Record Creation Settings

What is it?

In run time, the ‘Add’ button on a table can open a form in a new window, the user inputs the information and submits it as a new record. In most cases, the ‘Add’ button on the table is connected to the data source form and can only create records in that form through the table.

For Joint Table, a form table with multiple data sources, no ‘Add’ button on the table as more than one data source is set on the table’s data source settings. If the user wishes to open a new record on one of the data sources, the user needs to open the source form on the corresponding page.

It is essential to have flexible configuration and management on creating multiple buttons linked with different data sources. Record Creation Settings in DragOnce is intended for this purpose. 

With Record Creation Settings, the form creator is able to create multiple buttons on the table and the data source of each button linked to can be any form in the same environment. Then the user can open different forms on a single table. 

Among 5 types of table widgets on the DragOnce platform, only Form Table and Reference Table applicate to Record Creation Settings.

How and When to use it?

A record is a piece of information provided by the end-user. The end-users of an application input data into different fields on the e-form and a record is created after they submit the e-form. A set of records make up a database. To create a record, DragOnce platform provides different types of action.

1. Manual Creation

2. Data Import (See more: Data Import)

3. Triggering (See more: Cascading Workflow Triggering)

4. Scheduled Record Creation (See more: Scheduled Record Generation)

5. Triggering by External System (See more: Data API & Test Files and Runtime API)

6. For this document, we will focus on Manual Creation.

How to configure it?

Setup Record Creation Settings

To configure ‘Record Creation Settings’, click on the Form Table/ Reference Table, on the Quick Setting Panel and click on Record Creation Setting button.

In the Record Creation Settings page, the form creator needs to configure 2 parts of settings, Layout and Configurations. The form creator needs to select the Layout in order to continue the settings.

In the Layout section, 2 different kinds of display can be selected by the user. For linear display, the buttons will be arranged in a horizontal way. For vertical display, the buttons will be put under a dropdown button and the form creator can rename the button name on the cover of the dropdown.

In the Configurations section, the form creator can add a new button(s) and configure the default ‘Add’ button. An ‘Add’ button is given by default and will be linked to the data source of the table if there is only one data source on the table. The default ‘Add’ button is not removable but the form creator can hide the button by setting the button to invisible. 

Form creator can change the button name, control the visibility and set mapping rules on the default ‘Add’ button setting section.

Create customized button(s)

To add a customized button, press the plus sign button beside the default ‘Add’ button.

A new setting section will appear, the form creator can define the ‘Button Name’, ‘Visibility’, ‘Open Form’ and ‘Pass value from Current Page to Destination Widget’.

For customized button(s), it is required to fill in ‘Open Form’.

Similar to choosing the data source in the table, the dropdown on the left refers to the app list in the environment. The dropdown on the right refers to the list of form pages from the selected application.

Form creator can selectively set up the mapping rule, to pass the current page widget’s value to the destination form’s widget.

Button Rearrangement

Without any settings, the leftmost button is the default ‘Add’ button, the newly added button(s) will be arranged according to the sequence it is added to the Record Creation Settings page.

To change the ordering on displaying the button, go to Record Creation Settings’ Configuration section. 

Click on the Button Name Tab of the button, move the cursor near to the Button Name Tab until the arrow cursor changes to hand grab cursor. Drag the tab to the new location. 

For choosing the linear layout, the arrangement of buttons in the Configurations section will be the ordering in the run time. For choosing the vertical layout, the leftmost button of the Configuration section will be placed on the top of the dropdown, the next button will be placed at the second position of the dropdown and so forth.

Widget Mapping

When the form creator sets the mapping rules, a widget on the current page and a widget in the destination form can be selected on each rule. 

Widgets types for selecting as the current page and destination widget as follow: Input box, Auto-Complete, Selection Box, Dropdown, Date & Time, User & Group and Record ID (source page only).

Passing Date & Time, User & Group and Record ID from the source page to the Input Box or Auto-Complete will show the ID string in the input box.

Both dropdown and selection box is to store the ID as the option in the database. For dropdown or selection box widgets that share the same data source, they are sharing the same set of options with the same set of IDs in the database. Therefore the value can be passed to destination across these two widgets.

Visibility

Form creator can select the buttons’ visibility in the Record Creation Settings. For each button, either ‘Visible’ or ‘Invisible’ can apply to the visibility setting. The setting in Record Creation Settings applies to all user roles in the application.  

In regular cases, the user may need to control the visibility of the record creation button to some groups of users. To perform a manageable visibility setting, configurations will be performed in the table’s Widget Property Settings.

In Widget Property Settings, the form creator can set the Default Visibility as ‘Looks Read-Only’ and add Conditional Visibility where ‘Current User’ is in a certain user role/user group/user & group picker, then no visibility rule applies on this condition.

With the above settings, users in the Administrator user role will be the group of users who can create new records from the table.

Permission

In Record Creation Settings, the user can click the button on the table and open the form in the same environment. All forms in the environment (except Core Data) can be the destination form and the permission may vary. Different permission settings in destination form can bring a different result in runtime.

App/Page Permission

In the DragOnce platform, users are assigned user role(s). User role will be one of the indicators to determine the activities (read, save and delete) an user can perform in the application or form. 

Normally, permission in Run Time User Role will be applied. When ‘Override’ in Page Settings is selected and settings are made, the system will take the permission settings in Page Settings.

On the table that applies Record Creation Settings, the current form’s user is allowed to click on the button. The permission checking will be performed when opening the record. The form page content will display based on the permission of the user in the destination form. If the user does not belong to any user roles or has no permission on saving data in the destination application/form, the user will see ‘Access Denied’ on the screen.

Widget’s Permission

Form creator can set the permission settings on every widget on a page by Widget Permission Settings. Using Records Creation Settings, the user can pass the widget’s value to the destination form and the permission settings on the destination form’s widget may trigger different results.

Widget Permission Settings can be controlled by two factors, the User Role of the user and the workflow states. 

For Widget Permission Settings in workflow, only Start state settings brings into effect the Record Creation Settings destination widget. Because the button on the table is to open a new form and all users will be at the start state before any action is taken.

Read-Only

If the destination widget is read-only for the current user, the user can only see the value on the page.

As the widget is read-only to the user, and thus the user cannot change the value on the widget. 

When the widget is saved, the value will not be passed to the database and an empty value is saved.

No Access

If the destination widget has no access for the current user, the user will not be able to see the widget because the user has no permission to access the widget. However, the value still passes to the widget.

The widget’s value will not be passed to the database and an empty value is saved.