Setting Up Forms

You create customized forms for gathering feedback and information from publication readers.

About this task

There are three types of forms:

  • Document Attached -- Forms that are specifically associated -- "attached" -- to a single document. An example of a document-attached form is a comment. Public comments are available to view for all readers of that document.
  • Floating -- Forms that are not associated with a single document. Examples are warranty registrations and application-wide issues reports. Users may view public floating forms in My Settings in their accounts.
  • System -- For use by the Content Delivery application. User Profile and User Preferences in My Settings are examples. Additional system forms cannot be added.

Content Delivery includes two forms by default: comments that you can add to each document in a publication (document-attached, allow public equal to yes) and issue reports (floating, allow public equal to no). Users who have View Forms permission can view all comments because they are public, but only users who have the Create Forms permission can add comments or issue reports. Users who have Manage Forms can view or delete Issue Reports created by other users.

Forms in Content Delivery use the XForms 1.1 Specification markup. See W3C Recommendation on XForms.

Procedure

  1. Log on to Content Delivery as a user with the Develop app permission.
  2. Create the skin in which you will use the new form.
  3. Create your XForm XML file using XForms 1.1 markup.
  4. Create an icon graphic file to represent the form in your UI.
  5. If you are in a Content Delivery tool, click Home in the breadcrumb trail.
    The Content Delivery landing page appears.
  6. In the Administration Tools pane, click Developer's Workbench.
    The Developer's Workbench page appears.
  7. In the left pane, navigate to the skin with which you want to use this XForm.
  8. To upload the XForm file, do the following:
    1. Click XForms.
    2. Click Upload Resources.
    3. Click Select Resources.
    4. Navigate to, and select the XForm file.
    5. Click Open.
    6. Click Upload.
  9. To upload the icon image file, do the following:
    1. Click Images.
    2. Click Upload Resources.
    3. Click Select Resources.
    4. Navigate to, and select, the image file.
    5. Click Open.
    6. Click Upload.
  10. In the left pane, click Form Definitions.
  11. Click Add Form.
  12. Enter a localized key.
    This is the name of the key within the XForm template. This localized key should be in the language resource file (for example, lang-en.xml).
  13. Select the XForm template file you just uploaded.
  14. Select the image file you just uploaded.
  15. Select the form type.
  16. To set this form type to be public, set the value of Allow Public? to Yes.
    To create a public form, the user must have the Create Forms permission. All other users who have the View Forms permission will be able to view public comments. Allow Public? is set to No, then only the creator or a user with Manage Forms is able to view the form.
  17. To let instances of this form be edited, check Create Forms.
    If the user owns a form instance and has the Use Forms permission, then he or she can edit his or her own forms, both public and private.
  18. To allow users to reply to form instances, for example replying to comments, check Allow Replies.
    The user must belong to a group that has the Reply permission to be able to reply.
  19. To let users set or change the status of a form instance, check Allow Status Change.
    The user must belong to a group that has the Change Status permission to set or change status on an form instance.
  20. If you choose to allow users to set or change statuses of form instances, select one or more statuses that the users can apply.
  21. Click Save.