Crow Canyon Software Forum

Crow Canyon User Community ForumNITRO Studio: Forms DesignerPlease suggest best practice for …

Please or Register to create posts and topics.

Please suggest best practice for capturing multiple item yes/no option,

#1 · April 24, 2021, 3:57 pm

Hello,

I am putting together a request for that will allow users to request the creation of a database. We have a series of question about data types we want answered. Currently there are only seven data types but the list will grow. It would be nice if the multi select option had a tristate that could be validated. Tristate being checked/unchecked/not set

For each data type I need the user to positively answer yes or no to that data type. So each type is required. My concern, is what to do when the data types grow. I don't want to have to edit the form each time a new data type is added. So basically, what is the Nitro way of doing this.

Right now I am doing the following by example

Heading:Data types

Choice field with yes and no as choices

PII {yes/no} - required
HSPII {yes/no} - required

Uploaded files:

#2 · April 25, 2021, 12:46 pm

I have worked out an interesting strategy that may work for this. It involves some clever use of the Choice column along with some scripting. I am checking with the dev team to see if my strategy will work. I will post it here once we test it out.

#3 · May 13, 2021, 4:11 am

Hi ACR-SCOUT,

Sorry for delayed post. We have discussed this internally and one solution is as outlined below:

Maintain data types in a separate list. So title column in this list will have the name of data type, do not need any other columns at this point
Custom script on the form to read all data types from the separate list and render as Yes/No controls on the form
A column in the main list to store the Yes/No selected value for each data type. This will be used to set Yes/No control value in Edit/Display form
New entries can be added to data types list and they will automatically show up on the form as custom script is reading entries from this list every time form is opened

Please note that custom script for #2 above will take some time and can be done as part of professional services. However, we recommend to create separate column for each data type in main list itself. This will ensure that selected Yes/No value for each data type is directly available for each item so that:

It can be shown in list views as a separate columns which can be filtered/sorted etc.
Can be used to search items, for example, find all items where PII is set to 'yes' and HSPII is set to 'no' etc.
Can be used in reporting
Each datatype can be managed separately on the form, for example:
- Column description
- Mandatory or not
- Position and layout (like table layout)
- Show/Hide conditionally depending on other values on the form etc.

Though there is an overhead in adding a column and then putting it on form, if it is not too frequent, benefits of a separate column outweigh this effort.