Servicely Configuration
Form Layouts
20 min
when you are looking at an individual record, this is often done through a form within servicely, forms are configurable per aspects & views docid\ t0x3gfkaseoea unmhbrh , per table and can even have their own fields for specific pages and provide the ability to interact with the record in the background, these will generate view definitions and default view definition records, however, you are seldom required to look or edit these records directly configuring form layouts a form layout defines where its elements such as fields and tabs, are placed to configure a form layout, left click on the wrench (or vertical ellipsis) on the top right of the screen, as per below note that configuring a non default form aspect requires you to go to the form you want in the aspect you want, and then follow the same steps below from here, left click on configure layout when configuring the form there are a variety of elements to be aware of it is a drag and drop interface, which allows you to edit the form and see it close to how it will be seen to the users and allows the option for a variety of layout elements to set up the form in a way that suits your users add/create fields to add fields to the form, it needs the user to drag and drop the fields from the available fields part of the form builder within the available fields part of the form builder, it also provides the ability to create new fields / relations directly on the form builder it should be noted that if you wish to add a system field to the form, such as created on, created by, etc, you will need to ticket the "show system fields" check box in addition to this, you can technically add a field to the same form multiple time by checking the ‘show used fields’ checkbox, however in doing so, as a user populates one of the versions of the fields, it will populate the other one at the same time to create a new field, click on “create new field/relation” button and you will be presented with a pop up window that looks like the below follow the steps below populate the “initial label” field with the field label that you want your users to see please keep in mind that field labels are localised and can be translated to other languages please refer to localisation docid\ gqibnkivzybqy79jdrf79 for further information on multi language support press tab on your keyboard or left click away from the “initial label” field and you will be presented with “field/relation type” pick on the field types that you need if you need to add in some renderer properties on the field, you can do it under the “renderer” section for more information on which renderer properties are available, please refer to @table field review the “advanced” section to find the auto generated field name note that this field name is the name that is used for logic/automation purposes such as outbound notifications docid\ rl4ihxyzjma6fgokx1qz3 , inbound messaging docid\ zah49ic1z3qdqpzkk0u9t , workflow docid 6dd6qokleyt2anwztu2g2 , trigger docid\ y2qknwmwufgciua8uhzet and ui event docid 6qw7md16ndkqk0yx6bus5 also on the “advanced” section, you have the option to make the field to either be “read only” or “required” when presented in the form aspect you are editing field types servicely has a comprehensive set of field types designed to meet various requirements however, as a starting point, below following are the commonly used field types, shown through their usage in some of the out of box forms these field type names on the example images below, are what will be shown on the “field/relation type” dropdown when you are creating a new field please note the following reference fields need to be pointed to another table as the options on reference fields are records stored in another table for example if you have a field like incident’s requestor, that field references records in the user table please also note that reference field can be configured to result in a two way, one to many relationship between tables for example, if you need to track which incidents a superhero has been involved in, then you will need a one (superhero) to many (incidents) relationship first, you will need to create a reference field on incident table, called “superhero” referencing the user table you will then need to set the “create reverse relationship?” flag to be “yes” during the field creation screenshot below then, you will see two fields appear including “reverse relation name” the value in the “reverse relation name” will be the field name for the relationship’s opposite direction (i e on user table, to display incidents that a superhero has been involved in) when you add that “c superheroforincidents”, you will get a related list of incidents for the user record you are viewing choice field have options stored in a dedicated table to create the choice field, select field/relation type = choice and you can determine the set of choices for the field as you create them alternatively, you can modify the choices later for more information, please refer to choices docid\ nvx19kk fi0rurliqzlyy please note the following just like reference fields, multiple reference fields need to be pointed to another table as the options on them are records stored in another table for example if you have a field like knowledge article’s reviewer, that field references records in the user table when configuring a multiple reference field, you will need to fill in the “initial label”, “field/relation type” and “target table” and the rest of the fields will be auto populated example below some field types may provide different rendering options under the field’s renderer tab example is with boolean field that can either be rendered as a yes/no (called switch) or a checkbox multiple reference list filtering and usage to use the extended functionality, you need to be on version 1 10 or later when multiple reference fields are on your form, you are optionally able to add an “add/remove” button as per below when clicking on this, it will provide a popup, as per below, which allows you to select on mass, what records should be added as a relation to so this, there are two main buttons to keep in mind add selected this button will add any related record to the multiple reference field that you have selected these are selected with the checkbox on the left of the record row add filtered this button will add any record that has been filtered (regardless on if they are on the current page or not) to the field once you have added records (either with 1, 2, or manually in the field), you have to press the save button to take effect in addition to this, please note, it does not save the record automatically, you also need to save the record for this to take effect other layout elements to assist in configuring the form, there are a variety of layout elements to assist in laying out the form each of which can be put within form columns it should be noted, if you press the cross for any of these layout elements, it will remove the fields within that layout element on the form when you mouse over a layout element, depending on what layout element it may provide a number of options the most commonly required of which is the gear the gear will provide the option to change the text (for layout elements such as the header or tab container), as well as the width of the column (providing options making it of 1/3, 1/2 and 2/3 of the width of the column its in) column columns are the main powerhouse of the form configurator to add any field or layout element to the form, they must to be added within a column you can put columns within other columns and can be moved up and down on the form by the up and down arrow each column can have their own width and position as can be seen below horizontal rule horizontal rules, as shown below, simply adds a straight line to the form with spacing below of beneath it collapsible panel these provide a method of showing or hiding a selection of fields when you open a form the collapsible panel is closed (as per below) by default however, by clicking or tapping on the heading, it will open up and show the fields that are found within the panel it should be noted that you can add multiple columns to a collapsible panel field set container field set containers simply allow you to logically separate a group of fields on the form in a container action executor the action executor can be added to the form and is used in situations where the work journal is not being used in conjunction with the action executor in situations where it is not being used with the work journal, it will simply show results from when sofi runs information panel to use this functionality, you need to be on version 1 10 or later information panels allow you to display information without having it in a header/field format header header elements are simply a heading and a line used to logically label parts of the form tab container tab containers provide a way to separate a variety of fields within a container that can be hidden by tabs (similar to what you can do with your browser) when you are configuring the form, you can add a large number of tabs to the container, by pressing the add tab button it should be noted, like columns, you can add any other layout elements within the tab container, as well as tab containers within tab containers custom related list see custom related lists docid\ imzsnuixlnrxfrpf8gboe section arrangements when initially creating a form, you can start from a variety of column templates this is done via the section arrangement part of the form keep in mind there is nothing stopping you from adding columns and their width manually via the layout elements, but this still provides the option as a starting point the + simply here simply adds another full width column to the form view specific field configuration when you are configuring a form, it also provides you the ability to configure a field's behavior that will be specific for that aspect what this means is that you may decide that you want to make a field required, but only when looking at that view for example, the assignment group field may be required when the aspect is the default aspect, but not required when it's a self service user view specific configuration settings can be accessed when configuring a form layout and clicking the gear next to the field when you are mousing over it on this popup, there are a few different things that can be changed, depending on the field type, however, these largely include localized text the label of the field required whether this field is required or not read only whether this field is read only or not renderer how the field will render / look on the form prefix icon the icon that will show in the field placeholder the text that will be displayed within a field prior to someone typing in it (note that this does not mean it is a default value, as the field will still be null prior to someone entering something in it) tooltip provides a small icon next to a field layout that when moused over can provide information about that field field instructions provides text between the field label and actual field that can inform a user how to use a field