in the STARTING or STARTED state.

You will notice a Stop column in the row in the table for the process that was started. To stop the job:

  1. Click the Stop icon.
  2. Click Ok to confirm.
  3. When the process is stopped, the status column will update.

Restarting a Stopped Refresh Searchable Fields Process

When the Refresh process runs, tables that store the state of the process are created in the frevvo database. By default, if a process were to fail or be stopped, starting it again would restart the failed/stopped job from where it failed/stopped.

To restart a Stopped/Failed refresh process, simply start the batch job again with same tenant and it will resume the last stopped job. 

To prevent the last stopped job from restarting, change the status to Abandoned.

Abandoning the Refresh Searchable Fields Process

The Refresh Searchable Fields process must be stopped to mark it as abandoned. This prevents it from being restarted. You may want to abandon a batch job if it failed and restarting it would result in another failure. Abandoning the batch job allows you to start over again with a new process. The process cannot be abandoned if it is in the STARTING or STARTED state.

When you stop a Refresh process, you will notice Stop and Abandon columns in the row in the table for the process that was started. To abandon the job:

  1. Stop the Refresh Searchable Fields Process
  2. Click the Abandon icon in the row in the Abandon column for the process you want to prevent from restarting.
  3. Click Ok to confirm.
  4. The Refresh Job Status screen will update.

Assigning a Thumbnail Icon to a Form/Workflow

You can attach a thumbnail icon to a form/workflow by clicking the Thumbnail icon in Form/Workflow Action Menu. Select one of the icons provided by or upload your own. The icons will display when you access your forms/workflows from a  space on mobile devices (iPhone and iPad) mobile devices. See belowIf you do not specify an icon for your form/workflow,  will display a default thumbnail where required.

In the Thumbnail feature you will see a list of icons provided by .

If the form/workflow does not have an icon assigned the Current thumbnail section of the screen will display the message "You have not specified a thumbnail for this form/workflow. Please select one or upload your own thumbnail. If you do not specify one, frevvo will display a default thumbnail where required." Once you select or upload a thumbnail, the Current thumbnail section will update with that icon. You will not be able to delete the current thumbnail once it has been assigned but if you update the form/workflow icon by selecting another one from the list or by uploading an image file, the updated icon will be reflected in the Current thumbnail section.

If thumbnail changes are not reflected immediately, refresh the screen.

Production Forms/Workflows

Forms in the Development state have a watermark. Change them to Production to remove the watermark. The  Deploy/Undeploy icon on each form/workflow toggles this state. Your license key controls the number of forms that can be set to Production. Deployed forms and workflows appear in the list with aflag icon beside their name.

The deployment state defaults to Development irrespective of the default deployment state set by your license key and by your tenant admin for the following scenarios:

  • When a form/workflow is uploaded into your project
  • When you make a copy of your form/workflow
  • When you create a new form/workflow from a form template other than the default template

To manage production forms/workflows go to your My Account: Manage Production forms page. See managing production forms for more information

Deleting Forms/Workflows

When you delete a form/workflow by clicking the  Delete icon the form/workflow is permanently removed and cannot be restored. The delete operation also deletes all submissions from ' submission repository and any saved in process form/workflow instances.

Before deleting you may wish to download a copy of the form/workflow by clicking the  Download icon. See this topic for information on deleting projects.

Uploading/Replacing Forms/Workflows

If your goal is to update your form/workflow to a new version that you had previously downloaded or to revert to an older version previously downloaded, do not first delete the form/workflow since this removes all associated saved/submitted/pending form/workflow instances. Instead leave the original as it is and upload the version from disk by clicking the Add Content icon and selectingUpload a Form or Workflow. A dialog will display that lets you:

  • Browse to the form/workflow zipfile on disk
  • Select the option of replacing the current form/workflow with this new version
  • Ignore XML schemas in the form being uploaded if those schemas already exist in the project and you intend for the existing schemas to be used. 

Error Messages

When uploading a form/workflow with the same ID as an existing form without checking Replace, a copy will be created and the designer will see an error message: "The form/workflow that was uploaded matches the id of one that already existed so a copy was made. If you intended to replace the existing form/workflow, delete the form you just uploaded and upload it again but check off the ‘Replace’ option."

When uploading a form with Replace checked that is currently being edited by another user, the designer will see this error message: "This form is currently being edited by <user@tenant>. Please try again later."