Who can create?

By default, super admins or institute admins can manage forms. Select the 'Manage Forms?' checkbox on the 'Create User' page to give this privilege to other users.

Create

If you have the 'Manage Forms?' privilege, you can create forms for your site and study.

Click on 'Forms' from the navigation menu or the home screen.
Click on '+Create' to create a new form.
Add the 'Title' of the form and click on 'Create'.

Add Controls

You can add multiple fields to a form using different controls as per your requirements.

Control Type	Description
Text Field	Maximum size: 255 characters addresses. You can add a text field or text area field to your form to add URLs. URLs will be visible as hyperlinks on the overview pages upon data entry.
Text Area	Add long text like comments, address, etc. Maximum size limit is 65,635 characters.
Number Field	Supports adding numeric values like age, number of days, etc.
Radio Button	Single select radio buttons. Ideal for less than 5-6 values. If more, use dropdowns.
Checkbox	Multi-select checkbox. Ideal for less than 5-6 values. If more, use the multi-select dropdown.
Yes/No Checkbox	The field to check /uncheck single value.
Dropdown	Select single value from the dropdown options.
Multiselect Dropdown	Select multiple values from the dropdownoptions.
Date Picker	Supports date and time.
File Upload	Supports any file type. Note: If file is greater than 5MB, it is ideal not to upload them in OpenSpecimen and instead use an external file server.
Signature	To collect eSignature.
Note	This is to add ‘information notes’ for the user in between fields or sections.
User	Displays users in the system in a dropdown.
Permissible Value	Displays the PV values from the Dropdown Manager.
Site	Displays sites in the system in a dropdown.
Storage Container	Displays container in the system in a dropdown.
Subform	To enhance the main form, you can incorporate a subform. This subform functions as a table-like structure that links to the main form. For instance, a patient may possess multiple addresses. To accommodate this, an Address subform can be integrated, featuring distinct fields such as city and street name.

To add new controls/fields to the form, click on ‘+ Add Field’.
Select the control type
Add the ‘Display Name’ and click on 'Save'

note

Note

MySQL DB restricts the number of fields supported in a table, so don’t create too long forms.
The number of fields supported depends on the data type of the fields. E.g., You can have 25-30 number fields in place of a single text field.
If the form is a mix of control types, please restrict it to not more than 75 fields.

Note

MySQL DB restricts the number of fields supported in a table, so don’t create too long forms.
The number of fields supported depends on the data type of the fields. E.g., You can have 25-30 number fields in place of a single text field.
If the form is a mix of control types, please restrict it to not more than 75 fields.

Field Properties

The following field properties allow users to customize and configure form fields efficiently.

Properties	Description	Validations
Title	Title of the form
Name	System generated name	Please do not change this or blank it out.
Type	Control type (Read-only)
Display Label	Display name of the form field
Variable Name	The attribute name of the form field.	Ensure the variable name is unique within the form. Special characters and spaces are not allowed.
Tooltip	Pop up displayed when you move the mouse over the field. Useful to set descriptions or guidelines about the field.
Default Value	Default Value set for the field.	The default value can be set within the 'Permissible values' section for enumerated field types like dropdowns, radio buttons, or list boxes.
PHI	Button to make any field as ‘Protected health information’. This value will be hidden from users who do not have access to PHI.
Required (Mandatory)	To set the form field as required.
Show in Grid	For the forms attached at the ‘Specimen Event’ level, this attribute is shown in the events list under each specimen.	This is used for ‘User’ and ‘Date and Time’ type fields, and must have the variable names ‘user’ and ‘time’ respectively. For further information, please refer to Specimen Events.
Rows	The number of rows to be shown in the text area.	Only applicable to Text Area
Number of Fraction Digits	The number of digits to show after the decimal	Set this to zero if you want only whole numbers like for ‘Age’. Only applicable to Number Field
Range	Minimum and Maximum values to be restricted for the field	Only applicable to Number Field
Permissible Values Ordering	The sorting order of the values to be displayed.	Ascending Descending None Only applicable to enumerated field types like radio button, dropdown, etc.
Options Per Row	Values to be shown per row of the field	Only applicable to radio button and checkbox.
Default Checked	Checkbox to make field checked by default	Only applicable to Yes/No Checkbox.
Format	The format of the date field	Date Only Date and Time Only applicable to Date Picker.
Default Date	Default date	None Current Date Only applicable to Date Picker.
Display on the same row as the last field (v8.1)	Adds the field in the same row as the last field
Numeric Value	Enabled only for PV dropdown and dropdown has integer values like 122, 2, 700 etc

Add Permissible Values under various field types

For fields like dropdown, radio button, multi-select dropdown, and checkbox controls, you can manually add the permissible values or upload the text or CSV file containing the permissible values.

Create text or CSV file of the permissible values to be added.
Click on the 'Edit' icon of the field that you want to upload PVs for.
Click on ‘Add Option’ to manually add values or click ‘+ Upload Options’ to add PVs using a CSV file.

When you export a form, the dropdown values are exported as separate CSV only if it has more than 15 values.

Add Permissible Values (From Dropdown Manager)

You can also use the permissible value available in the Dropdown Manager to add into your custom Field

Click on '+ Add Field' and select 'Permissible Value'.

Add the field name of your choice → Select the dropdown value of your choice from the 'Dropdown' option → Save it.
Click on 'Done' to save the Form

Advantages of adding PVs using dropdown manager

They are easier to maintain.
You can directly export the values for the field and use in other forms.
Also, changes in the dropdown manager automatically update in the form. For manually added dropdowns, data must be changed separately when altering a value.

Refer the wiki page to create a dropdown and follow the steps mentioned in the add PVs using dropdown manager section to add the dropdown to the form.

Refer to the wiki page to have a multiselect option for PVs field.

Edit

You can edit any form field such as changing the display name, add more options to enumerated fields like dropdown, radio button, etc.

Navigate to 'Forms'.
Select the form you want to edit.
Click on the 'Edit' icon for the particular field that you want to edit.
Make required changes and save.

Rearrange Fields

You can drag the fields by clicking on the six dots and dropping them to the required position.

Preview

You can preview the form by clicking on the ‘Preview’ button present on the form overview page.

User can preview the form

Change Control Type (v8.1)

Below edits are supported from v8.1 for changing control types:

Radio button to dropdown and text field.
Dropdown to radio button and text field.
Checkbox to the multi-select dropdown.
Multiselect dropdown to the checkbox.

Create a form with different controls.
Click on the change icon.

note

The icon will only appear for the radio button, dropdown, multi-select dropdown, and checkbox fields.

Display Fields on Same Row (v8.1)

Fields can be displayed on the same row.

Click on the checkbox 'Display on the same row as the last field'
Clicking on 'Preview' button user can see two fields in the same row
To display the field in the same row as a field other than the previous field, first drag and drop the fields as required.

note

If you move a field that is part of fields in the same row, the line is broken. So you have to configure it again if you want it on the same line or a different one.

Delete field

You can remove any form field that is no longer needed.

note

Once the field is deleted, the previous data entered for the field is also deleted.

Navigate to ‘Forms’.
Click on the form from which you want to Delete the field.
Click on the ‘Delete’ icon for the particular field you want to delete.
Click on ‘Yes’ on the pop window to confirm the deletion.
If any form field is deleted accidentally, then refer to the Undo Delete field link to revert the deletion.