Overview
When completing a workflow step, you often encounter information that needs a home in your organization. With Active Forms in your Practifi instance, you can enter that information directly on the workflow step's record page. This article outlines what Active Forms are and how to access this functionality within your organization. For System Administrator information about Active Forms, please consult our Configuring Active Forms article.
- Understanding Active Forms
- Using and Accessing Active Forms
- Tips for Filling Out Active Forms
- Working With Event Start and End Times
Understanding Active Forms
System Administrators configure Active Forms in your Practifi instance. Using Active Forms avoids additional navigation and ensures that team members capture what's needed before marking an item as complete. Once captured, that information is used as input by the workflow step's actions, sending it exactly where it needs to go in your organization.
System Administrators can configure Active Forms to automatically prefill certain fields with default values when the form loads. This reduces manual data entry and ensures consistency across your organization. Prefilled values can come from related records or be calculated using formulas. For example, a meeting start time might default to the next hour, or an end time might automatically calculate to 60 minutes after the start time.
Active Forms are supported on single-step workflows, such as a templated task, or available as part of multi-step workflows, such as a process. If a task does not have an Active Form attached by a System Administrator, a message will be displayed informing the user that there is no associated Active Form.
During the creation of the Active Form, the System Administrator will verify its functionality with a Validation Check. This feature checks 14 scenarios to ensure the Active Form is working as the Administrator expects. A user can see an Active Form that has failed the Validation Check. If issues raised during the check cause problems when team members complete the workflow step, a prompt will appear explaining the issue. If this prompt appears, the user should contact their Practifi System Administrator to confirm the workflow's settings.
Using and Accessing Active Forms
If a workflow step has an associated form, users will see it in the Active Form tab on the Task record page. The form also appears when a user marks the task as complete, ensuring that the data capture requirements are addressed before the step is completed.
The user assigned to the task can edit the created Active Form. All other users within the Practifi instance will see a read-only version of the form. Practifi System Administrators are the exception and can edit the Active Form regardless of whether they are assigned the task.
Every time a user navigates away from an Active Form field, the contents entered into the field are saved automatically. This automatic save feature ensures that the data captured in the form is not lost as users move through it. When Active Forms include fields with formula-based prefilling, those formulas will dynamically recalculate when you change dependent field values. For example, if an end time is calculated based on a start time, changing the start time will automatically update the end time.
The Practifi System Administrator may configure fields to be set as required within the Active Form. Required fields must have a value before a task can be marked complete, but this applies only to fields relevant to the selected outcome; other fields are hidden. For example, if a user is assigned a task to book an appointment and they select the outcome Unable to Contact Client, then any required fields for creating an Event record to represent the appointment won't be visible in the Active Form when the Mark as Complete action appears.
Within the Active Form, users can enter information in text and long text fields. Text fields can hold up to 255 characters, and long text fields can hold up to 131,072 characters.
After a task is completed, the Active Form will remain on the page but will be archived in read-only mode. Users can still view the contents of the Active Form and reference information for compliance purposes.
Tips for Filling Out Active Forms
For the best user experience, we recommend the following best practices when working with Active Forms:
While Active Forms are available within the Mark as Complete workflow, completing Active Form fields within the Tasks - Basics page makes fields with conditional rendering load faster. We recommend that all users complete the Active Form fields on the Tasks - Basics page. The Mark as Complete screen can be used to confirm entries and make minor changes rather than completing the whole Active Form.
- When completing an Active Form field, be sure that you have either tabbed to the next field or clicked away from the field. Otherwise, the next field will not be activated, loaded, rendered, or saved.
Working With Event Start and End Times
As part of the Blaufränkisch release, Active Forms now offer enhanced flexibility for working with event start and end times.
When Active Forms are used to create events, such as scheduling appointments or meetings, your System Administrator can configure datetime fields to operate flexibly to meet your organization's needs.
Please note: Practifi Administrators can learn more about working with DateTime fields in our Configuring Active Forms article.
How Event Times Work
Active Forms for events typically include fields for the start and end times. Depending on how your System Administrator has configured the form, the end time may:
- Be entered manually by you
- Automatically calculate based on the start time plus a default duration
- Update dynamically when you change the start time
For example, if your organization typically schedules 60-minute meetings, the Active Form might automatically set the end time to one hour after the start time you enter. If you later adjust the start time, the end time will automatically recalculate to maintain the 60-minute duration, eliminating the need to re-enter details when plans change.
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