Forms Designer - Caveats

Modified on 2024/02/27 22:09 by Adam — Categorized as: Uncategorized

When working in the Forms Designer there are certain rules and behaviors of the program that are important to be aware of.

When referencing anything in a Formula, the names are all Case Sensitive.

When naming an item placed on the canvas, only use letters and numbers. Do not use spaces, special characters, or punctuation.

If a label's "Name" property is changed from the default Label_# format, then it's contents will be available to be shown in places such as the Forms Manager and Layer property Labels.

The contents of a Label will not be able to be used when setting colors in the Form Layer Properties.

When using the sum() and max() formulas, all fields that you want them to reference must be named the same.

When using sum(FieldName) within a formula and one of the FieldName values equals a non-numeric value, it will concatenate that non-numeric value within the numeric values. The numeric values will not total together if a non-numeric value exists within a referenced control.

max(FieldName) will ignore any referenced control that contains a non-numeric value. See: Insert Variable

The Surety mapping logo cannot be removed from the canvas or changed in size. According to AgriData's EULA, a Surety logo must be displayed on all Forms & maps generated within Surety & Surety Pro.

When the My Logo is used, the height and width should be changed to match the aspect ratio of the logo uploaded into your company's account. This will ensure the logo displays correctly on the form. For example, If I have a logo that is 140px wide and 50px tall, then set the My Logo item's properties as 140 for width and 50 for height or I could set a same ratio such as 70px wide and 25px tall (50%)

Each Text Area is limited to 900 characters long when filling out the form.

Show a blank value on a Drop Down list - In order to have a blank space show initially on a drop-down list, use the string

&nbsp;

When using variables in a Drop Down list, 3 things need to be remembered:

Use "VisualList:" By placing this string in front of the formula within a Drop Down List that references another control. VisualList: also allows for multiple formulas that are evaluated independently of one another and/or run concurrent with another.
VisualList will break a hide/show formula if that formula comes after the VisualList:
Place a "/n" before the list item to designate it on a new line.

If a list has a required field and that list is included within a grid or form, then it is advised to remove the "required" status from the grid or form if there was multiple placed on the form as is often the case.

When a grid or list(anything containing a group number) is placed on a form and that form is then released and subsequently generated and saved. The grid can then no longer be deleted permanently off the form without necessary actions. It would require any saved records of that particular form to be deleted. See Forms Designer - Delete

A form with a Soils Table on it cannot be saved to a client record so it needs to be set as Display Only under File>Form Properties

When using an if statement and you would like it to check more than one requirement, the "&&" (and) "||" (or) string needs to be placed correctly in the formula.

Example:

=if(Field1>2 && Field2>2){Field1+Field2}

Incorrect Example

=if(Field1 && Field2>2){Field1+Field2}

Another correct example using the show & hide formulas.

=if(Field2=5){show(Field3) && hide(Field4)}

If a control is going to have strictly numeric values, set its Type to either number or decimal. See: Forms Designer - Type

This will tell the Forms Manager how to correctly sort the column with those values. Otherwise the Forms Manager just matches similar characters when sorting.

Example of an ActualAcres control column incorrectly set as a "String" Type. The column is set to sort from smallest value to largest value.

Example of an ActualAcres control column correctly set as a "Number" Type. The column is set to sort from smallest value to largest value.