Overview

Tracker allows you to create multiple forms in a single workgroup. There can be a maximum of 32 forms in a workgroup. This allows you to manage different sets of data in a central location. Some examples:

1. In an issue tracking workgroup you may wish to have separate forms to submit bugs vs. enhancements where slightly different fields are captured for each (e.g. a "Severity" level is selected for bugs, but not is not applicable for enhancements)
2. In a support workgroup you may wish have a form to save customer contact information (phone number, email address, etc.) in addition to the form used to submit support tickets

A Default Form is created in each workgroup. The name of the default form depends on the template that was used to create the workgroup. For example, the Product Development template has the "Issue Form" created by default and the Help Desk template has the "Ticket Form" created by default. Information about the default settings in a particular template can be found in the template list in the Putting It All Together section.

If only one Form is defined in Tracker, users will not see the Form field on any of the pages (Add, Edit, Task, Query, Home, etc.) until additional forms are added to the workgroup. Only users that are members of the Admin group (or are members of a user group with the Admin privilege) will see the Form field in the Admin section.

Adding a Form

To add a form:

1. Login to the workgroup as Admin
2. Click on the Admin icon
3. Click on the Manage Forms button
4. Click on the Add Form button
5. Enter a name for the form you are creating in the Name field.

   Enter a short name for the form you are creating in the Short Name field; this will be used to display the record number. For example, if you enter "BUG" as the short name for a form intended for reporting bugs, a record reported using this form will have the record number displayed as "BUG7" where BUG is the short name and 7 is the record number (PRN).

   If you are using a case-sensitive SQL Server or Oracle database, the Short Name will be case sensitive. For example, if you enter "BUG" as the short name for a form in a workgroup that uses a case-sensitive SQL Server or Oracle database, users will only be able to access the records using the short name exactly as it is entered (e.g. they can reach record 1 by typing in "BUG1", but will not be able to access the record when typing in "Bug1" or "bug1").

   You have the option to have one form that has an "empty" Short Name. When the Short Name is empty, you can access records created using this form by only referencing the PRN (for example, typing in "1" when prompted to select a PRN instead of having to enter the Short Name + PRN as in "BUG1").

   Enter a number for the Order of this form with respect to other forms. Forms with the same number will be ordered alphabetically.

   Enter any integer equal to or greater than "0" in the First Record Number field to be the number of the first record created in this workgroup. Each new record will be automatically assigned a number sequentially starting from the value listed for this preference. For example, if "BUG" is the Short Name of the form and "100" is entered for this preference, the number of the first record created will be "BUG100" and the number of the second record will be "BUG101". The default value for this preference is "1".

   This value for this form can only be changed when there are no records present for this form in the workgroup. If you wish to change the value of this setting after records for this form have already been created, you must first delete all records that were added using this form, then change the value of the "First Record Number" option. To delete all records that were added using this form, refer to the instructions in section called Permanently Deleting Multiple Records.

   Select a field to be the Primary Key Field field. Primary keys are used to link records to multiple forms. When linking a record to another form, the primary key is used to choose a set of records. For example, let's say you have 2 forms in your workgroup: one form for bugs / enhancement requests reported to the Product Development organization and another form for Support issues reported to the Support organization. There may be cases where you want to link a Support record to a bug/enhancement record. Let's say you selected PRN as the Primary Key Field for the bug/enhancement form. When searching for which bug/enhancement record to link to a Support record, the PRN (the field selected as the Primary Key) will be displayed to help you select the desired bug/enhancement record.

   For Link fields, when PRN is selected as the Primary Key, the records will be sorted according to the numeric component of the PRN field (e.g. "1" and "2" will be used to sort the records "REC1" and "REC2", the "REC" part will be ignored in the sort order). If something other than PRN is selected as the primary key, the records will be sorted in alphabetical order based on the string (e.g. "1", "10", "2", "20", etc.).

   Also when Link fields are available on a form, the fields that are selected as Primary and Secondary Key fields will not be subject to Field Visibility settings. In other words, if you have set a field such that it is not visible to certain user groups in certain areas (Add/Edit/Task pages, Query/Home reports, etc.), but the field is either a Primary or Secondary Key Field, the field will be visible to users when they use the Link field. To prevent users from seeing the field, you can either not use the field as a Primary or Secondary Key Field for the form or you can configure the Link field so that it is not visible to certain user groups using the information in the Field Visibility section.

   If desired, select either the PRN field or Title to be the Primary Key Field. Select "<None>" if a primary key field should not be applied to the form.

   If desired, select fields to be Secondary Key Field 1 and Secondary Key Field 2 for this form. Secondary keys provide more information when linking records to multiple forms. Up to 2 Secondary keys can be selected for a form. For example, let's say you have 2 forms in your workgroup: one form for bugs / enhancement requests reported to the Product Development organization and another form for Support issues reported to the Support organization. There may be cases where you want to link a Support record to a bug/enhancement record. Let's say you selected PRN as the Primary Key Field and Title as a Secondary Key Field for the bug/enhancement form. When searching for which bug/enhancement record to link to a Support record, the PRN (the field selected as the Primary Key) and Title (Secondary Key) will be displayed to help you select the desired bug/enhancement record.

   If desired, select a field for Secondary Key Field 1 or Secondary Key Field 2. Fields of the following types can be used as Secondary key fields: Text, Integer, Float, Date, Pulldown, RelNum, Url and YesNo. Select "<None>" if a secondary key field should not be applied to the form.

   Select a project that will be associated with this form in the Project field. The projects available for selection are the projects that have been created in the Manage Projects section. You can associate this form with additional projects at a later time using the steps in the Manage Projects section.

   Select "Yes" if the form should be used as part of one or more workflows in the Used in Workflow field. Select "No" if the form should not be used as part of any workflows. If you never intend to use a Workflow (states, transitions, automatic assignment and email notifications) with the form, select “No”. Selecting No will set the visibility for system required fields (Product, Status, Reported By, Assignee) such that no groups besides Admin can see or access these fields. Select “Yes” if you ever intend to use this form with a Workflow. A Workflow allows you to set up states, transitions, automatic assignment and email notifications when records are submitted using the form.

   Select a workflow for this form in the Workflow field. A workflow can only be selected if "Yes" was selected for Used in Workflow. The workflows available for selection are the workflows that have been created in the Manage Workflows section. You can associate this form with additional workflows at a later time using the steps in the Manage Workflows section. If you do not wish to select an existing workflow (e.g. you plan to create one for this form at a later time), you can select “Empty Workflow”. Empty Workflow is a Workflow that has only one state called “Not Applicable”, has no transitions or email rules and has TBD as a state manager for the “Not Applicable” state (the state manager cannot be changed). If you wish to create a new workflow for the form you are adding, select the "<Create New Workflow>" option.

6. Click Continue to proceed
7. Enter a number for the Project Form order field. This will be used to order the forms available in the Form field on the Add and Submit pages. Forms with the same order number will be ordered alphabetically.

   Select the user groups to which this form should be available in the Make Visible (Available) To These User Groups field. To select multiple user groups, hold down the Ctrl button on your keyboard while selecting user groups. To select all user groups, click on the All button to the right of the field. To de-select all user groups, click on the None button to the right of the field. The Admins user group is not available for selection because that user group is given visibility to all forms.

   If you selected "<Create New Workflow>" for the Workflow field, enter a name for the new workflow in the Workflow Name field. Select the states that should be part of the new workflow in the Include These States field. To select multiple states, hold down the Ctrl button on your keyboard while clicking on the states.

   Select a state group in the Form's Allowed Add States field. Allowed Add States are the group of states that will be available for selection in the Status field on the Add and Submit Pages for this combination of Project and Form (when the Status field is visible on those pages).

   Select a state for the Form's Default Add State field. The Default Add State is the state selected in the Status field by default when records are added using this combination of Project and Form.

8. Click OK to save the new form
9. A confirmation page will be displayed. Click Manage Fields for this Form if you wish to set the fields for the newly added form or click OK to return to the Manage Forms page.

Editing a Form

To edit a form:

1. Login to the workgroup as Admin
2. Click on the Admin icon
3. Click on the Manage Forms button
4. Click on the Edit button to the left of the form you wish to modify
5. Make any desired changes to the form's attributes (described in the adding a form section.
6. Click OK to save the changes

Deleting a Form

Before a form can be deleted, it must first be removed from any projects and workflows where it is in use (and, as a result, all records added with this form must also be removed).

To delete a form:

1. Login to the workgroup as Admin
2. Click on the Admin icon
3. Click on the Manage Forms button
4. Click on the Delete button to the left of the form you wish to delete
5. Click OK to confirm the operation. If the form is currently being used by any projects, you will be prompted to remove the form from specific projects.
6. Click on the Admin icon
7. Click on the Manage Projects button
8. Select a project in the Projects pulldown at the top
9. Click on the Manage link to the right of the Forms section
10. Click on the form in the "Forms In Use" column and click on the Remove button. Click OK to confirm the operation. A warning will be displayed to note that removing the form from the project will remove all its records (with related information such as History, Attachments, Record Security, Source Code Files, Alerts, Discussion Threads, etc.) as well as permanently remove any related State Manager and Incoming Email settings. Click OK to remove the form from the project. Click OK again when the confirmation is displayed.
11. Click on the Admin icon
12. Click on the Manage Forms button
13. Check whether the form has any workflows listed in the Workflows column. If there are any workflows listed, you will need to remove the form from those workflows before you can delete it
14. Click on the Admin icon
15. Click on the Manage Workflows button
16. Select a workflow in the Workflows pulldown
17. Click on the Manage link to the right of the Forms section
18. If the form is not the only form associated with the workflow, click on the form and click on the Remove and proceed to the next step. Click OK to confirm the operation. A warning will be displayed to note that remove the form from the workflow will permanently remove all its related Transitions, Default Add State Settings, Email Common Content, Alerts and Outgoing Email Rules. Click OK to proceed. Click OK when the confirmation page is displayed

    If the form is the only form associated with this workflow, you will need to delete the workflow in order to be able to delete the form (as a workflow cannot exist without at least one form). To delete the workflow, click on the OK button to return to the Workflow page. Click on the Delete button to the right of the Workflows pulldown and click OK to confirm the operation. A warning will be displayed to note that deleting the workflow will permanently remove all its related Transitions, Default Add State Settings, Email Common Content, Alerts and Outgoing Email Rules. Click OK to proceed. Click OK when the confirmation page is displayed. Skip to the next step.

19. Click on the Admin icon
20. Click on the Manage Forms button
21. Click on the Delete button to the left of the form you wish to delete
22. Click OK to confirm the operation. Click OK again to confirm the operation
23. Click OK when the confirmation is displayed

Fields

You can select which fields are available on each form

To set the fields for a form:

1. Login to the workgroup as Admin
2. Click on the Admin icon
3. Click on the Manage Forms button
4. Click on the Fields button to the left of the form to which you want to add fields
5. The Fields Used By This Form column contains any fields that are currently used by the form. The fields PRN, Status, Reported By, Assigned To, Deleted? and Product are used by every form and cannot be removed. Fields marked with a * are fields that use global properties. If you wish to change a field such that it no longer uses global properties, edit the field's properties.

   The fields in the Available Global Fields column are fields that are not currently used by the form.

   To add a field to the form, click on the field in the Available Global Fields column, then click on the Add button. To remove a field so that it is no longer used by the form, click on the field in the Fields Used By This Form column, then click on the Remove button.

   A new field can be added by clicking on the Add Global Field button. Review the Managing Fields Help section for details about adding a new field.

6. Click OK to return to the Manage Forms page.

Removing and Re-adding Fields to a Form

When a field is removed from a form, all values in that field in the records created using that form will be removed. If later the field is re-added to the form, the field's value in all records created using the form will be set to its default (the old values from before the field was removed will not be preserved). Values of the field in records created using other forms will not be affected.

Editing Field Properties

The fields that are used by a form can have Global Field Properties or be modified such that they have different properties when the field appears in each form. Global Field Properties are the properties set for the field in the Manage Fields section.

To edit a field's properties from the Fields section of a form:

1. Login to the workgroup as Admin
2. Click on the Admin icon
3. Click on the Manage Forms button
4. Click on the Fields button to the left of the form to which you want to edit fields
5. Click on a field in the Fields Used By This Form column, then click on the Edit button
6. The properties of the selected field will be displayed. When the box for the property Use Global Field Properties is checked, this indicates that the properties set for the field in the Manage Fields section will be applied to this field on all forms. Unchecking the box for the Use Global Fields Properties option will allow you to set the field's properties for the selected form. An explanation of the available properties for the fields by field type can be found in the Manage Fields Help section.
7. Click OK to save any changes to the field properties

Global Form Properties

Global Form Properties allow you to choose the name of the Form field and the Help Description displayed in Tracker pages such as Add, Submit, Edit and Task, Query, Home, etc. The Help Description is the text that appears when the user places the cursor over the Help Description icon (yellow question mark to the left of the field).

To set the properties of the Form field:

1. Login to the workgroup as Admin
2. Click on the Admin icon
3. Click on the Manage Forms button
4. Click on the Edit Global Properties link in the upper right corner
5. Enter a name in the Form Label field
6. Enter a description in the Help Description field
7. Click OK to save the changes