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Form Builder 

Jun 13, 2012 10:20 AM

Form Builder

Component definition

At design-time, this component presents a graphical Web form editor to create Web forms. This editor is the standard .NET form editor, and it uses drag-and-drop form components to achieve functionality and appearance on a form. Multiple outcome paths are created by adding multiple buttons to the form. The Form Builder component is available only in Web form and Workflow Project types.

At run-time, the component displays the designed Web form.

Component icon

Description of component output paths

Unknown

The component output paths are described in the following table:

Property

Description

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Description of component tabs and their properties

The properties on the Appearance tab in the Edit Value dialog box in the Form Builder component are listed and described in the following table:

Property

Description

Title

Let you provide the title that you want on your form.

Component Size

Unknown

Position

The position for where you want the title to be placed on the form.

The properties on the Behavior tab in the Edit Value dialog box in the Form Builder component are listed and described in the following table:

Property

Description

Behavior

These options let you provide JavaScript that gets executed when this form is rendered or in the body tag of this form. You can also call functions from other controls. These are for advanced programmers.

Body Custom Events

Lets you enter custom events for the body of the form.

Form Custom Events

Lets you enter custom events for the form.

Script

Lets you enter scripts for the form.

The properties on the Processing tab in the Edit Value dialog box in the Form Builder component are listed and described in the following table:

Property

Description

Show Processing Message

Lets you display a message to the user when the form closes.

Processing Message

Lets you provide the message that you want displayed to the user when the form closes.

Message Back Color

Lets you select the background color of the message.

Message Text Color

Lets you select the message text color.

Message Position

Lets you select the message position on the dialog box.

The properties on the General tab in the Form Builder Editor in the Form Builder component are listed and described in the following table:

Section

Property

Description

General

Form Model

unknown

GoBack

Disable Go Back By Browser Button

Lets you prevent the user from using a GoBack button on this form.

Go Back Path

Lets you select the button (output path) to be used as the GoBack button on the form.

Skip In Go Back

Skips this form when the GoBack button is used.

The properties on the Settings tab in the Form Builder Editor in the Form Builder component are listed and described in the following table:

Property

Description

Component Class Name

The class name of this component. This property is not editable, but useful if you call Symantec support.

Description

The description of this component. This property lets you describe how the component is used. You can use it to provide any wanted documentation for this component.

This description is included in the model reports that are created when you click Plugins > Generate Business Model.

Location

The physical location of the top left point of this component on the workflow model.

Name

The name of this component. You can change the name.

If you changed the component name when you double-clicked it on the workflow model, the changed name appears here.

Override Background Color

This property lets you change the background color of this component.

To Do

This property lets you record what you still need to do with the component. Use this property to help you remember the configuration that you want to apply to this component.

The text that you enter for this property appears at the bottom of the component editor. If you enter text for this property, a checklist symbol appears on the component in the workflow model.

Is Enabled

This property lets you enable or disable the component. By default, components are enabled. When a component is disabled, it has no effect on the Project. Uncheck Is Enabled to disable the component.

  • Execution Outcome

    If a component with more than one outcome path is disabled, you must select which outcome path you want the component to take. Click the Execution Outcome drop-down list and select the outcome path for the workflow to follow.

  • Disabled Mapping

    If the component has output parameters, you must configure all output parameters with fixed data to pass on. This configuration can be performed in the Disabled Mapping option.

Connection information

Not applicable

Component settings

Unknown

Use cases

Some examples for the Form Builder component are as follows:

  • Customer Satisfaction Survey

    A company sends an email to its customers with a link to a satisfaction survey. This survey form is constructed with multiple Form Builder components.

  • Vacation request

    An employee uses the online vacation request form to schedule some time-off.

Customer Satisfaction Survey

Scenario: A company wants to get some feedback from its customers. It sends an email with a link to an online survey. After the customer completes the survey, the survey data is uploaded into a company database.

Process: This process is created as a Forms (Web) Project type. This process assumes that an email containing a link to the online survey was sent previously.

The following screen shot shows the process:

The survey is created with a series of Form Builder components. The forms ask customers some questions regarding their satisfaction with the company's products. The survey includes a number of response methods including radio buttons, text fields, and date pickers.

The following screen shot shows the first form at design time:

The form has a theme that is applied to it. You can apply a ready-made theme from the themes collection, or you can create your own theme. The theme that is displayed here is called "OS.X Window, Left Column."

The components that are displayed here are as follows: label, check box, text box, date picker, multi-line text box, and button. These components are dragged onto the form, as you would drag process components onto a model's workspace. Each item outputs its own variable into the process data. The button, "Next," creates the component's outcome path. The more buttons you add, the more outcome paths your component has. Form components are also similar to process components in that they each have an editor that you can view by double-clicking on the component.

The following screen shot shows the first form at run time:

The run-time form is identical to the design-time form. Each item that appears on the form directly represents an individual form component.

After the customer has completed the survey, the data that is retrieved from the survey is stored in a database. A custom component, created with the Workflow integration engine, connects to the database and stores the data.

For more information on the integration engine, see the Workflow Solution Administrator's Guide.

www.altiris.com/support/documentation.aspx

When the customer completes the survey and clicks Submit, these variable values are collected and stored in a database by the database component.

Other components in this example are as follows:

  • Custom component

    This component was created with the integration engine.

    For more information on the integration engine, see the Workflow Solution Administrator's guide.

    www.altiris.com/support/documentation.aspx

Vacation request

Scenario: In a Web form, an employee submits a vacation request. A manager is notified about the pending request by an email that includes a link to view the request. The requester is notified about the manager's decision by email.

Process: This process is created as a Workflow Project type.

The following screen shot shows the process:

Forms (Web) Project types can use the Form Builder component on the main Project model. Workflow Project types can use the Form Builder component only inside Dialog Workflow components

In the first Dialog Workflow component - "vacation Request" - the dialog model contains a form.

The following screen shot shows the dialog model:

The Form Builder component displays the request form. After the employee completes the form, the entered data is displayed in another Web form inside the "Manager Approval" Dialog Workflow component.

Other components in this example are as follows:

  • Send Email

  • Dialog Workflow

The Form Builder component is very complex.

It contains a set of components (for example, text box and radio button) that appear nowhere else in Symantec Workflow. In addition to having configurable components, the Form Builder also has hundreds of form themes to change the look of your form.

Adding a theme to a form

Web forms are created in the Form Builder component.

Web forms have two primary parts: theme and components. Adding a theme to your Web form adds to its aesthetic appeal, and lets you create uniformity between multiple forms by using a common theme.

To add a theme to a form

  1. In the upper left corner click the Select Theme symbol.

  2. Click Edit Project Themes.

  3. Click Add.

  4. Select a theme, and click OK.

  5. Click Close.

  6. Click OK.

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