Form studio

Administration → Form studio is where you arrange the form for every kind of record and add the questions your organisation tracks that the product does not — a production line, a permit number, a batch. The middle of the screen is the record’s form drawn as it will be drawn, so you arrange it directly.

Form studio showing the work order form, with the palette of field types on the left

Who can use this screen

Adding and arranging fields takes Configure custom fields — System Administrator and Maintenance Administrator by default. Without it the screen says Forms are arranged by an administrator, because a field’s type decides where its answers are stored. See roles.

Element	What it shows or does
your fields	How many fields your organisation has added to this form
the record’s own	How many of the product’s own fields the form carries
sections	How many sections the form has
answers recorded	How many answers have been given to your fields on this kind of record
The form for	Which record’s form you are arranging — work orders, assets, parts, vendors, technicians and every other kind of record whose form your organisation arranges, including forms such as the capex proposal, the capex plan header, the Capex-Consolidated Planning form, the budget, the FF&E plan and the work permit. Type part of a form’s name to find it in the list. You can also open the studio from a record’s own edit dialog, which lands on that form
Back to the standard layout	Puts the form back the way it was drawn when your organisation was set up — see the standard layout

The canvas is the form

The greyed fields are the product’s own: what they ask cannot change, but where they are asked can. Your fields are drawn as the record will draw them.

Action	Result
Drag a field, or press Move on it and then choose a slot (Put it here)	Moves the field. Both work, because a drag cannot be done from a keyboard or reliably on a touchscreen. The arrangement saves itself (Saving the arrangement…, Saved)
Press the pencil (What … asks, and of whom) on a field	Opens the field’s settings
Move on a section, then Put the section here	Moves the whole section
Drag a type from Add a question, or click it and choose where it goes	Adds a new field there
Add a section	Adds a section (see sections)

Fields live in sections. The product’s sections come first, then yours, then In no section, drawn under everything else.

Back to the standard layout

Back to the standard layout asks first, in Go back to the standard layout?, and says what will move:

the record’s own fields go back where the product draws them;
the photographs and files the product added go back to the section they started in, which is made again if somebody removed it;
fields you added move to In no section;
sections you added are removed once nothing is left in them.

Nothing is deleted. Every answer stays, and so does what you set on each field: whether it must be answered, whether it is withdrawn, who may see it and when it is asked. Put it back goes ahead. The button is offered on every form, including one that holds only your own fields, such as a meter reading.

Adding a field

Add a question lists every type — Drag one into the form, or choose it and then choose where it goes. Placing one opens A new [type] field, here:

Field	What it means	Notes
Label	What the field is called on the form	Required. Example: Production batch
Must be answered	The field is required	See required
Holds several	The field can hold more than one answer	Offered for files, photographs and controlled documents. Fixed once created: the answers are stored one row each and do not merge back

Some forms take no questions of your own, because an answer to one could not be shown on any list. On those the palette says so in place of the types — on a form such as the capex proposal, that new questions cannot be added but its own fields are still yours to move, stop asking or insist on; on a form that already holds questions of yours, that the ones you have are still yours to move or stop asking. The type is fixed once anything answers this field, so it is worth getting right now. For a choice field, you add the choices once it exists. Add creates the field; Cancel discards it.

The types

Group	Type	Holds
Typed	Text	A line of text — a batch number, a serial
Typed	Long text	A paragraph. Notes, observations
Typed	Bulleted text	Words and points, each on its own line. The box has Bullets and Numbering buttons, and the answer reads as a list. A required one counts as answered only when a point has words in it
Typed	Link	A web address
Typed	A signature, drawn	Signed on screen. The only kind that prints on a document
Numbers	Whole number	Counts. No decimal point
Numbers	Decimal	Measurements — hours, pressures, tolerances
Numbers	Money	An amount, in the organisation’s currency
Numbers	Percentage	Nought to a hundred
Numbers	Rating	A score out of five
Chosen	Yes / no	A single condition, either true or not
Chosen	One of a list	A closed list you define
Chosen	One of a few	The same, shown as buttons where there are three or four
Chosen	Any of a list	More than one may be chosen
When	Date	A calendar day
When	Time	A time of day
When	Date and time	A moment
A record	A person	Someone in your organisation, chosen from a list
A record	A team	A crew rather than a person
A record	A site	One of the sites
A record	A location	Somewhere inside a site
A record	An asset	Another asset — a feed, a spare, a parent
A record	A part	A stocked item
A record	A vendor	A supplier or contractor
A record	A work order	Another job this one refers to
With a file	A file	A document, uploaded against the record
With a file	A photograph	Taken or picked, shown on the record
With a file	A signature, as an image	Filed as evidence. Captured offline, and counted against the job
With a file	A controlled document	From the document library — the answer follows whichever revision is in force

The two signatures are different on purpose. A drawn signature is strokes captured on screen and is the only kind that can print on a generated document. A signature as an image is filed as evidence — retained, captured offline and counted against a job’s requirements.

A field’s settings

The pencil on a field opens its settings. The header shows the field’s label, its key, its type, required if it must be answered and how many answers it holds. The tabs are What it asks, Choices (choice fields only, with the number of choices), Where and when and Who sees it.

What it asks

Field	What it means	Notes
Label	The field’s name on the form	Translate it on Localization
Help text	What a person needs to know to answer — shown under the field
Must be answered	Required before the record can be saved	See required
Show it, but not for anyone to type	The field is drawn but read-only — on screen, on a handset and to an import	Use Let it be edited when on Where and when for the exception
Available offline	The field can be answered in the field app without a connection
Offered on lists	The field can be shown as a column on the record’s list screen	Offered under Columns, switched off until somebody turns it on. File, photograph and signature fields are offered too, drawn as thumbnails, a paperclip count or the signature mark
Holds several	More than one answer	Locked once answered: Already answered, so this cannot change
Write where and when onto the photograph	Stamps the place and time onto the picture	Photograph fields
Type line	The type and how many answers are stored, for example Its type cannot change — 4 answers are stored as text	A field’s type never changes once answered. Create a new field and stop asking the old one instead
What it will accept	Rules checked when somebody answers, each with Rule, Value and What to say when it fails (optional)	See what a field accepts
Publish	Puts waiting changes — new choices, for example — into force	Shown when changes are waiting (draft waiting)
Stop asking / Remove	Stop asking takes an answered field off the form; Remove deletes a field nothing has answered	A field you stop asking moves to No longer asked

For A controlled document field, What it files a new document as sets the Category, Owner and Review every (months) given to a document uploaded through the field. Leave it empty and this field only points at documents the library already has.

What a field accepts

Rule	Applies to	Means
At least / At most	Numbers	A number no smaller or larger than this
Decimal places	Decimals, money	How precise the answer may be
At least this long / At most this long	Text, including bulleted text	In characters
Matches	Text	A pattern the answer must match
Only these kinds	Files	File types, for example `image/*, .pdf`
No larger than	Files	In megabytes
Must arrive with	Photographs	Taken with the camera, A location, A capture time. A file missing these is refused unless somebody with the waiver permission says why
At least this many	Fields that hold several	Asked for at a status change, not while adding
At most this many	Fields that hold several	The field stops offering to add once full
Don’t allow past date / Don’t allow future date	Dates	Two independent switches, both off by default

Anything of the right type means no rule is set. A rule is refused at the moment somebody answers, in the words you give it.

Choices

What it offers lists each choice with its code, its wording and how often it has been chosen. Turn off stops offering a choice and keeps it on records that used it; Turn on offers it again; Remove deletes a choice nothing has used. Shown as plus Add adds a new choice. A published list cannot change under the answers given against it, so changes wait until you Publish. A choice field with nothing to choose cannot be published.

Where and when

Where it applies decides which records carry the field at all. With nothing named, it is on every record of this kind, so the first thing you add narrows it.

Field	What it means
Narrow to	A type or category, A site or One record. A type or category brings in everything under it, including kinds added later
Which	The type, category, site or record
Exclude instead	Apply the field everywhere except here
Add	Adds the scope. Remove takes one off; removing the last puts the field back on every record

When it is asked decides whether a record that carries the field is asked it right now. Conditions read the record’s own answers and fields, so the form follows what somebody fills in. A field hidden by a condition is never required — nobody can be blocked by a question they cannot see.

Condition	Effect
Ask it only when	Hidden until this holds
Stop asking it when	Asked unless this holds
Insist on it when	Asked either way; unskippable once this holds. A condition naming a status refuses the move to that status
Let it be skipped when	For a field that is required by default
Freeze it when	Shown and no longer editable
Let it be edited when	For a field frozen by default; lifts your own freeze, not the product’s

Each condition uses the same builder as rules, and has its own Save. A few forms are filled in on a screen of their own that cannot keep a field frozen or ask it only on a condition — the capex proposal, an asset transfer and a disposal among them. On those, the conditions and Show it, but not for anyone to type are not offered, and a sentence says why in their place.

Who sees it

Control	How it works
Hide from everyone	Nobody sees the field or its answers — on the form, on the record, in the register or in an export, on the web or in the field app — including roles added later. The answers are kept, and unticking it puts the field back as it was. While it is ticked, the Hidden from ticks are greyed and kept
Who may answer it	A grant list with see and answer per role. Left alone, everybody who can see the record can see and answer the field. Tick a role and the field narrows to the roles you ticked — the first tick takes it away from the rest. Untick them all to put it back to everybody
Hidden from	A deny list. Ticking hide for a role hides the field from that role only — on the form, on the record and in the register. Everybody else keeps seeing it

The product’s own fields

The settings of a product field, the work order title

A product field’s settings have What it asks and Who sees it. Its label and type belong to the product and are the same for every organisation; rename it on Localization.

Setting	What it means
Answered with	What kind of value it holds, in words — text, a number, yes or no, a date, a date and a time, a time of day, a list of values or a link to another record
Drawn in	The section it sits in
Must be answered	Make an optional product field required (— the product asks for it where it is always required)
Do not ask for this	Takes the field off the form, bulk edits and the list’s columns. It is not hidden: an import can still fill it in, a report can still read it, and a recorded value is still shown on the record. Not offered where the field has to be answered
Show it, but not for anyone to type	Drawn read-only, and tagged not typed here on the canvas. Whatever else fills it in still does
Starts as	Where a new record’s form opens this question, for a product field answered from a list. Nothing — the form opens blank is the default. Whoever fills the form in can still change it, and records already made keep what they have. If the value you chose stops being offered, it reads A value no longer offered and new records open the question blank until you choose another
When it is asked	The same conditions as for your own fields
Hide from everyone	On Who sees it. Nobody sees the field on the form or on the record screen, on the web or in the field app, including roles added later. Unlike one of your own fields, the register, an export and a report still read it, and any value already recorded is kept. Not offered for a field the product requires
Who may answer it and Hidden from	On Who sees it. Control the form and the record screen per role. A list, an export or a report reads the field directly

Sections

Add a section opens A new section with a name (example: Commissioning). Name it after a section the record already has and its fields are drawn inside that one rather than in a panel below. A section’s settings offer:

Field	What it means
Heading	The section’s title on the record
Folded shut when the record opens	The section starts collapsed
Remove this section	Only once its fields have been dragged out (Holds N — drag them out first)

No longer asked

Fields you stopped asking are listed under No longer asked. Nothing there has been deleted: every answer is still on its record, readable by a report and writable by an import. Ask it again returns a field to the section it came from, at the place it held.

List view

Below the form, List view sets how each list of this kind of record is drawn, for everybody in your organisation. It changes how the list looks and nothing in it. It is offered for the main registers — work orders, work requests, assets, maintenance plans, inspections, bookings, tools, sites, visitors, parts, requisitions, requests for quotation, purchase orders, vendors and contracts — and for the capex and FF&E plan lists. Each change is saved as you make it.

Setting	What it does
Headings centred	Centres every column heading over its column, rather than setting it to the edge its values are
Vertical lines	Draws a line between every two columns, from the headings to the last row
Line darkness	From 1, the faint line every list is drawn with, to 10, as dark as the text. It darkens the lines between rows as well as the vertical lines
Line width	From 1, the thin line every list is drawn with, to 3
Alternate row colour	Fills every second row with a colour
Column label colour	Fills the row of column labels with a colour
Serial number (#) column	Adds a # column first in the list, numbering the rows 1, 2, 3 as they are shown and carrying on from one page to the next
Pinned columns	None, or up to 6 leading columns that stay in place while the rest of the row scrolls sideways. The row’s menu stays with them. Not on a phone
Text size	Small, Normal or Large. Small also makes the rows shorter, so more fit on the screen

For the two colours, tick the box and pick one of eight pale colours, or choose Another colour. A colour too dark to read the list on is refused with Too dark for the list to be read on. Choose a lighter colour. On the dark theme each colour is drawn as a faint tint of itself.

On the list and beyond the form

A few kinds of record carry two more panels below List view. On the list lists the warnings a list draws above its rows. Untick one to stop drawing it. That changes what is shown and nothing else: every check behind it still runs and still refuses. The capex plan list, for example, offers Plans that will be refused when they are sent. Beyond the form lists parts of the record that are not on its form. Each is off until it is ticked here, and ticking one turns it on for everybody in your organisation. The capex proposal offers two:

Setting	What it turns on
Phasing	A month-by-month cashflow for each proposal: the Phasing button and the Phased column on a plan’s proposals, and the phasing sheet in its download. Off, none of them is shown and no proposal is refused for having no phasing. Turning it off keeps whatever phasing was entered
Correct	Lets the approver a proposal is waiting on correct it in its form before they approve it — any field but its unit, location, quantity, category and amount — and move its phasing between months. Off, approvers change only the fields their own step of the workflow names, in Approvals
Send for approval	Send for approval in the ⋯ menu of a draft proposal on the proposal consolidation list. On until it is unticked. Off, a draft is still sent with Save & Submit on its form or Submit on its plan

The consolidated planning and capitalization plan forms offer a Send for approval of their own in the same way, and the capitalization plan also offers Capitalization Date is the 1st of the month. The site form offers Site code can be changed. Off, a site’s code is set when the site is added and cannot be changed. On, the code can be changed on the site’s form, including a code the site was numbered with, and every location at the site takes the new code at the start of its path. Labels already printed still show the old code, so print them again — scanning one printed from the product still finds what it was printed for — and numbers already given out keep the code they were given.

Required

Tick Must be answered and the field must be answered before the record can be saved — and, on a work order, before the job can be closed. A required field appears in the field app under “before you can close this”, with a count.

Every required field is something somebody must type at the machine, possibly in the rain. Prefer Insist on it when a particular status is reached over making a field required everywhere.

A record’s own number is set on Numbering. A status change can ask for fields in a dialog — set that on the move on statuses and transitions. Bring fields and values in bulk with Import.

Setting up

Configuration

Who can use this screen

The canvas is the form

Back to the standard layout