Modify an Existing Form Dashboard

Purpose

A Form Data Dashboard is the mechanism used in VisualVault that allows users to display multiple records of form data and then allow them to view, update, or modify data for a selected Form ID Card or Form data instance. It can be an administrative tool allowing owners of the form to view a combination of:

• The form metadata (Form ID, create date, modified date, status, etc.) and the Field level data or
• It can be a tool giving users in the business process data that they need to get their work done. 

It is recommended that the Form ID or Edit links be used as a way to navigate to the actual form. 

• Users may also utilize the right-click accessible context menu to navigate to the form.  

Multiple dashboards may exist for any given form template and its instances. Users may also be restricted to only viewing the data from Form Dashboards depending upon permissions and the columns displayed in the published dashboard.

This article will review modifying a pre-existing form dashboard.

• Once a form dashboard has been created, there may be circumstances that would cause the dashboard to be modified.

Some examples would be (but are not limited to):

• If new fields are added to the form template.
• If existing fields are no longer relevant to be displayed.
• If a field should be made editable via the dashboard.

Something to note is that the form template selection cannot be modified once the dashboard has been initially created and saved.

Steps to Modify a Dashboard

To modify an existing form dashboard:

1. As an Owner to the form dashboard or a VaultAccess member, navigate to the Form Data Dashboard Administration.
2. In the available list of dashboards, select the Edit link next to the name of the desired dashboard.   
3. After making any desired changes, select the Save button.   
4. In the popup that appears, there will be the option to either Save or Save as New Dashboard. Pressing one will commit the changes.
   • If using Save as New Dashboard, the Form Dashboard Name needs to be modified or the dashboard will not be created.   

Special Modifications

There are a few special configurations that can be applied to a form dashboard:

• Query Filters
• Joined Dashboards
• Multi-Edit and Other Column Options

Query Filter

The Query Filter is another way of filtering data for specific information using SQL notation. 

When filtering there are several rules that need to be followed:

• Use the name of the column or field as it exists on the form template or uses the Field Name as shown below.
• Enclose column or field names that have multiple words in square brackets. (i.e. [Shipping Address])
• Use comparison operators. (=, <>, >, <, like)
• Enclose the string being searched for in single quotes. If it is a numeric value single quotes are not necessary.
• Use SQL wild cards within the string being searched.
• OR, AND, and parentheses are allowed to create complex filters.

Example

The example below will use the following example dashboard:

Looking for a specific Form ID:

Key the following in the SQL Filter. Notice the Column Name is Form ID, but the database name if we edited Form ID is DhDocID.

• DhDocID = 'Contact -000002'

Add Query Filter

To add a query filter:

1. As an Owner to the form dashboard or a VaultAccess member, navigate to the Form Data Dashboard Administration.
2. In the available list of dashboards, select the Edit link next to the name of the desired dashboard.   
3. Select the Query Filter button.   
4. Enter in the desired query and use the Update button when finished.   
5. Close out of the Query Filter window and use the Save button.   
6. Use one of the Save buttons to either created a new dashboard or save the current one.   

Joined Dashboards

At times, as you work with Form Data, you may want to bring together data from two different form templates into a single dashboard.  This is helpful, especially when a parent/child form has been created.  

To set up a Form Dashboard so it shows related data from two different form templates, you first need to configure the form templates so that there is a mechanism to relate the two forms together.  

• As an example, you may have a Form ID on the parent form that uniquely identifies that form.  
  •  When you fill in the child form, you should pass the Form ID to the child form and populate a read-only field.   This information from both forms helps to relate the two forms together.

Once you have data that helps to relate the two forms together, you would complete the following steps when designing a dashboard:

1. Design a dashboard (save) for a single form template and assign the data from the first template or parent template that you want to see in the dashboard.
2. Select the database icon next to the name of the form template.   
3. Use the + to add a row.   
4. Select the second form template that you want to show in the dashboard in the Select Data Source drop-down list.   
5. Then select the field in each of the form templates that are equal to each other.   
6. In the Join Type select from one of the following options:
   • Join (Only Matched): This join type will show only information from the parent and child form when the data is equal.
   • Full (All Records): Show all records from the parent and child forms.  When there is not matching data in either set of forms, a blank area will be shown in the dashboard for data that does not exist.
   • Left (All data from Left Table): Report on all records from the first selected form template and any records from the second form template when the values are equal.
   • Right (All from Right Table): Report on all records from the second selected form template and any records from the first form template when they match. 
7. When all information is entered, use the Update button.   
8. Once the second form template has been properly associated with the dashboard, you can scroll down in the Available Form Fields list and assign fields from either form template.  The first form template selected will appear first in the list.  Fields that pertain to each form will be grouped together.   
9. The dashboard must be saved to commit the changes.  

Multi-Edit

The Multi-Edit function of form dashboards allows users to edit multiple form records at once.  When records are edited in this manner, the validation rules and web services will not run.  

To enable multi-edit:

1. As an Owner to the form dashboard or a VaultAccess member, navigate to the Form Data Dashboard Administration.
2. In the available list of dashboards, select the Edit link next to the name of the desired dashboard.  
3. In the list of Selected Report Columns, select the desired form field and then use the pencil icon.   
4. In the window that appears, select the checkbox for Allow Multi-Edit.   
5. Use one of the following buttons to update the field:
   • Update: Allows a save of the new configuration but keeps the window open for additional edits.
   • Update and Close: Saves and closes the window. 
6. The dashboard must be saved to commit the changes.    

To use multi-edit:

1. View or Edit desired dashboard.   
2. Select one or more forms by using the checkbox to the left of the form, then use the Multi-Edit button.   
3. In the window that appears, use the drop down to select which form field should be edited.   
4. For each selected field, enter the desired value.   
5. When all desired changes have been made, use the Save button to apply the changes to the forms.