Where does the form reside when a user saves using the Save button?
I have a form which a user fills out. Instead of saving, the user has the option of saving and returning back to it.
- Where does the form reside until the user returns to it?
- The user clicks the same link they used the first time. How does the form know they are returning, especially if it is an anonymous form?
- Can a different computer be used to access the saved form? If yes, how does the computer know it is the user when it is an anonymous form?
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If a task is assigned to a user, either through their task list or through a link to anonymous form, the data contained in the controls on the form is held in the AgilePoint schema in the AgilePoint database. If you have a Save button on the form, the user can add or edit any data on the form and click Save. If they then close their browser window, the task is still available in the task list or at the link the same as before. When the user opens the task, regardless of the computer being used, the data they will see in the controls on the form is what was saved.
In this way, the Save button allows users to enter or edit data on large forms, save what they have done, close the browser and come back to their task at a later time. This is a very powerful feature for your users. The only limitation is that it can't be done on the Start task screen since Start task has not yet been submitted, hence the process is not started, so there is no schema for this instance in the AgilePoint database.
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This also has a limitation when users may want to work on multiple process instances at the same 'time' yet not submit yet. We have dynamically added a save button to the form with JS to store the value in a radio button. A condition checks that value and loops back to the original task, assigning it to the same user, and resetting the radio button to blank. Then the data is stored in the schema and the user can find it in the task list.
Otherwise the user cannot start on a new process until they finish the first one, and they may not have all the data from the customer, etc.
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@nik Chaphalkar can you give me some more information on how you use JS to store the value in a radio button? Im using an app for employee evaluations and that would be pretty nice to have users to be able to save information put in on one employee save it start on another one instead of having to finish one employee before starting another.
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Remove the Save button and include a Radio button that asks, "Do you want to move this form forward or keep it for editing?" A Conditional activity will loop back to the task depending on this radio button.
Nik mentioned he did some JavaScript, but no code is necessary for this base solution; it was likely additional logic within the form to manipulate the "Submit" button and improve the feel of submission.
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Karl is right - we used to have a custom button and it stored the value to a radio button and then triggered 'Submit'
But since then we have simplified and the user simply interacts with the radio button which has the values 'save for later' and 'submit now' and then the user interacts with the native 'Submit' button. Much less to deal with.
Then there is a condition which takes the process to an activity with the same or similar form based on the radio button.
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One point that should have been added to this dialogue is that, if a user is at the Start task; i.e. the form has not yet been submitted, hence no task created yet, and the user wants to save a partially filled out form to come back to it later, they just have to click "Save". Then to re-open it, just click the button or link to open a new form, and a message will pop up stating that the user has saved history and do they want to re-open or discard it. The user will then have the option to continue filling out the previously saved form.
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