New Field Type

[SJEaton]

Hi

Often we have questions on our forms that require the customer to enter a number of details in column form...see example attached.  Is there any chance that a new custom field could be created to allow us to present such questions in this way on our ProCaps?

Thanks

Sam

 

[Guest]

@SJEaton At the moment you are right there is no such custom field. But in the meantime is there any chance that you could use a Multi-line text area to input the data you would like to enter?

Thanks

Pamela

[SJEaton]

Hi @Pamela

We can but we run the risk that people won't give all the information we need if we leave them to free text.  We've therefore been asking them as individual questions for the time being but this obviously makes a rather long form.

Any chance of adding the creation of such a field type as a future improvement?

Sam

[Dan Munns]

@SJEaton you could add a question like 'How many people were directly involved' and then depending on the answer add the additional fields required dynamically. Would cut down on the initial form being so long.

[SJEaton]

Hi @Dan Munns, yes we do that sometimes too

Sam

[Gerry]

@SJEaton

The problem I see with this is what you do with the collected data, where does it get used and what is the purpose of collecting such data.  What you are showing is conceptually a spreadsheet or tabular data.  You have shown 3 columns by 3 rows, but what when you want more rows or columns, and where would the limit be. 

I started this comment with all the negative points, I guess I am not fully understanding what problem you are trying to solve with this. I am keen that Hornbill is the best process automation platform every conceived so I want to find a way of solving the problem, I just in this case don't understand the problem.  

Could you expend with a real-world example of where you would see this being used, perhaps I can draw some inspiration from that?

Thanks,

Gerry
 

[Dan Munns]

@Gerry I guess the benefits of this would be you could pull the data row at a time rather than field at a time if you had a row variable (PC_Form_Name.Row_Number)

And you could make the form a little more horizontal rather than more vertical.

But as you say people will no doubt need 6 columns, then 10 and then formatting to fit differing screen resolutions becomes an issue. As well as how to handle mandatory fields within the table. And pulling data from only certain cells......

Personally I use dynamic questions and ask a 'How many x?' question first to populate the correct amount of fields below and that works well for us. Or (in cases of say 10+) I give them a multi line text field and make it obvious that incomplete or incorrect text will result in a delay as we will then have to chase them up. ("Using a separate line for each user, please provide the full name, department and asset tag of the computer which requires the software. Failure to provide complete information will result in your request being delayed.") Again this works well for us.

[SJEaton]

Hi @Gerry

Basically it's really about form design more than anything I think.  the screenshot I attached was from a paper-based HR form I am currently configuring to raise a grievance and the question is 'Please provide details of the people involved'.  Being able to have questions next to each other rather than listed below means you can give people the option to enter say up to six people rather than having to list 18 separate questions below each other or asking dynamic questions eg 'how many people' and then displaying the relevant number of questions. 

I use dynamic questions currently as @Dan Munns does which does work ok so it was really just me being curious about whether it could be laid out better.  (I'm a bit of a perfectionist in that way lol)

Sam

 

[Gerry]

@SJEaton

Thanks for the clarification.  The dev team are currently discussing what might be possible to support this type of input, some early suggestions indicate we might be able to create an array of forms, presenting the overview in the RHS of the PC. In any case, I think we understand the use case and are looking at what solutions we might be able to come up with.  Will post here when we have more. 

Thanks,

Gerry

[SJEaton]

Thanks Gerry