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Report templates and settings

Judah Sali
  • Updated

Reports vs. Exports

This article describes how to create and distribute reports generated from the form data submitted to your website.

But first, it is important to distinguish between reports and exports. Exports are a simple conversion of some or all data records for a particular form to another file format. Data are exported to your desktop computer or to a cloud account such as Google Docs/Drive. Exports are always in a spreadsheet-like format (with the exception of KML which is a mapping format). Exports are done from the File menu in either the View Data or Dispatch tabs.

Reports are highly formatted Excel or PDF files which can include embedded images, signatures and maps. Reports generally involve one completed form data record (i.e., one filled out form), but can also be used to aggregate data from several different but related forms. Reports can be generated from the Row or Data menus in either the View Data or Dispatch tabs. Reports can also be emailed from a mobile device by including an Email Report tool in your forms when you construct them in the Build Forms tab.

Standard Report Template vs. Custom Report Template

Reports can be generated using either a Standard Report Template or Custom Report Template. A “template” is simply a format definition for how the report will look (i.e., the placement of graphics, font type and size, border styles, etc.). The Standard Report Template is an “off-the-shelf” doForms format that you can use for your reports. As described in more detail below, even though it is “standard”, it still provides numerous settings to help you control the content and appearance of standard reports.

In comparison, Custom Report Templates provide you full control over the content and appearance of your reports. Custom Report Templates are created by you, using Microsoft Excel and uploaded to your website. If you know how to format your Excel documents, then you are already an expert at building Custom Report Templates, which can include almost any formatting, calculation and charting function of Excel. See Create custom report templates, Format custom report templates and Manage custom report templates for more information.

PDF vs. Excel Output

Once you have created or selected a Report Template, you can also specify whether the resulting report will be produced in Excel or PDF file format. You can create either PDF or Excel output from a Custom Report Template. Currently you can only produce PDF output from a Standard Report Template. The process for controlling reports is as illustrated below:

Report Settings

Report Settings are used to control the format of reports produced from forms. Report Settings can be controlled in two different ways:

  1. Via Report Settings in the Email Report tool that is included in a form. These reports are generated when a form is completed on the mobile app and received by the website.
  2. Via Report Settings in the View Data or Dispatch tabs in the website. These reports are generated from either the Row menu or Data menu in these website tabs. 

Report Settings in the Email Report tool

These settings are applied on a tool-by-tool basis. This means that you can set different templates and output types for different Email Report tools contained in a single from. For example, you might want to have a full report with all fields in Excel format that is emailed internally to your organization, but you want a different set of fields in a PDF format emailed to customers. You can achieve this by including separate Email Report tools in the form with different report settings.

To access the Report Settings in Email Report tool:

  1. Go to the Build Forms tab.
  2. Open the form containing the Email Report tool(s).
  3. Click on the Email Report tool.
  4. Click on Report Settings in the properties pane.
  5. After making any desired changes, click Save.

Report Settings in the View Data or Dispatch

These settings are applied on a project-by-project and form-by-form basis. This means that you can set different templates and output type for different forms. It also means that you can set different templates and output type for the same form but in different projects.

To access the Report Settings in View Data or Dispatch tabs:

  1. Go to the View Data or Dispatch tab.
  2. Select a project and form.
  3. Click on the Options menu.
  4. Select Report Settings.
  5. After making any desired changes, click Save.

Report Settings Options

Shared options

  • File name: Sets file name, to either form name, record name, or custom text.
  • Report header: Choose whether or not to Display logo in the report header. Also provides a link to edit the logo.
  • Report footer: Choose what to display in the report footer. Options available to display are: Date_Created, Edit_Date, Mobile_Unit, Edited_By, Page numbers, and page numbers and page total. Page numbers and Page numbers and page total are mutually exclusive.
  • Pages: Enable or disable Page widget starts a new page, and/or Each loop in a repeatable section starts a new page.
  • Hide: Choose which fields to hide in the report.
  • Compatibility mode: Enable or disable compatibility mode. Hide non-selected radio buttons and checkboxes. Remove borders and place question and answer on one line. Does not apply to items in layout grids or tables.
  • Show: Choose which fields of the form to show.
  • Images: Choose what factor to resize images to. Selections available are 100%, 66%, 50%, 33%, and 25%. Also available is enabling or disabling Show images on their own page if they are not in a layout grid or table. Resizing an image will lower the resolution of the image passed to Excel. You will still be able to set the physical image size in Excel by setting the cell size. For forms with a lot of pictures it is recommended that you use Pictures with lower resolutions to keep the size of the PDF down.
  • Choose one, Select multiple, Score by category: Toggle between Reporting answer as displayed to the user, and Reporting underlying_value.
  • GPS location: Enable or disable showing all coordinates on a single map.
  • Images in layout grids and tables: Toggle between showing images in layout grids and tables as images or as links.
  • Images in repeatables: Toggle between showing images in repeatables as images or as links.

Compatibility mode enabled:

  • Size pictures not in a grid: Small, Medium, or Large
  • Do not show the repeatable caption: Enable or disable showing the repeatable caption.

Custom template PDF report options

  • Auto fit rows in PDF: Enable or disable automatically adjusting row height to contents.
  • Add page break in PDF after every worksheet: Places a page break after every worksheet in the template file.

Email report options

Always available

Only visible when using standard template

Only visible when using custom template

  • File Format: Set the file format to use for custom template. Toggle between PDF format and Excel format. The following sub-options are only available if PDF format is selected.
    • Auto-fit rows in PDF
    • Add page break in PDF after every worksheet
    • Send link instead of attachment (for large files) This setting is for customers who are experiencing issues running very large reports. When clicked, this setting sends the PDF or Excel reports as an embedded link in an email rather than as an attachment. This allows large reports to be executed without experiencing any timeout issues. The report must be a minimum size of 10MB to send as a link.

View data / Dispatch report options

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