Request forms – Edit defaults screen
Edit defaults mode allows fields in your Request form to be pre-populated with text or drop down box choices.
Default values can be entered for drop down boxes by simply dropping down the box in this screen and choosing the value that you would like to be displayed in this drop down box i.e. the default value.
Note that apart from the values defined by the code table for the drop down box in question, you can also choose [Select option]. The purpose of this option is to remind the Request form user to make a choice from this drop down box so RefTracker presumes you will use this option unless you choose something else.
If you have set the field to Mandatory and used [Select option] as the default, the Request form will not be able to be submitted without a choice having been made from the drop down list.
If you have set the field to Optional and used [Select option] as the default, the form will be able to be submitted without a choice having been made – RefTracker will know that a choice has not been made, and will not save any information about that field.
[select option] is not appropriate to Hidden fields and so is not offered for hidden fields.
You can also select “System determined” which means that the default defined in the code table definition, whatever that happens to be at any point in time, is the value that will be shown in this box on initial display of the form.
We recommend that [select option] will be the appropriate default value to set for most drop down boxes.
Default text can be entered into text entry boxes and it will appear within the box when the form is displayed.
For example you could default the Borrower # fields with the first few letters or numbers of your borrower number. Although form users can overwrite this pre-populated text, users generally respond to it well by inserting information between the pre-populated text as requested. This is a handy technique when you need to use one field to define and accept answers to several questions. See the Database Access form distributed with new systems for an example of how this can be effectively used.
If you need to provide a default value for a hidden text field, you can enter any text as the default (maximum 1000 HTML characters), however some common default values that might indicate that a staff member may want to add a value at a later time, might be:
? or –
The Question and Answer fields (only these two fields) provide a format enabled box so that the pre-populated text can be formatted (like Word Processing).
Default values are mandatory for Hidden and Display type fields.
If you change a field (using Edit layout), any default already set for that field will be cleared, as the default is unlikely to be applicable, and is most likely in an incorrect format, for the newly selected field. So always check your defaults after changing any fields in your form.
Exercise:
Try adding some prompting text to a field in your form, and perhaps even setting some default values for any drop down boxes that might appear in your form. Then click on Update and check results of your work by changing to Preview mode.
Checking changes with Preview
Check the results of your changes by changing to Preview mode.
In the screen print above you can see that text has been pre-populated into the “Research already done” field.
You can make as many changes to the form as you like using the other modes – come back to the preview screen whenever you think your work is ready for checking.
When you have a layout and defaults that replicate the reference interview that you need to have done for this type of request, you need to look at the Edit options screen for this form.
So to create your form, you have to use all three of the Request form details screen options beginning with “Edit”:
- edit the fields (Edit layout)
- provide some default settings (Edit defaults)
- and set the processing options (Edit options)
So now is the time to select Edit options from the Mode drop down.