Forms Management

Forms by definition are generic and help with any form of data collection. They can be used to collect Inspection data, lookup information, Approve requests and many other functions. When forms are connected with Flows, they can now run integrations with backend systems such as Databases, Sharepoint etc and process the collected data.

Categories

Categories help to group forms together. For e.g you can create a category called “Inspections” and group all equipment inspection forms together and another category “Checklists” can hold all checklists. Categories are used to group and display forms together in the Turbo Forms App and help users identify the type of work to do easily.

Categories also server another important purpose. By default all designed forms are available to use with the Turbo Forms App. However if you have embedded Turbo Apps in other applications like Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), Work Permits etc. While embedding, Categories can be used to define EAM as an associated App and thus make all forms in that category available only to the EAM App. This powerful construct allows to group and distribute forms flexibly across different Apps.

Create

Click on the Category button and choose Create to create a new Category. Enter the required category name and click on the Save button.

Apps

Click on the Category button and choose Apps to associate the category with one or more Apps. Ask your Administrator or the App Developer for the technical name of the App.

Note

All forms are automatically added to the Default category. If additional categories are created you can then select a category by clicking on it and then creating the form.

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Managing Forms

Forms view allows Administrators to Design Forms and Master Data using drag & drop designer, associate Master Data with forms, update and publish Forms (revisions), Assign Forms to Teams, Include Forms in FormSets, Create Schedules and much more.

The Forms list displays the following information:

• Title: A short name that helps identify the form for users
• Description: Details on what the form’s purpose is and other helpful notes
• Category: Category the form belongs to
• Type:
  • Form: Forms let you define what data is necessary to collect in a single page. Every form consists of sections, fields, and tables
  • Nested Form: Nested Forms let you design reusable forms that can be included in other forms
  • Wizard: The form wizard is used to complete the tasks through a series of steps. The user enters data in each step and proceeds to the next step until completion
  • Master Data: Master data does not change often and can be referred to in other forms. This way data is pre-populated from teh master data and when forms are displayed users can select them instead of manually entering them
• Actions: Various actions can be performed on the forms and these are explained in more detail below

Create

Note

Click on the Create button and choose from one of the options.

• Form: To create a form and enable data collection
• Nested Form: To create a nested form that can be embedded in other forms
• Wizard: To create a form designed as a Wizard with various steps and Next/Previous options
• Master Data: To create a master data entity that can have saved data and be associated with other forms
• Import File: To import a previously exported form, typically from another system
• Import Remote System: To import a form in Production from the test/development system

On clicking Create and choosing an option (not valid for Import), the Form Designer is immediately displayed. You can now add Form Components from the toolbar and design your form.

Form Components

Note

Form Components are the form fields that are part of the form being designed. Users will enter their data in these form fields which will then be validated upon submission. There are various types of form components:

Basic Components

Simple components to collect data:

• Text Field: Enter a single line of text
• Text Area: Enter multiple lines of text
• Number: Enter a number
• Password: Enter a password or any other field that needs to be hidden when the form is displayed. Note that this is only to mask display and not recommended to accept confidential information
• Checkbox: Provides a toggle checkbox that can be selected or de-selected
• Select boxes: Provides multiple checkbox that can be individually selected or de-selected, data is grouped together
• Select: Dropdown list that can have static or dynamic values. Can also be associated with master data
• Radio: Provides a way to select one of many values
• Button: Default Submit button is already added in form, allows to add additional buttons to trigger other actions like Smart Data Component etc

Advanced Components

Special components to collect data:

• Email: Enter an email id with format validation, can also optionally be configured to use a service like Kickbox to validate emails
• Url: Enter a URL with format validation
• Phone Number: Enter a phone number with US phone validation. Change the mask to validate numbers of other countries
• Tags: Enter a list of tags to be associated with the form, stored typically as CSV
• Address: Enter an address and optionally validate it via Google Maps, Azure Maps or OpenMaps
• Datetime, Day, Time: Enter datetime in various formats
• Currency: Enter amounts in specified currency
• Survey: Answer a series of questions, typically with Yes/No questions or 1-5 ratings etc
• Signature: Capture digital signatures

Layout

Use layouts to design the form layout as desired:

• HTML Element: Add a specific HTML element and configure it (for developer use)
• Content: Free text field thats read-only. Use to enter any helpful notes or directions to users using the form
• Columns: Versatile component to organize other form components in columnar fashion. Columns are reactive and hence components embedded within columns render perfectly on any mobile phone, tablet, desktops or other form factors
• Fieldset: Add a set of fields to this component, all data within the fieldset are submitted as a single field for processing
• Panel: Provides a collapsible panel into which other components can be added
• Table: Fixed row/column layout to add other components into
• Tabs: When lots of data needs to be collected, optimize the layout by organizing them into tabs
• Well: Its just a container to hold other components together

Data

Enter rows of data:

• Hidden: Use to add a hidden field to the form that can hold a computed value. Can be used to control form completion etc
• Container: Similar to a Fieldset that can be added to the form to group components together
• Data Map: Collect a variable number of key / value pairs
• Data Grid: Add various components to the data grid and then allow user to enter a variable number of data rows
• Edit Grid: Similar to Data Grid with an Edit icon to edit row of data

Turbo Premium

Premium components for specialized functions:

• SmartID: Generate a unique ID for each form submission with a configurable template
• Barcode: Scan barcode with camera and set the text
• Select Barcode: Scan barcode and select an item in the select (dropdown)
• SmartData (SDC): Powerful component to add interaction to your form, fetch data from other systems, validate entered data online etc
• SmartTable: Display data in a responsive table view
• Location: Capture current location
• File: Attach files to the forms, attach pictures and annotate

API Docs

For more technical details on each component and its configurable properties: Form Components API Guide

Add Form Components

Note

To add a form component, Drag and Drop the component from the toolbar on the top to the desired location within the form. Each new form starts with a Submit button automatically added to it which needs to be left in place. On adding a component its properties can be set by clicking on the :fontawesome-solid-gear: icon. Additional validations including custom validation in the form of JavaScript code can also be added.

To edit an already added Form Component hover over the component and click on the :fontawesome-solid-gear: icon to change its properties edits. To delete click on the x icon. You can also Copy/Paste a component.

Component Settings

Additional settings

Below is a list of general settings that are offered for the majority of form components.

• Display: Customize the display settings of form components like label, position, placeholder, widget, description, tooltip, custom CSS, and many more.
• Data: Customize the data settings for user input data like default value, input format, manual override of the calculated value, data encryption, and much more.
• Validation: Customize the validation settings like enable/disable the validation, define the rules for validation or use JavaScript to perform validation on a field.
• API: A compatible API will automatically be mapped out as perform component. However, a new API can be added here as required.
• Conditional: Any form component can use conditional logic to determine when to hide or display itself. Set up the dynamic conditions using available settings or customized conditions using JavaScript or JSONLogic.
• Logic: Setup advanced logic to trigger the form component using JavaScript for any combination of conditions. Kindly note advanced conditional logic will only work if the simple conditional logic is not defined.
• Layout: Layout of a form component can be marginally changed using the HTML attributes, margins, and other settings.

Save, Preview and Publish

Note

• Save: Click on the save button to save the form and continue building the form. A new Draft version will be created if necessary
• Preview: Click on the Preview button to preview the form on Desktop, Phone and Tablet. You can also check Portrait and Landscape views
• Publish: Click on the publish button to publish the form. Once the form is published, the assigned team can access the form and fill it. A form (or subsequent changes) is available for users only after its published

Edit Form

Note

Existing forms properties can be edited. Click on the :fontawesome-solid-pencil: icon to change the title and description. You can also change the category the form belongs to

Delete selected form(s)

Note

Select the checkbox at the beginning of the row and then choose the Delete option. You can also delete multiple forms this way.

Change Category of selected form(s)

Note

Select the checkbox at the beginning of the row and then choose the Categories option. You can now change the category for all the selected forms.

Export selected form(s)

Note

Select the checkbox at the beginning of the row and then choose the Export option. You can now export all the selected forms and related data to a file for importing to other system, checking into your source control or any other purpose

Deleting Forms

This operation cannot be reversed. When the form is deleted, the form and its assignment to teams is removed. However all form submissions (data) are retained and not deleted.

Using Master Data in Forms

To use Master Data in Forms and enable lookups to master data refer the Using Master Data documentation.

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Versions

Note

Form revisions allow the admin to evolve current forms while preserving the integrity of previous iterations. Click on form ‘details’ to view the detailed revision history. Similar to code revision systems, a mandatory comment is attached to every revision that is published and also tagged with a revision number. Details of the revision number, change comment and when the change was made are displayed.

The Administrator can configure the number of revisions or versions that the Forms App can work with. Default is the latest version only (1 revision) but can be set to a maximum of 5. What this achieves is if a user is working with revision 4 of a form and a new revision 5 is published, the current form being filled will continue to display revision 4. This ensures that the user is not surprised by any new changes or fields that are added to the form. In the next instance when they start filling the form newly, the latest revision 5 will be automatically used.

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Forms Assignment

Assign

Note

A form can be assigned to teams to fill out and complete the data collection. Click on the Assignment tab inside Form details and then the Add (+) icon at the bottom to display the Add Assignment dialog. Search for existing teams by entering a few characters of the team name and then select from the displayed teams to assign the form. Assigned forms will be pushed to the teams and users will be able to immediately start using them.

Form assignments have additional properties that can be configured for triggering various flows.

Shared Mode

Note

If a team is expected to work together and fill the form (the flow could be that a team is performing an inspection and different team members fill out different sections of the form). All the users in a team can work on the same form and its underlying data. Each user needs to enter the data for their sections of the form and mark as complete for the form submission to be considered as complete. If working offline, it’s quite possible that other users have updated data in the meantime and the user is working with old or outdated data. Conflict resolution, in this case, helps the user to copy over parts of their data and resubmit. No data is lost. Refer to the Conflict Resolution described later to understand this in more detail. Additionally in shared mode, a further configuration is possible to restrict forms to be filled by only one user while still sharing the data. Except for the user working on the form, all other users see a read-only view. When the user “releases” the form, another user can “lock” the form and start working on it.

Review

Note

Form submissions can always be reviewed by the Manager before final submission. However, for advanced flows where another User or Team needs to review, this option can be switched on and a reviewing User or Team selected. When the form is completed, a Review of the form is initiated. The reviewer(s) can either Approve or Reject. If approved, the form data is considered final. In case it is rejected, a Rework of the form is initiated to the initial set of users. This flow continues until the form is approved.

Shift Handoff

Note

In case teams works in shifts, the team that has just completed entering data can initiate a Shift Handoff to the next Team. The receiving team can now work on the already submitted data and continue. Once the data is entered during the shift the team can then complete or initiate a handoff again. This flow continues until the form is completed and submitted.

Remove Assignment

Note

To remove a Form assignment to a team, select the form and click on the Delete option.

Removing Assignments

Be careful when removing form assignments as the assignment is removed immediately and the form will not be available for the user any longer.

Data is never deleted

Removing a form assignment does not remove the submitted data.

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Flows

Forms on submission are not just saved in the system (forms) database but can also be routed to various other systems such as other databases, SAP S/4 HANA, Salesforce, generic webhooks, Dropbox etc.

Flow Types

The different types of flows are:

• Manual Flow: These flows can only be triggered manually. Use them to learn how to build flows or for one off integrations that you may want to run adhoc
• Webhook Flow: These flows are great to trigger from external systems or sources. The URL provided can be used to post optional data and run the flow for e.g. when a customer is created on Salesforce etc
• Scheduled Flow: These flows are triggered as per a configured schedule
• Form Action Flow: These flows are triggered on certain form actions as below:
  • Create: Triggered when a form is created per a schedule. Use this to prefill data in the form on creation
  • Save: Triggered when the form is (partially) saved by the user. Use this to process the submitted data and take decisions, enable other sections of form once some sections are filled in etc.
  • Complete: Triggered when the form is completed. Use this to submit the form data to SAP, a database, post a notification to Teams to let others know, archive a PDF version of the submitted data in Sharepoint etc.
  • Approval: Triggered when a user approves a form as part of the configured approval flow.
• Sub Flow: These are flows that can be included as a step in other flows. For e.g. a subflow that posts a Teams notification can be included in a create Ticket flow to let support teams know
• Smart Data Flow: These flows are triggered by Smart Data Components in forms and can be executed on button click, barcode scanning etc.

Create

Click on the ‘Create’ button to create a flow of any of the types as described above. Additional configurations depending on the type of flow need to be configured

Manual Flow

Create a Manual Flow if you are building a flow to learn, or try something out or if the requirement is to run the flow adhoc. These flows can only be triggered manually using the Run button in the Turbo Apps Builder.

• Title: Enter a title to identify the flow
• Description: Enter a detailed description regarding the purpose of the flow

Webhook Flow

Create a Webhook flow if you need to run a flow due to some activity in an external system or similar. The URL provided can be used to post optional data and run the flow for e.g. when a Ticket is created in Salesforce you may want to run a flow and check if there are contractors available to attend to it in your HRM system.

• Title: Enter a title to identify the flow
• Description: Enter a detailed description regarding the purpose of the flow
• URL: The created webhook is displayed here and you can copy the URL and configure it in the external system. When a POST happens to teh webhook all parameters and the post body is passed to the flow and can be used for further processing. There is no pre-requisite on parameter names etc.
• Expiry: Date until when he webhook to be valid. A webhook can be revoked and/or extended as the need may be.

Scheduled Flow

Scheduled flows are triggered as per a configured schedule. Use this to run flows at pre-configured intervals for e.g to create an Inspection form every month on the first day etc. You can also use it to refresh Master Data on a schedule.

• Title: Enter a title to identify the flow
• Description: Enter a detailed description regarding the purpose of the flow
• Schedule: Minute/Hour/Day/Week/Month/Year based schedules

Form Action Flow

These flows are triggered on certain form actions as below:

• Create: Triggered when a form is created per a schedule. Use this to prefill data in the form on creation

• Save: Triggered when the form is (partially) saved by the user. Use this to process the submitted data and take decisions, enable other sections of form once some sections are filled in etc.

• Complete: Triggered when the form is completed. Use this to submit the form data to SAP, a database, post a notification to Teams to let others know, archive a PDF version of the submitted data in Sharepoint etc.

• Approval: Triggered when a user approves a form as part of the configured approval flow.

• Title: Enter a title to identify the flow

• Description: Enter a detailed description regarding the purpose of the flow

• Action: Choose from Create, Save, Submit and Approval

Sub Flow

These are flows that can be included as a step in other flows. Common and repetitive actions like posting a Teams notification can be created as Sub FLows. These can then be called as a step in any other flow thus enabling reuse. Further sub flow execution can be controlled when defining the step in the parent flow:

1. Run as a part of the parent flow, synchronous execution and the result is available for further processing
2. Run as a separate parallel flow but in sequence, useful when running sub activities but need to maintain order execution
3. Run as a separate parallel flow, useful when running sub activities and order execution is not important

• Title: Enter a title to identify the flow
• Description: Enter a detailed description regarding the purpose of the flow

Smart Data Flow

These flows are triggered by Smart Data Components in forms and can be executed on button click, barcode scanning etc. For e.g. when a work permit is to be assigned to a contractor or technician, check their credentials to make sure they are holding current certifications to attend to the job.

• Title: Enter a title to identify the flow
• Description: Enter a detailed description regarding the purpose of the flow

Integration in Form

TO integrate Smart Flows in a form, add a Smart Data Component and configure the flow. Read more in Form Design.

To know more about designing flows and on the supported integrations, read Designing Flows

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Schedules

Schedules help create periodic data collection for planned inspections etc

Create

Note

Administrators can create Schedule for Forms and Formsets to be filled on a periodic basis by Team. Schedules can be Daily, Weekly or Monthly. Click on the Add (+) icon at the bottom of the screen to create a schedule. You can also create multiple schedules for a Form or Formset.

Once the schedule is created, the system will automatically create and send the forms to the users for them to fill. For example, if a schedule runs weekly every Monday, every Monday morning a new Form will be pushed to the users belonging to that team so that the users can fill the form. All Form Assignment options (Shared, Review, etc) that are already configured will be used to initiate the flows when the forms are being filled.

Pause and Resume

Note

If temporarily you need to stop a schedule from running (for e.g. a natural disaster prevents scheduled maintenance from happening) you can pause the schedule by clicking on the Pause option. This schedule will not run until it is Resumed again.

Delete

Note

To permanently delete a schedule, select the schedule and click on the Delete option.

Removing Schedules

Removing a form schedule does not remove the submitted data. However forms will no longer be sent to users to complete.

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Formsets

Formsets are a set of forms that are required to be completed together or in other words “Form Collections”

What is a Formset?

Note

A Formset is a collection or set of forms that need to be filled together. For e.g. an Insurance company’s enrollment process can involve the Enrollment Form, Self Health Declaration and a Bank Mandate. While these are separate forms, they still need to be completed together. In this case, two or more forms can be designed and then grouped in a Formset.

Create

Note

To create a new Formset, click on the Add (+) icon and enter the Title and Description. You can also choose an icon for the Formset that is used to display in the Forms App for easy identification of the Formset.

Delete

Note

To delete a Formset, click on the Trashcan icon and confirm. Only the Formset and its assignments are deleted, the Forms and submissions (data) are not deleted.

Add Form

Note

Select the Formset from the list and click on the card to see the list of Forms assigned to the Formset. To add new Forms, click on the Add (+) icon in the bottom and enter the form name to search for Forms and add them to the Formset.

Remove Form

Note

To remove a Form from a Formset, click on the Trashcan icon on the Form card.

Assignment and Schedule

Note

Similar to Forms, a Formset can also be assigned to teams. You can also create schedules for the Forms in a Formset to be filled on a periodic basis.

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Documents

Note

Documents allows you to associate PDF, Word and other documents so that users can access them when filling out forms. These could be user guides, repair manuals etc. Training :fa-play: video links from YouTube or Vimeo (for eg) can also be included along with URLs to online content.

Documents can be uploaded and associated with forms in a single step. Documents already uploaded and available can be associated with multiple forms also. This ensures that the document is only downloaded once to the device and is available for the user from multiple forms.

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Environment

Note

Environment variables are stanadrd configurations or custom Key-Value pairs that can be associated with forms. These key-value pairs will be accessible to the form’s flow when its submitted. It can be used to save data like API keys or other custom data on a per form basis. Environment variables are by definition strings and can hold any string data (comma separated values, keywords, JSON strings etc)

To add an Environment Variable click on the Add button and choose a stanadrd settings or Custom to enter the variable name and its value. You can add as many variables as needed to the Form. These environment variables can be used in flows while executing.

Standard Environment Variables

Note

Environment variables are used to configure settings that can be used in Flows. For e.g. a HTTP step may require an API Key or an API Secret. These can be configured as environment variables and then referred to in the flow. When the same flow is moved to production, rather than editing the flow the environment variable can be set to the production key. Thus makes the process of updating flows independent of the settings required.

Standard Variables In Forms

Note

There are some standard environment variables that can be used in Forms for prefilling edit fields etc. These variables are all valid for the user currently logged into the App:

• Form ID : window.form.id
• Team form has been assigned to : window.form.team
• User Name (technical user id) : window.form.user
• First Name : window.form.firstName
• Last Name : windows.form.lastName
• Email ID : window.form.email
• Company : window.form.company
• Role: window.form.role

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Translations

Enter the form translations in i18-n format to internationalize the designed forms. Each field in the form needs to have a translation string within the language code. The user’s login language is used to determine the language in which the forms will be rendered.

English:

{
  "en": {
    "Name": "Name",
    "Address": "Address"
  }
}

French:

{
  "fr": {
    "Name": "Nom",
    "Address": "Adresse"
  }
}

Spanish:

{
  "es": {
    "Name": "Nombre",
    "Address": "dirección"
  }
}

Default Language

If the login langauge strings are not found or login language is not specified, the App will default to English

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Sharing

Note

Forms can be initiated by named users after login to the system. However created forms can also be shared with external users either to review or to fill in additional data. This sharing supports use cases where a form can be embedded on a website for website visitors to submit queries etc (anonyous), sharing forms with external vendors via email to fill in Onboarding forms, Security questionnaires etc.

The sharing tab displays all the current shares. Click on the Add (+) icon to create a new share.

Public Share

Note

Enter a title to identify the share and an expiry date. A URL is then generated. Anybody who has the URL can then access the form and fill/submit the data.

Expiry of Link

Once the form expires on the preset date, the URL will not be valid any longer. This does not affect data that may have already been collected/saved in the system.

Private Share

Note

Enter a title to identify the share and tap on Private to enable private share. Next enter email id of one or more people to share the form with. You can further choose whether the user can save partial data and revisit later to complete by enabling Allow Multiple Save. Finally you can set an expiry date. A URL is then generated.

Email(s) will be sent to the people the form has been shared with. Each person gets a private URL and the filled in data can be identified and associated with the email id.

Expiry of Link

Once the form is completed and submitted the URL will not be valid any longer to modify data. Users will be able to see a copy of the submitted data. Once the form expires on the preset date, the URL will not be valid any longer.

Viewing Submissions

Note

Click on a private share link to view the submitted data. Clicking on a public share will show a report of all submissions that can be viewed individually.

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Import / Export

Once forms are designed in the development system and pass quality checks, the forms need to be moved to production. This can be achieved in two ways:

Export / Import File

Note

• From the source system, select the Export option.
• Choose the list of forms to export or select all
• Export and download the file
• Login to the destination system and select the Import File option.
• Select the Publish option to publish the imported forms immediately. If not selected they will remain in Draft mode and need to be manually published
• Select the Overwrite existing drafts during import to overwrite any forms that may be in draft mode on the destination server. If this option is not selected these forms will be silently skipped.
• Upload the file downloaded from the source system previously and choose Import to import all the forms
• The export option can also be used to make a backup copy of the forms

Import From Remote System

Note

You can also directly import from the source system directly

• Login to the destination system
• Choose the Import -> Remote System option
• Enter the URL, User and Password for the remote (source) system
• Choose Import to import the required forms directly

Flows

When forms are exported/imported, the related flows will also be included. This ensures that when a form is imported related flows are also imported and can straight away be utilized in the production system. However configurations for the associated systems needs to be maintained separately in the Production and Development systems.

Assignments

Form assignments are not copied over as teams and assignments in Development can be very different from Production. You can configure as required in the destination system.