When you drag and drop a Drop-down field into the Canvas, the Properties window is displayed.
Click a section heading to expand or collapse the section. Enter values into the fields as follows:
BASIC ATTRIBUTES
Name—Enter a name
for the field. This will be displayed as a label for the field on the published form.
Width—Select the number of columns the field spans. The field can span up to six columns, depending on the settings (see Changing the Number of Columns in a Tab in Working with Tabs).
Input Size—Input Size allows you to determine how much of the field's width is occupied by the field input. For example, you might want a field to occupy a row by itself (three columns), but because the value entered into that row will only be a few characters long, you might not want the field input to occupy the entire length of the row. Options for this property are:
Mini—Occupies approximately 20% of the field width.
Very Small—Occupies approximately 45% of the field width.
Small—Occupies approximately 50% of the field width.
Medium—Occupies approximately 80% of the field width.
Long (the default)—Occupies approximately 98% of the field width.
Dropdown—The number beside the Dropdown option states the number of values that have been defined for the field. Click the number to expand the CHOICES AND DEPENDENT FIELDS section of the Properties window.
CHOICES AND DEPENDENT FIELDS—Specify the choices available to the user from the drop-down field and also specify field dependencies.
Add—The Add link adds values to the field. When you click the Add link, the Add Choices Editor is displayed. Type the values into the field and press Enter after each value. Click the Add Choices button when you have entered all of the values. The Add Choices Editor enforces uniqueness; if you enter the same value twice, when you click the Add Choices button, the values are not added but, instead, an asterisk is displayed next to the repeated value. If the values are accepted, a list of the values are displayed in the section.
Sort—The Sort link sorts the list of value in ascending alphabetical order. Clicking the button again sorts the list in descending alphabetical order.
Reset—The Reset link deletes all values from the field.
Re-use—The Re-use link opens a separate window that displays a list of all existing drop-down and multi-select fields in the system. To preview a field's list of choices, select a field from the drop-down on the left. When you have found the field whose choice list you want to re-use, click the GO button. You are returned to the Properties window and the drop-down field is populated with the Re-use values. If you re-use values, the Web and Email values remain. These values cannot be deleted from the field.
Toggle Advanced—The Toggle Advanced link displays radio buttons with the following for those instances when you are changing the selected choice in the field:
Retain none of the values previously entered into the original choice's dependent fields.
Retain the values previously entered into the common fields contained in the original choice's dependent fields and the current choice's dependent fields.
Controls for the list of values—Once values have been added to the field, the values are displayed in a list. The following controls can then be viewed and selected when hovering the mouse over a value in the list:
Trash can icon—Click the icon to delete the field.
Checkmark icon—Sets the value as the default for the field. Click the icon to set the value as the default. To change the default, click the same icon on a different value.
Move icon—Move the value to another position in the list. To move the value, hold down the mouse button on the Move icon and drag the value to the new location.
Set Field Dependencies—If you click the Link icon for a value in the list, the Dependencies Editor is displayed. The Dependencies Editor displays a drop-down field containing all of the drop-down or multi-select fields that are available for you to link to the value. Select a field from the drop-down, then click the LINK FIELD button to set the field as dependent on the value. When a user selects that value from the drop-down list, the second field is displayed in the form. You can set dependent fields for each value in a drop-down field. You can also, by editing the dependent fields, create field dependencies for the values in those fields as well. Finally, you can, by selecting the Link icon again for the same value, link additional dependent fields.
NOTE
Clicking the View Dependencies button in the Palette displays a map of all field dependencies. This is a useful tool for tracking and organizing your dependent fields.
View and Filter Choices—The values in a dependent field can be filtered to show only some of the values when the dependent field is displayed. If you click the View and Filter Choices link, a list of the values in the dependent field is displayed, with checkboxes beside the values. The checkboxes are checked by default. Uncheck the boxes that you do not want when the field is displayed as a dependent field. This feature can be used to set a large number of options in a single drop-down field so that, for example, drop-down is re-used as a dependent field multiple times, but with only some values displayed when one value is selected in the parent field and other values displayed when a different value is selected in the parent field.
HELP TEXT AND INSTRUCTIONS
Mouseover Text—Enter the text to be displayed when a cursor hovers over the field or the field name. Text is limited to 100 characters.
Help Text and Instructions—Help text and instructions can be as detailed as you like and are displayed above the field on the published form.
Show on Create & Edit—Select whether to show the help text and instructions on the Create and Edit pages of an issue:
Always—The text and instructions are always visible to the agent or customer.
If field is shown—Display the text and instructions only if the field is visible to the agent or customer.
If row is shown—Display the text and instructions only if the row in which the field appears is visible to the agent or customer.
Details—Select whether to show the help text and instructions on the Details page of an issue.
Never—The text and instructions are never visible to the agent or customer.
Always—The text and instructions are always visible to the agent or customer.
If field is shown—Display the text and instructions only if the field is visible to the agent or customer.
Rich Text Mode checkbox—Check the box to use the Rich Text Editor to edit the instructions. The editor provides a variety of text formatting options, including font options and HTML options such as inserting an image from a file or the clipboard, linking to a URL, etc. Leave the box unchecked to use plain text for the help text and instructions. The box is checked by default.
Text Input field—Enter the help text or instructions into the input field.
PERMISSIONS AND ACCESS—View or set the default permissions for a custom field.
For each field, you can set up separate sets of permissions for agents and customers for this workspace. These are called "Agent Default" and "Customer Default" settings.
Example
You might want to require agents to enter information in an issue information field when the issue's status is open, and restrict them from entering information in the field when the issue is closed.
So when setting up the Issue Information field, you would set the Agent Default permissions to "Required" for the status "Open", "Read Only" for the status "Closed", and "Optional" for all other statuses.
NOTE
Workspace Administrators can customize permissions per user role, which override the Agent Default and Customer Default permissions set up here. If permissions for a user role have been set up, a message will display above the default permissions listing the user role along with an option to remove custom permissions from the role. If you remove the custom permissions, the field will return to using the Agent Default or Customer Default permissions. (See below for steps.) For more information on field permissions per user role (set up in Administration | Workspace | User Roles) see Field Permissions.
To Set Permissions for a Field:
Click a cell in the table corresponding to one of the permissions listed below, such as "Optional". This will apply the permission to all statuses at once (Open, Resolved, Closed, etc). The selected cell is color-coded green (see the Agent Default example in the screen shot, below).
Hidden—Users cannot view the field
Read Only—Users can view but not edit the field
Optional—Users can view and edit the field, but are not required to populate the field
Required— Users can view and edit the field, and are required to populate the field Note: "Required" is not available for the Checkbox field type.
To set separate permissions per status (advanced permissions):
Click Toggle advanced below Agent Default or Customer Default to view all of the statuses.
Then click the cell corresponding to the permission and status (see the Customer Default example in the screen shot, below).
Tip: Click a column heading to apply the permission to all statuses for that column at once.
To reset advanced permissions to the initial (basic) settings, click Toggle advanced . This will reset the permissions to Optional for Agent Default or Hidden for Customer Default.
To Remove Custom Permission from a User Role:
NOTE
The following applies only when a message displays above the Agent Default or Customer Default permissions indicating that a role has custom permissions.
Mouse over the role (listed above the Agent Default or Customer Default permissions), then click the Remove button.
The custom permissions are removed from the role and the name of the role displays with a strikethrough (e.g., Role Name). Once you save your changes, the role name will no longer display on the window.
If you decide not to remove the role and have not yet saved your changes, you can mouse over the role and click the Undo button.
CANCEL/SAVE buttons—To cancel the edits you've made to the field, click the Cancel button below the Properties window. If the field is being introduced for the first time and has not been saved before, clicking Cancel leaves the Properties window without adding the field to the form. To save the edits, click the Save button. Clicking Save does not publish the field addition/edit to the production version of the form, that is, the changes to the form do not become visible to the user until the form has been published.
Defining Permissions Per Role
To define field permissions with greater granularity, you can customize them for a specific role by editing the Role Properties. Once you have done so, if you return to the Form Designer, the customized roles are listed as exceptions to the default permissions.
Editing, Moving, or Deleting the Field
To edit the field properties, from the Form Designer, hover over the field and click on the edit icon.
To move the field, from the Form Designer, hover over the field, click on the move icon, hold down the mouse button, and drag the field to the location in which you want it displayed.
To delete the field, from the Form Designer, hover over the field and click on the trash can icon. Deletion is not permitted if a field is part of some other feature (such as a field dependency). In those instances, the relationship between the field and the other feature must first be severed before the field can be deleted.
Note
Deleted data fields are no longer viewable, and FootPrints
forms no longer contain that field. The
column is also deleted from the database and the data is no longer accessible. To
undelete a
field (assuming you've made a backup of your database), contact BMC for instructions.
Changing the Field Name
You can change the field name from the Form Designer without going into the Properties window. To do so, click in the field name from the Form Designer. The name is highlighted. Type the new name into the field.
About Drop-down Dependency Groups
By default, all fields in a FootPrints
workspace are displayed when an agent accesses the Create
Issue and Edit
Issue pages. Depending
on your needs, you may, for example, prefer to have some fields only appear
depending on the problem type selected, or you might want to have the
list of choices in a drop-down restricted by the choice made in the preceding
drop-down. Both
of these options are available in FootPrints
and can be used alone or in combination. Multiple
dependencies can be configured per workspace, and multi-level "dependency
groups" can be created to funnel the user to categories and sub-categories
with different choices, depending on what is selected for each drop-down.
The administrator can designate
a set of drop-down choice fields to create an unlimited number of categories
and sub-categories for which the available choices are restricted in each
field based on what was selected in the previous field. This
feature can be used for simple two-field dependencies (e.g., a software
application with dependent version numbers), or complex, multi-level groups
of dependent fields that guide the user to drill-down and select more
and more granular data to define the problem. For
example, if a user selects Hardware
from a Problem
Type field, the next drop-down displays a list of hardware types
(Laptop,
Wireless Card,
Mouse,
Keyboard,
etc.) If
the user picks Laptop,
the next drop-down lists might contain known laptop problems, etc.
Visually, the Form Designer displays dependency groups by grouping them by color.
Before setting up the Drop-down
dependency groups, you must first create
the drop-down fields that will be part of the dependency group with all
of the possible choices for each field. You
create new fields on the Administration
| Workspace | Form Designer page.
Note on Examples
The examples here outline setting up a group of three dependent
fields for Problem
Type, Issue
Type, and Root
Cause for a standard IT service desk. Dependency groups can be created
for any type of process, with any number of fields and choices.
You could make
three drop-down fields called Problem
Type, Issue
Type, and Root
Cause.
For Problem
Type, the choices could be Hardware,
Software,
Network,
and Printer.
The Issue
Type field would contain all of the possible sub-categories for
each of those choices: Hardware
types like CD-ROM,
Mouse,
Phone,
etc., Software
types like Acrobat,
Word,
etc., Network
Issue types like Reset
Password, Can't
connect to network, etc.
The Root
Cause field would contain any further categorization needed for
each of the Issue types. For
CD-ROM,
the choice might be Can't
open tray, Can't
access drive, etc.
The fields for the
dependency group must all be of type public or internal. We recommend
all fields are all either mandatory or optional. If the fields are mixed
mandatory and optional, the earlier fields in the group should be mandatory,
while the later ones are optional.
The fields should
be arranged in the order of the desired dependency.
You may want to map
all of the possible choices and paths out on paper before you create the
fields.
Important Notes on Dependencies
Editing
Drop-down Choices—When
editing a drop-down field that is used in a dependency, you must go through
the dependency setup again and edit it there.
Multiple
Dependencies—Multiple
sets of dependencies can be created and dependency group and pop-up windows
can be combined.
Field
Permissions—All
fields in the same dependency group must be either internal or public.
The system prevents you from creating a dependency group that contains
a mixed group of internal and public fields.
Mandatory
vs. Optional—The
fields in a dependency group can be a mix of mandatory and optional. But
while configuring a group, if a field later in the group is mandatory,
you must select at least one value for that later field for each value
in the current field. Otherwise,
there may be a mandatory field that contains no values.
Internet
Explorer's Display of Dependencies—Internet
Explorer hides dependent fields until the parent field is selected. Once
selected, the child field is displayed and highlighted.
HTML
form and Field Dependencies—FootPrints
does not support the use of field dependencies in the incoming email HTML
form. The
form contains all of the fields and choices on one screen.
Dependencies and Upgrades
If you are upgrading from a version of FootPrints 10.0.2 or earlier, consider the following:
Pop-up dependency fields are automatically arranged to display properly under the dependency color groupings. This means that fields might be moved into different tabs after an upgrade.
Disabled field headers are not migrated to Help Text & Instructions and would need to be re-applied.
Field headers are not guaranteed to “migrate” perfectly. For example, if a form’s DOM and migrated field headers were changed using Javascript to manipulate the DOM or if a field header relied on having a full row to itself and is now restricted to one of three columns, they might not migrate properly.
Field Headers migrate to Help Text & Instructions with Rich Text Mode disabled.
Create Dependency Groups
To create drop-down dependency groups (assuming you have already created drop-down fields for your dependent choices and are on the Form Designer administration page):
Select the parent drop-down field and click the Edit icon. The Properties window is displayed.
Click the CHOICES AND DEPENDENT FIELDS tab. The tab is expanded.
Hover over the value you want as a parent dependent field value and click the Link icon. The tab is further expanded to show additional options.
In the Field you want to link to drop-down menu, select the drop-down that you wish to use as a child of the current drop-down field.
Specify the values to be displayed in the child drop-down when the parent value is selected:
To display all values in the child when the parent value is selected, click Link Field.
To display a subset of all the values in the child field when the parent is selected:
Click View and Filter Choices. The values in the child field are displayed with checkboxes. By default, all values are selected. Click the checkmarks to remove them from the checkboxes of the values you do not want to display.
Click Link Field. The drop-down is set as the child of the current drop-down field. If the form is completed and put into production, when a user accesses the parent drop-down field and selects the specified value, the child field will be displayed with only the specified values in the list.
When you have completed setting values for all dependent fields, click the SAVE button at the bottom of the Properties window. You can view the dependent fields you have specified by clicking the View Dependencies button under the Actions tab on the right side of the Form Designer.
