iFormBuilder Common Questions
What are the golden rules of iFormBuilder?
iFormBuilder's 1st Golden Rule: Test, Test, Test!
iFormBuilder is a very powerful and flexible platform. As such, we offer the ability to collect on many different devices, use unlimited Javascripting and more. The flexibility of the platform means there is more than one way to accomplish the same thing and with different device types and different operating systems, it is imperative that you test all of your forms through different scenarios to ensure they work as expected.
Be sure to test your forms to their very maximum capacity.
iFormBuilder's 2nd Golden Rule: Understand how Data Column Names work.
- Data Column Names must be unique to the form they belong to.
- Data Column Names must be database friendly, meaning no special characters or spaces.
- Data Column Names cannot begin with a number.
- Data Column Names cannot be on the list of Reserved Words. PLEASE NOTE: Reserved words can be used in the data column name but must be used in conjunction with other words or numbers. For example, "date" is a reserved word, but you can create a Data Column name such as date_1 or todays_date. Also, element labels can be in any word you wish and do not adhere to the reserved words rule.
iFormBuilder's 3rd Golden Rule: Understand how form changes affect data.
Changing the Element Type or the Encryption of an element will delete any data previously collected in those fields.
Updating or deleting values in an option list will affect the data view of the data previously collected in those fields. Meaning, if you update or delete a current option list key value, data previously collected will show up blank in the data table view and data view exports, but the data feed exports will still show the previously collected value. Please note that this change is not permanent and can be reverted back by adding or updating to the same option list key value. If you update an option list label, this will update previously collected data to the updated value.
If you need to make one of the above changes to an element or option list, we recommend either disabling the element from Element Properties tab or hiding the element/option list value from the device by putting the word false in the Condition Value field of the element, and then creating a new element or option list value to take its place. This will allow you to retain any previously collected data.
Comments
3 comments
what is the maximum length of a dat column name?
HI Matt, thanks for asking. The limit for a column name is 65 characters.
If you change " Input Type, Data Size, or Encryption" on a live form, does it delete information already submitted and in the database?
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