There are two ways to deploy your form to your mobile devices:
Publish from Build forms
The simplest method to deploy your forms is to select Publish when building the form. This will save the form in a Published state and automatically add it to the project you select. All of the mobile units that subscribe to the selected project will automatically receive your form.
Form name: Enter the name of the form. The form name must be unique. This is because every version of a form corresponds to a specific data table structure. So, for example, if you add or delete questions, or change a Repeatable Section, the underlying data table structure changes, and hence a new data table needs to be set up in which to store the data. Therefore when publishing an update to a form, you will need to use a different name (we recommend appending a letter or number to the form name, e.g., Timesheet-2 or Timesheet-B).
Project: Select the project to add the form to.
Icon and Icon text: Click Edit to customize the icon and text displayed to the user.
- Form icon: Read about selecting and customizing form icons.
- Icon text: Enter the text that the user will see below the icon. This does not have to match the form name and does not need to be unique.
Sequence priority number: Forms are sorted alphabetically by the Icon text by default. Set a sequence priority to display forms out of alphabetical order. Forms with 1 as their priority will appear before forms with 10 as their priority. Forms with a priority set will appear before forms with no priority.
Record name: Read about using record names.
Deploy from Manage Projects
If the form has already been published, then use Manage Projects to select which projects should get the form. This gives you the greatest control over who gets which form. Only those mobile units that subscribe the assigned projects will receive the form. This allows you to organize and deploy your forms by work function: for example, if you created a “Field Inspection” form, you can add it to a “Field Project” which only your field workers are subscribed to. Use the Mobile Units tab to control which mobile units subscribe to which project.
In either case, your form will automatically be pushed out to all mobile devices that subscribe to the corresponding projects. This will occur the next time the mobile user starts the doForms mobile app, or when they use the “Update” function.
Updating previously deployed forms
If a form is Published and assigned to a Project (see above), future updates to that form can also be pushed out to the mobile devices that subscribe to that Project. For example, consider a case where you have a form named “Timesheet” that has been published. Later you decide to make changes to the Timesheet form and publish the updated form. When you are done making changes, you will need to publish the updated Timesheet/Draft form as explained above.
If you use the Open button to make edits to a form, then use the Publish button, a new form name will need to be assigned to the form.
However, there are instances where light edits can be made to a form without affecting the data table structure. This may be done using the Open > Edit option. See Making changes to a form without changing its name for more information.