Form Flows

VIDEO | Setting up a Form Flow

The Form Flows tab of the Form builder lets you manage all the form flows associated with a form template. A form flow adds workflow functionality to your form so that responsible parties can be actively engaged in an event’s process life cycle. Including a form flow can be helpful if your business process needs to be handed off from the reporter to another individual or department. Each step of a form flow has an associated form flow button in the template that you, as a responsible party, can click to complete your part.

Multiple form flows can also be added to a form to suit your specific business processes. For example, when filling out a form, you might need manager approval to proceed sometimes, but not every time. In this case, you could have one form flow for when manager approval is required, and another form flow when it is not required. Each form flow’s steps are independent of each other but contained in the same form.

The Form Flows tab is separated into the following areas:

  1. Each form flow is shown as its own card with a description and number of steps.
  2. When a form flow is selected, each of its steps is shown as a card with information like the associated button, the responsible party, and the number of days until the step is overdue. You can also add a new step here.
  3. The side panel lets you edit fields associated with the selected form flow or step.

Create a Form Flow

To create a form flow, you must use both the Build and Form Flows tabs to associate form flow questions with a form flow and its steps.

To efficiently plan and create a form flow, you can build your form with all of its form flow questions before moving to the Form Flows tab to associate those questions with steps.

There are two ways to start creating a form flow:

  • From the Build tab, in the Form Flow Button’s side panel under Details, click Step setup, and then click Next if you see a dialog box that says no form flows exist

  • From the Form Flows tab, click Create form flow

The following step by step walks you through the process assuming that you start from the Build tab.

Step by Step — Create a Form Flow

  1. In the Build tab, add a form flow question.
  2. In the Form Flow Button’s side panel under Details, click Step setup.
  3. Click Next if you see a dialog box that says no form flows exist.
  4. In the Create form flow dialog box, fill out the Form flow name and Description.
  5. Select the Step 1 card.

  6. In the Step 1 panel on the left side of the page, in the Details section, select which form flow button to use for this step and who is responsible.

  7. Optionally, if you want to send an email notification to the responsible party for this step, click Add email in the Email section and complete the dialog box.

    The email notification indicates the start of the step after clicking its form flow button, not the step’s completion.

Set Up Form Flow Steps

You can add a new step to a form flow through the Add Step button in the Form Flows tab or the Step setup button of a form flow question in the Build tab. The Add Step wizard contains several pages of options. After you have added a step, you can edit any of this information by selecting the step card and editing the fields in the left side panel.

There are two ways to start setting up an additional form flow step:

  • From the Build tab, in the Form Flow button’s side panel under Details, click Step setup

  • From the Form Flows tab, click Add Step

The following step by step walks you through the process assuming you start from the Build tab and have at least one form flow and form flow question.

Step by Step — Set Up an Additional Form Flow Step

  1. Add a new form flow question in the Build tab.
  2. In the Form Flow button’s side panel under Details, click Step setup.

  3. On the Step details page of the Add Step wizard, select the form flow button to use for this step.

    If you started the Add Step wizard from the Build tab, this option is already filled with the form flow button you selected.

  4. Select whether this step can move to the next step when all responsible parties complete it or any one of them completes it.

  5. Select who is responsible for this step.

    • If you select Users, you must select a specific user.
    • If you select Role, you must select which role and whether the user can choose an individual from the selected role to be responsible.

    You can let the user choose an individual from the selected role if, for example, one individual with that role is off work and cannot complete the step.

  6. Click Next.

  7. On the Email page, select whether you want to add an email that notifies responsible recipients each time this step is reached, and then enter the contents of the email.

    The email notification indicates the start of the step after clicking its form flow button, not the step’s completion.

    You can personalize the email by pressing the @ key and selecting responses to questions in the form to insert.

  8. Click Next.
  9. On the Actions page, select the status the event changes to when this step is initiated.
  10. Select how many days until this step becomes overdue and whether the days are counted from the initiated date or the previous step.

  11. Optionally, select Make this step reversible to let users go back to a previous step. Select which step to go back to, whether to cc recipients to the email, and whether to require a comment when reversing.

    If you make a step reversible, you must go back to the Build tab after the step setup to edit the text of the new button, which is named Reversal form flow button by default.

    The reverse form flow button can have leading logic applied to it independently from the button that advances to the next step.

  12. Click Next.

  13. On the Step access page, set view or edit access by role for each form question or section when the event is in this step. Access rules are shown as a table with the ability to view and edit as columns and questions and sections as rows. When you select a cell, a slide-out panel shows options for all roles, a select role, or no roles.

    The view and edit permissions you set on this page are applied to the form only when in this specific step of the form flow. Step access does not override question access given in the template. If you cannot view a question using the access given in the template, you cannot view it when step access is applied.

  14. On the Button details page, select what form flow button is used to advance to the next step.

    You can also select None.

  15. Select whether this button completes the form flow.
  16. Click Save.

Re-enable form flow

You can let users re-enable a form flow of a completed event by selecting a form flow, and then selecting the Re-enable form flow on completed events check box in the side panel.

When a user re-enables a form flow, they can move it back to the step of their choice. All step data is saved from previously completing the form flow unless the user changes an answer in a way that leads to different questions based on logic. Only the selected form flow is re-enabled, not all form flows associated with the template. If a re-enabled form flow leads to another form flow that is not re-enabled, the user cannot see the other form flow.

Users must have permission to edit completed events to re-enable a form flow.