This article describes the basic actions available when you are working with forms. For a detailed guide to using the Forms Designer, see Using the Forms Designer.
Copy a Form
Copying an existing form can be a useful way to try out changes while leaving the existing form in place.
To copy a form, right-click on it and select "Copy this form". A copy will open in the Forms Designer. The name and description of your copy will include the word "copy" and should be updated before you publish your form.
Your copy will be created in the same form group as the original.
Creating and Editing Forms
To create a new form, right-click on an existing group and select "Create a form". To edit an existing form, double-click on it.
The "Create a form" menu has four options, one for each of the different form types. If your form is going to be published on your site, or used in an iCM Form App, select "Public form".
Private forms are only used within iCM as article extras or for subsite configuration.
Blueprints and snippets are described Form Blueprints, Snippets and Smart Snippets.
Form Properties
These properties are found on the "Text" tab of the Forms Designer.
| Text Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Form name | Every form must have a name and every name must be unique. Form names must begin with a letter. The names of published forms cannot be edited. It is possible to unpublish a form and then edit its name. Care should be taken when renaming a form. If an existing form has saved form submissions (form data) to the iCM database, renaming the from will not rename that saved data, so it could become orphaned |
| Form description | The description is displayed around iCM, in the explorer menu, search results and article related content tab. It can also appear on your website in some circumstances, like relating a form to an article (other than the Forms Service template) and in the My Account template when a user saves their form to complete later |
| External type | External types are an advanced feature of the Forms Designer. They allow multiple forms to write data to the same underlying object definitions, which are used when the form saves its data as an iCM object. For most forms, this field should be left blank so that the form creates its own object type definition. See Forms and External Type Definitions for more information |
| Access type | Either Public or Private, depending upon the type of form you are creating. Once a form has been saved, even if only as work in progress, its access type can't be changed. If you do need to change the access type, you can make a copy of the form and change it prior to saving. |
| Family | The form family this form is using. The current GOSS-developed family is called DEFAULTV2. If you have developed your own form family, select it from the drop-down. This drop-down lists all form families found in the iCM form family definitions |
These properties are found on the "Properties" tab of the Forms Designer.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Parent group | The group this form is in. Use the "Select" button to pick a new group and move the form |
| Created/Created by | Who created this form and when |
| Last Modified/Modified by | Who last edited this form and when |
| Last Published/Published by | Who last published this form and when |
| Live Form ID | All forms have two IDs. The live form ID identifies the published form when it is used on your website (the standard ID, visible in the top right of the Forms Designer) is only used within iCM |
| Unpublished changes | Either "Yes" or "No" if there are changes to the form that have not yet been published |
Form Design
The design tab of a form is the work area where you build your form. It is described in full in Using the Forms Designer.
Deleting a Form
To delete a form, right-click on it and choose "Delete this form". If the form that is about to be deleted is being used (ie related to an article or used in an iCM Form App) you'll see a warning which lists the items using it.
Deleted forms can be restored using Form Version History.
If you delete a form that has written data to the iCM database (using the "Database Save" form action), the saved data is not deleted when the form is. Saved data will become orphaned and inaccessible if you delete the form that created it. You may want to delete the data first, using the Form Data Browser, or create a second form to view the data.
Exporting a Form
To export a form, right-click on it and choose "Export this form". Exported forms can be imported into another iCM, but should not be imported into an iCM with a lower release version than the one they were created in.
When you export a form it's parent group structure is exported too. This structure can be maintained when you perform an import.
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