Managing forms

Managing forms lets you build questionnaires for clients or practitioners to fill in — for example an intake form or a consent declaration. You create a form, fill it in the form builder with questions and text, and set it to active so it can be used. This screen is intended for organisation administrators and practitioners who have the permission to manage forms.

Overview

Route	/organization/forms/list, /organization/forms/list/:formId, /organization/forms/list/:formId/settings
Audience	Practitioner / organisation administrator
Required permission	forms.manage

Management is split across three screens:

Screen	Route	Purpose
Forms list	/organization/forms/list	Overview of all forms; create, filter, sort, delete.
Form builder	/organization/forms/list/:formId	Add, order and edit items (questions and text); activate or deprecate.
Form settings	/organization/forms/list/:formId/settings	Metadata, purpose, status, submissions and deletion.

How it works

A few rules sit behind every form: they govern what you can do when, and what happens to already-submitted forms when you change something. This section explains that model; the per-action steps follow further down.

Lifecycle and statuses

A form moves through a fixed lifecycle. The status determines whether a form can be filled in and whether it can still be edited.

Status	Meaning	Editable
Draft	Being built, not yet in use.	Yes
Active	In use; can be filled in.	Yes, with a warning
Deprecated	Taken out of use; can no longer be filled in.	No (read-only)

Transitions only go one way:

Draft ──activate──▶ Active ──deprecate──▶ Deprecated

• A form is created as Draft.
• Activating is only possible from Draft and moves it to Active.
• Deprecating is only possible from Active and moves it to Deprecated.
• Deprecated is a dead end: a deprecated form cannot be reactivated or moved back to Draft. It is read-only, but existing submissions are kept.

Editing an active form

You may still change an Active form — add, edit or remove questions — but you get a warning, because it may already have been filled in. Changes do not apply retroactively:

• Each submission records, per answer, the exact version of the question as it was at the moment it was filled in.
• Editing a question creates a new version of that question; older versions remain. Existing submissions stay linked to the version they were filled in with and therefore do not change.
• Only new submissions use the latest version.

This keeps the content of a completed submission reliable, even after the form is later updated.

Purpose: where the form appears

A form's purpose determines where it is available. You set it when creating the form and adjust it via Change purpose:

Purpose	Effect
For appointments	The form can be linked to an appointment and filled in there.
For client portal	The form can be filled in by the client in the client portal.

You must choose at least one purpose; both at once is allowed. Without the matching purpose, the form does not appear in that place.

Link with the question library

Questions live independently of an individual form in the question library, which makes them reusable across multiple forms:

• When creating a question you can add it to the library with Save to library; via From library you add an existing question.
• Library questions are versioned: editing a question adds a new version instead of overwriting the old one. As with editing a form (see above), existing submissions therefore keep their original answers.

Create form

1. Click + New form at the top right.
2. Fill in the fields in the dialog.
3. Click Create.

After creation the form opens straight away in the form builder so you can start adding questions. A new form gets the Draft status.

Field	Required	Description
Title	Yes	Name of the form (at least 3 characters).
Description	No	Short explanation of the form's purpose.
For appointments	Conditional	The form can be linked to an appointment. Choose at least one purpose.
For client portal	Conditional	The form can be filled in via the client portal. Choose at least one purpose.

Open form builder

In the forms list, click a row to open the form in the form builder. Here you see the form's details and the list of items, and you add questions and text.

Filter by status

Above the list are tabs that filter the displayed forms by status. Each tab shows the number of forms in that status.

• All — all forms.
• Draft — only forms being built.
• Active — only forms in use.
• Deprecated — only forms taken out of use.

Sort

Click a column header in the table to sort the forms by that column. Click the same header again to switch between ascending and descending. By default forms are sorted by creation date, newest first.

Delete form

You can delete a form from the list or from the form settings.

1. In the list, click Delete on the form (or open the settings and use Delete form).
2. Confirm in the dialog by clicking Delete.

Note: deletion cannot be undone. A form that has submissions cannot be deleted — use deprecate instead. In the settings, deletion is only possible for a form in Draft with no submissions.

View submissions

Each form in the list has a Submissions action. Viewing individual submissions is coming soon. The number of submissions is already shown in the form settings.

Activate form

A form in Draft must be activated before it can be filled in.

1. Open the form in the form builder or the settings.
2. Click Activate.

The status becomes Active. From then on the form can be linked and filled in.

Deprecate form

To take an active form out of use, deprecate it. A deprecated form can no longer be filled in, but existing submissions are kept.

1. Open an active form in the form builder or the settings.
2. Click Deprecate (in the settings the button is labelled Deactivate).

The status becomes Deprecated. The form is then read-only.

Add question

In the form builder you add questions in two ways:

• Add question — create a new question on the spot.
• From library — pick an existing question from the question library and add it.

For a new question you fill in the following fields:

Field	Required	Description
Question type	Yes	The kind of answer (see table below).
Key	Yes	Technical key: lowercase letters, digits and underscores; starts with a letter.
Question	Yes	The question text the respondent sees.
Description	No	Extra explanation below the question.
Answer options	Conditional	For choice questions: the possible answers.
Answer required	No	Whether the respondent must answer this question.
Save to library	No	See Save question to library.

Available question types:

Type	Answer
Short text field	A single line of text.
Long text field	Multiple lines of text.
Yes/No	Yes or no.
Single choice	One answer from a list.
Multiple choice	Several answers from a list.
Agreement	An agreement checkbox (for example for consent).
Date	A date.
Number	A numeric value.

A form can only be edited while it is Draft or Active. For an active form a warning appears, because changes may affect ongoing submissions. Deprecated forms are read-only.

Add static text block

Besides questions you can place fixed text between items, for example an explanation or a heading.

1. In the form builder, click Add text.
2. Type the text in the dialog.
3. Confirm to add the text block at the bottom of the form.

Reorder items

Drag an item by its handle to the desired position to change the order. The new order is saved immediately.

Duplicate item

Use Duplicate on an item to create a copy. The copy is added to the form so you don't have to rebuild a similar question from scratch.

Remove item

1. Click Remove on the item.
2. Confirm in the dialog.

For an active form a warning appears, because removing items may affect active submissions.

Edit question inline

Edit a question directly in the form builder. You change the question text, the description, the answer options and whether the answer is required. The change is saved as soon as you confirm the edit.

Save question to library

If you want to reuse a new question in other forms later, turn on Save to library when creating it. The question is then added to the form as well as to the question library, from which you can add it again via From library.

Edit form metadata

You manage a form's metadata in the form settings screen.

1. Open the form and go to Settings (or click Edit in the list).
2. Click Edit.
3. Adjust the fields and click Save.

Field	Required	Description
Title	Yes	Name of the form (at least 3 characters).
Description	No	Short explanation of the form.
Purpose	Yes	At least one purpose — see Change form purpose.

The settings also show the status, the number of submissions, the number of questions and the creation and modification dates.

Change form purpose

The purpose determines where a form may be used. Adjust it in the edit mode of the form settings by ticking the checkboxes:

• For appointments — the form can be linked to an appointment.
• For client portal — the form can be filled in via the client portal.

You must choose at least one purpose; both at once is also allowed.

View submission count

In the form settings, the Submissions block shows how many times the form has been filled in. This count partly determines whether a form can still be deleted.