Overview

One of the challenges of traditional ways of collecting user data (e.g., via documents or spreadsheets) is the complicated instructions necessary to help users know which part of the form(s) apply to them, depending on their situation or data. A classic example is your standard IRS form with many instructions like “If you enter data here, skip to step X.” These are necessary since the form cannot interact with the actual data dynamically the user is entering. The ITAM Logic Builder is the solution to avoiding complicated instructional guidance. Instead of manually telling your users how to navigate your form, you can use the Logic Builder to respond dynamically to the data the user enters and customize their interaction with a form based on their needs.

That is not all the Logic Builder does. It can allow for custom notification or data integration points while filling out a form instead of waiting for submission. It can also create rules around a review and approval process for data.

This guide page’ll cover Form Logic and the Logic Builder, an aspect of Advanced Form Management that is useful for efficiently routing a user through a form and managing other form-related workflow needs. ITAM supports six (6) different areas for advanced Logic:

• Rules to Show/Hide fields
• Rules to Skip Pages
• Rules to Send Notification Emails
• Rules to Send Form Data to Another Website
• Rules to Add approvers for a form
• Approve/Deny Notification Logic

Accessing the Form Logic Builder

The logic button/tab below a form entry in the Form Manager allows users to access a form's logic configuration options.

Logic Options

Enable Rules to Show/Hide Fields

One of the primary ways to simplify a user’s interaction with a form is to display only the necessary fields to a user based on their needs. This minimizes extraneous data and streamlines a user’s experience with a form.

ITAM can Show or Hide any field based on one or more conditions chosen by the designer. Each time a user makes a selection or enters any text into the field, the show/hide conditions are evaluated, and the associated field will be shown or hidden immediately. If no conditions are set, a field will always be displayed.

Creating the conditions for displaying or hiding a field is as simple as selecting the fields from the drop-down menu and defining the desired action and one or more condition(s).

Conditions are a set of comparisons of a field in the form with some value. The types of values available will depend on the kind of field and the comparison chosen. See the section on Dynamic Comparison Options at the end of this page for more information.

When selecting a date to trigger logic, you can choose either a single date using the Is value or set a date range by setting both the Is Before option, as the next illustration depicts, and the Is After option.

Enable Rules to Skip Pages

Sometimes, certain users do not need to fill out whole form sections. ITAM allows a form to be set up to navigate a user directly to any page based on their data entry choices. This allows you to control how a user progresses through your form and move them past unnecessary pages.

Creating the conditions for controlling page skips is similar to the show/hide fields, except you first select the page you want a user to navigate to and then set the conditions to send them there.

For example, the following illustration shows the logic behind a two-choice dropdown field. When the user selects “Yes” for this field, the page advances to page 5. When the user selects “No,” the page advances to page 6.

Selecting a date to trigger page navigation is similar to showing and hiding a field in that you can choose either a single date or a date range, as the next illustration depicts.

Enable Rules to Send Notification Emails

In the Form Notifications section of the guide, we covered how to set up notifications when a form is submitted. ITAM also allows messages to be sent while filling out a form. This is accomplished by setting rules for sending notification emails. The operation for defining additional logic for sending notifications to specified email accounts is similar to SHOW/HIDE and Skip Pages. In addition to choosing the conditions, you must also set to whom the email is sent and what email template is used.

If the option for a Custom email template is chosen, the form will display additional fields allowing you to create the email template.

Enable Rules to Send Form Data to Another Website

In the Form Notifications section of the guide, we covered how to send data to another web page when a form is submitted. ITAM also allows a set of data to be sent to another web page based on rules around the data being entered. The top of the configuration section will enable you to define one or more rules that trigger the data being sent, and the bottom of the form allows you to configure how the connection to the other website is sent and what data will be sent. See the Send Form Data to Another Website section of the Form Notifications page for more information on the options for configuring the ability to send form data.

Enable Rules to Add Approvers for a Form

Some forms require approval upon submission. The Rules to Add approvers for a form allow you to configure how a form will be approved.

Single-Step Approval

Single-step approval involves one or more approvers in a single round of approvals. ITAM allows for three (3) options for Single-Step approval. If Any user can approve is chosen, any administrative user can approve the form. Conversely, if only selected users approve/deny the form, the option to approve is only available to the identified users, who may approve the form. Finally, if unanimous approval from ALL approvers is selected, all users must approve a form for approval.

Multi-Step Approval

Multi-step approval is used to set up a series of approval gates through which a form must pass to be fully approved. The tool will allow the order to be rearranged as needed. ITAM will request approval from each user. If any user denies the approval, the form will be denied and will not move on to the step in the approval chain.

Approve/Deny Notification Logic

It is possible to set automatic logic for approving or denying a form instead of one or more manual approval steps. ITAM does this using the Approve/Deny Notification Logic section.

The Approve/Deny Notification Logic can be used with the Add approvers for this form section. If users have been selected in the Add approvers for this form, the user selection in the Approve/Deny Notification Logic dropdown will be restricted to those users. If no users have been selected in that section, all users will be available in this section.

To set a rule for approval or denial, select the approver with whom this logic will be associated. Think of this as the rule(s) that the user has for approving or denying the form. Once a user is selected, a configuration section will be displayed, allowing the rule(s) to be configured.

At the bottom of the configuration section is the option to set whether this will generate an approval or denial notification.

Dynamic Comparison Options

The options presented for comparison change depending on the field type being compared. Below are the options for the various field types

Next we will explore Form Integration and the options for linking to your form from other web sites.