Date/Time

The Date/Time tool allows the user to select a date and/or time within a form, as shown in the sample animated image, below:

Caption text: The caption is used in most cases to ask the question. In others it may be a column heading. This is a required field. Please keep in mind that captions will wrap when form elements do not fit within the width of the screen. It is important to consider how your captions will be displayed. Captions on a larger screen might look perfect, but on a smaller device, they may be forced to wrap several times. In this situation, a smaller caption should be used.

Hint: Provides additional information to the mobile form user on how a question (i.e., Caption text) should be answered. The Hint font size is smaller than the Caption font size.

Additional HTML styling can be applied on hints and captions.

Data name: Because this is a required field, doForms will default the Data name to match the Caption or Label. If these are blank, doForms will generate a generic Data name name with a sequential number (such as "untitled10"). Since it is used throughout the system, it is recommended that you enter a descriptive Data name that is easily identifiable. Nondescript Data names are difficult to find and select at a later time (e.g., when performing a calculation).

Default value: This is what the Date/Time field will initially display when a user opens the form. Leave blank to have no value initially appear. Select the Set field equal to current date checkbox to have the current date and/or time (when the user opens the form) appear in the Date/Time field.

Type: Specifies whether you want the mobile user to be able to enter the date, the time, or the date and time.

• Date - user can only enter a date
• Time - user can only enter a time
• Date:Time - user can enter a date and time

Remove Now/Today button: Removes the Now button (for time) and a Today (for date) button (shown in the animated image above), that the mobile user can click to insert the current date and/or time into the form.

Remove Seconds: This setting only applies to time or date/time fields. This setting simply removes the seconds from the answer for a time or date/time field. If unchecked, the user will see down to the second what time it is.

Use Minute Interval: This option allows the user to increase their time answers by intervals of 1 (default), 5, 15, or 30 minutes. If checked, when the user clicks the 'Now' button the timestamp will automatically go to the next interval time. This setting also makes the time picker in the mobile app only include minute options that match your interval.

For example, if the users interval setting is checked to 15 minutes and it is currently 11:16 am, when the user clicks the now button the timestamp will read 11:30 am (next 15 minute interval in this hour). The time picker in the mobile app will also only include minutes that match this interval (for this example the minute picker would only include 00, 15, 30, and 45).

Auto-stamp: This option allows the form to automatically enter the date and/or time into the field, based on a trigger. The trigger can be set to one of the following four options:

• When a specified question is answered for the first time: For example, you could instruct the form to enter the date and time into the field immediately after the person signs their name (using the Signature field). Select this option, and then select the Question trigger (in our example, the question trigger would be the Signature field).
• When a specified page is displayed for the first time: For example, you could instruct the form to enter the date and time into the field immediately after the Contact Info page is displayed for the first time. Select this option, and then select the Page trigger (in our example, the page trigger would be the Contact Info page).
• When the form is opened for the first time.
• When the form is saved as complete.

Military-time: Displays the time using military format (e.g., 6:00:00 PM would be displayed as 18:00:00).

Advance format: Allows users to display the format of dates and times in a variety of ways. The filds supported included:

• yy or yyyy - Displays two-digit numerical value (e.g., 16) or four-digit numerical value (e.g., 2016) for current year
• MM or MMM - Displays two-digit numerical value (e.g., 03) or three-digit alpha value (e.g., Mar) for current month
• dd or ddd or dddd - Displays two-digit numerical value (e.g., 22), or three-digit alpha value (e.g., Tue), or full alpha value (e.g., Tuesday) for current day
• hh - Displays two-digit numerical value for current hour
• mm - Displays two-digit numerical value for minutes of the current hour (lower case)
• ss - Displays two-digit numerical value for seconds of the current minute
• a - Displays "am" or "pm," depending upon the time of day (lower case)

Note that you may insert various punctuation characters ( , . / : @ ) between advance format fields to format the date and time to your personal liking. For example:

• MMM dd, yyyy - Displays "Feb 28, 2016"
• MM/dd/yyyy - Displays "02/28/2016"
• MM.dd - Displays "02.28"
• MM/yyyy - Displays "02/2016"
• hh:mm:ss a - Displays "10:30:08 am"
• MM/dd/yy hh:mm a - Displays "02/28/16 10:30 pm"
• MM/dd/yy @ hh:mm:ss a - Displays "02/28/16 @ 10:30:08 pm"

Allow edit: Allows a mobile user to edit the Date/Time field after they initially enter it into a form, or after it is auto-stamped (see above).

Range: Sets the Minimum (earliest date and/or time) and Maximum (latest date and/or time) that the mobile user may enter into the Date/Time field.

Compare: allows the user to compare a date/time field to another date/time field. For example if a user wanted to ensure Date1 was > Date2 this is the tool they would use. The compare setting allows you to create a condition which if it is not met the form will not be allowed to be submitted.

Appearance: doForms allows you to set a default set of appearance parameters. This eliminates the need for you to have to set colors and other parameters each time you add an element to your form. You can however override the default settings for any tool by simply picking the Custom option. You can also edit the default by clicking on the edit defaults option.

See Styling your form for more details.

Justification: Allows you to apply text justification settings to certain elements of the tool. Choose the appropriate radio button for the Caption, Hint, and/or Answer fields as follows:

• L: Left-justifies the text.
• C: Center-justifies the text.
• R: Right-justifies the text.

Remove Space: When selected the space Above or Below the tool is Removed. When styling the form this help provide continuity with the layout.

Read only: These settings allow you to control which users can enter data into or edit this field. The settings are as follows:

• View data edit: Restricts a web portal user from editing this field when editing a submitted form through the 'View data' tab
• View data new: Restricts a web portal user from entering data into this field when creating a new form through the 'View data' tab.
• Dispatch edit: Restricts a web portal user from editing this field when editing a submitted form through the 'Dispatch' tab.
• Dispatch new: Restricts a web portal user from entering data into this field when creating a new dispatch through the 'Dispatch' tab.
• Mobile: Restricts a mobile user from entering data into this field when creating a form.
• Web App: Restricts a web app user from entering data into this field when creating a form.
• Form Links: Restricts a web portal user from editing this field when editing a form that was sent using a form link

Required: These settings allow you to control which users are required to enter data into this field. The settings are as follows:

• View data edit: Requires a web portal user to enter data into this field if editing and saving a submitted form through the 'View data' tab
• View data new: Requires a web portal user to enter data into this field when creating a new form through the 'View data' tab.
• Dispatch edit: Requires a web portal user to enter data into this field if editing and saving a submitted form through the 'Dispatch' tab.
• Dispatch new: Requires a web portal user to enter data into this field when creating a new dispatch through the 'Dispatch' tab.
• Mobile: Requires a mobile user to enter data into this field when creating a form.
• Web App: Requires a web app user to enter data into this field when creating a form.
• Form Links: Restricts a user from submitting a form link without answering this this field.

Hide: These settings allow you to hide the form field from users in specific situations. The settings are as follows:

• View data edit: Hides this field from a web portal user when editing a submitted form through the 'View data' tab
• View data new: Hides this field from a web portal user when creating a new form through the 'View data' tab.
• Dispatch edit: Hides this field from a web portal user when editing a submitted form through the 'Dispatch' tab.
• Dispatch new: Hides this field from a web portal user when creating a new dispatch through the 'Dispatch' tab.
• Mobile: Hides this field from a mobile user when creating a form.
• Web App: Hides this field from a web app user when creating a form.
• In PDF and Print: Hides this field when the form is converted to PDF or printed.
• Form Links: Hides this field on forms that are sent as form links.

Actions

Only display this question if

This is a very powerful option as it allows you to hide form elements, only exposing them if the answer to a question in your form meets the criteria you have set. Being able to hide fields unless they are needed makes form more user friendly. For example, if you have a Choose One question with the answers Yes and No, then you can say "Only display this form element if" the answer to the Choose One is "equal" to "Yes." You can combine criteria with other criteria, thus creating complex criteria for showing/hiding form elements.

Jump to

This option allows you to navigate the user to a specific location in the form based on how they answer the current question.