Data collection and form flow

Let us show how to access specific settings for an existing form template in form administration – for example the details of the first signing step in the Outgoing document (MSG_OUT) form.

You are now viewing the information on the first signing step of Outgoing document. This way you can view any of the form description entries.

Here is a simple example: how to set up a workflow for a leave request, which:

The expected form behavior:

FormFlow allows users to forward an unsigned form to another user, who will then sign it and submit to the approval process. This option allows one user (e.g. a secretary) to initiate and prefill a form and then hand it over to another user (e.g. manager) to sign.

User taking over a form means a user can take over a form waiting to be processed by another user, sign it and submit it to continue its approval process.

FormFlow deals with the issue of substitution when a user is absent. Information on a user’s absence is stored for each user. A substitute in case of absence can be set up for the whole form or for each signing step separately. Each user can also have a global substitute set up to be used in all forms. If FormFlow learns that a user who is receiving a form for signing is absent, it will attempt to find a substitute.

It might be useful to include user groups in the rule definitions. Using user groups means that e.g. a new employee will be automatically included without having to adjust the rules for all forms.

Groups also allow more than one user to process a form – by allowing a group to take over.

When using this method, the form must be handed to a selected user first (either by selecting them directly or setting up a default recipient). Then other users from the group can take over the form.

If there is no default recipient set up for the group, the first user in alphabetical order will be the default one. When selecting the next recipient, the list will include all members of the group (groups).

Another option is allowing the whole group to take over and process the group. When using this method, the form must be handed to a selected user first (either by selecting them directly or setting up a default recipient). Only when this user takes over the form, the other group members can take over it too.

Go to ADMINISTRATION  Processes  Process Management  Templates, select a form and click  Edit the form detail. In the menu on the left, click Document flow.

You can manage the signature path and some additional details in this section. Section Document flow properties includes several general workflow settings:

To create a signature path, click  Add a signing step.

The step is then added to the list. The icon is made available at the same time, which you can use to delete the step if needed.

The menu on the left offers for each step – this one is named Signing step 1 – a set of options, including Detail, Substitutes and Rules.

When setting up the form flow, you can also set up Announcing group memberships.

Select the groups and corresponding texts for a form. If the current user is a member of such a group, FormFlow will add the attribute member_of to elements <gw_current_user> and <gw_grp_fwdX> with the selected text inserted. If the user is a member of more than one such group, FormFlow will use the text corresponding to the first group it finds, so it is recommended to pay attention to group order in the list and adjust it using the arrows on the right.

As a result, it is possible to adjust the form behavior based on the user’s membership in groups.

Click Rules to display a screen where you can create one or more rules for the signing step.

Enter the rule name in the corresponding field and click Create.

There are now several tabs available to set up the rule or to edit it later.

Use the Rules section in the menu on the left to insert as many rules as you choose for the given signing step.

The section then lists all the rules you have created. Included are details such as whether takeover, takeover of an approved form and takeover of a rejected form are allowed. A green checkmark is used for allowed actions and a red cross for actions not allowed.

During the signing step, rules are processed in the order they are listed, from the top downwards. To reorder the rules, edit the numbers in the Order column (you can do that for more than one rule at the same time) and click Set to apply the order. Or you can move individual rules up and down the list using the blue arrow buttons.

Click Create Rule Templates From Rules to save the selected rules and use them in another form.

Click  Modify this rule to edit a selected rule. Or click to delete a rule from the list.

When adding a new rule, you do not need to set it up from scratch. If you have rule templates saved, simply create a new rule based on the selected template and then adjust it as needed.

Instead of section Create a New Rule, use section Create Rules From Rule Templates instead. Select whether to add the new rules at the end of the list or directly after one of the existing rules. Then click Select rule templates to display a list of existing rule templates.

The list of templates always displays templates from one set. Select the group in field Rule template set and click Show templates to confirm. The bottom part of the tab displays the set contents

You can add more rules at once – simply check the boxes Is selected for the rules you want to add. Click Copy selected templates and the rules will be added to the selected place in the list of rules. If you need to adjust some of them, display their detail as usual (with the button) and edit them like you would any other rule.

You can save existing rules as rule templates and reuse them later in other steps or forms. Click Create Rule Templates From Rules. A dialog is then displayed where you can select the rules and add them to a set.

Check Is selected next to a rule or rules. Then go to section Rule Template Set Selection and either select one of the existing template sets or enter a name in the following field to create a new set.

Click Copy Selected Rules and the rules will be added to the set you have specified.

Another way to adjust the flow of a form is skipping a signing step (or steps), so that when certain conditions are met, the form can e.g. go to the fourth step directly after the first signature. It is only possible to skip signing steps when the form is signed, that is, In all signing steps except the first one.

Set up the skip rules in section Skip Rules, available in the form detail (section Form – Document flow – Skip rules). Note that skip rules are defined for the whole form (not for a specific signing step like common rules).

The rule name entered in field Skip rule name must be unique among skip rules defined for this form template and must be in a format suitable to use in an URL address (it is recommended to use the letters of the English alphabet, numbers and the underscore character).

Click Add skip rule to open a screen with four tabs.

Apart from a name, each rule can have a description. Add it in the corresponding field on the Detail tab; the description can help the administrators better understand the purpose of existing rules.

On the Modify tab, set up the lists of users and groups for the rule:

Set them up the same way as when setting up common signing step rules. The form will be delivered to the default recipient defined by the skip rule. If there is no default recipient set in the skip rule, the first recipient in alphabetical order (by surname) will be selected. This means the user cannot select which one from the defined recipients will receive the form.

Do not forget to click Save changes to confirm the rule settings.

The tabs Effective signers in the previous step and Effective recipients display the complete lists of users who become the signers and recipients – including those who received this role as members of the selected groups.

Open Detail. For every signing step, you can set the messages displayed to the following signer, or the previous signer when returning the form, in section XML tag names with messages.

These elements are configured at the step from which they are sent, e.g. the element for the message from the first signer to the second is configured in the first step, the one for the message from the second signer to the first one is configured in the second step, etc.

In section Can global substitutes defined for the users be used in this signing step?, you can enable or disable using global substitutes in this step. Enabling global substitutes means that a user’s global substitute takes precedence over substitutes defined for this form. If global substitutes are disabled, they are never used in this step. Using the form setting means that a global substitute will only be used if there is none explicitly set for the form.

Go to section Substitutes to set up users who will receive the form if the signer is absent and has set up their absence period. Click Add a substitute to insert a new one.

Now select the two users from the lists: the recipient (signer) and their substitute.

Click Add a substitute to confirm the selection and complete the setup.