Form connectors expose a public web endpoint where clients fill out a form and submit data into a flow, with a drag-and-drop designer and user authentication support.
Form connectors expose a public web endpoint where clients fill out a form and submit that data into a CData Arc flow.
Forms are created on the connector Form Designer tab. A form is divided into sections and detail tables, each of which can have a variable number of fields. For details, see Creating Forms.When you use a Form connector to submit new data, you should place the connector at the start of a connected flow. Clients can connect to the web endpoint, view and fill out the form, and submit this data into the configured Arc flow. For more information, see Submitting Form Data.The following sections explain how to configure the connector, create forms, and submit new form data.
Settings related to building a set of form fields that are organized into sections and detail tables.When clients connect to the configured endpoint and submit a form, they see fields that are laid out exactly as they are configured in the panel above.The designer includes the following settings (see Creating Forms for more details).
Setting
Description
Form URL
A link to the published form.
Form
Title of the form (for example, your company name).
Add
Dropdown to add a section or a detail table. Add Section lets you add specific sections to a form, and Add Detail lets you add a detail table to the form. Detail tables act like a pre-configured table where the form user can add as many records as they need for the dataset.
Form Fields
Drag and drop fields into detail table and section areas of the form. Repeat this as many times as necessary. The field types are: Text Field — An input text box with a name and description. Dropdown — A dropdown list with name and dropdown options. Radio Buttons — A set of radio buttons with name and radio button options. Checkboxes — A set of checkboxes with name and checkbox options. File Upload — Allows form users to upload specific file types directly to the form.
Logo
Upload your company logo, which appears at the top of the form. By default it uses the CData Arc logo. You can also change the color of the banner.
Success Message
The confirmation message users see after they submit form data successfully. You can change the default message or add additional text.
A scheme for assigning filenames to messages that are output by the connector. You can use macros in your filenames dynamically to include information such as identifiers and timestamps. For more information, see Macros.
The Form Users tab lets you create user credentials for clients so that they can access the public endpoint. If a client is not logged into the application administration console already, that client is prompted to enter the User and Password combination when they browse to the endpoint.You can add, edit, and delete credentials on this tab.
Settings that govern the creation and storage of logs.
Setting
Description
Log Level
The verbosity of logs generated by the connector. When you request support, set this to Debug.
Log Subfolder Scheme
Instructs the connector to group files in the Logs folder according to the selected interval. The Weekly option (which is the default) instructs the connector to create a new subfolder each week and store all logs for the week in that folder. Leaving this setting blank tells the connector to save all logs directly in the Logs folder. For connectors that process many transactions, using subfolders helps keep logs organized and improves performance.
Log Messages
Check this to have the log entry for a processed file include a copy of the file itself. If you disable this, you might not be able to download a copy of the file from the Transactions tab.
Miscellaneous settings are for specific use cases.
Setting
Description
Other Settings
Enables you to configure hidden connector settings in a semicolon-separated list (for example, setting1=value1;setting2=value2). Normal connector use cases and functionality should not require the use of these settings.
This tab lists all messages associated with the connector. Use the search bar to find specific messages, or click the funnel icon to apply a filter. You can filter by time, message direction, and/or status.Incoming form responses appear on this tab.
If your Arc instance is hosted on an IIS server and you use Microsoft Windows authentication to login to the application, you must disable Windows authentication for your users. Otherwise, the Form connector cannot properly authenticate users, and the connector will not work properly.To disable Windows authentication:
In your IIS manager, create a new folder named connector in the base application path.
Select Authentication under IIS (in the right pane) for the connector folder.
Set Windows Authentication to Disabled for this folder.
Sections divide fields in the form by categorizing them under a heading. For example, the Ship To section might contain fields like Address, City, and Zip.Sections are not required in order to add fields to the form. However, sections provide logical groupings of items that help users quickly understand the form.To add a section:
Choose Add Section from the dropdown. Enter a section name.
Detail tables allow form creators to embed a table in the web form to enable structured, row-based data entry. They include a configurable number of columns which you define during the form creation. They are ideal for capturing repeatable datasets in a single form submission. End users can then dynamically add as many rows as needed and enter values for each column in those rows. See Accessing Your Form for an example.To add a detail table to your form:
Click Add Detail from the dropdown. Enter a name.
Now you are ready to add columns to the table. Select any of the form field types.
Fields are the basic unit of input for the form.To add a field:
Drag an object from the Form Fields section into your section or detail table.
Enter a Display Name (for example, Line Item Id). By default, XML Name is populated, but you can use the Override checkbox to supply a different name.
Use the Is required checkbox to specify whether the field is mandatory.
The other options vary based on the form field type. The following example shows a text field being defined. When you are finished defining the field, click Add.
To edit a field, click the link to its name, or the ellipses to the right of the name.
To remove a field, click the ellipses and choose Remove Instance.
Drag and drop fields in a section or detail table to reorder their position in the form.
XML Name: Sanitized version of the Display Name. It must be a valid XML element name.
Override: Checkbox which allows you to change the default XML Name.
Accepted File Type Extensions: The allowed list of upload file types. For example, .xml only accepts XML files. To allow all file types, use *. Click Add Option to add the options you need.
Is required: Checkbox indicating whether the field is mandatory.
Default Value: Populates the form with the text supplied here.
Description: Helper text describing what the field is for.
After you create a form, users access the Form connector’s web endpoint and submit data using the form.For fields in the main form, users simply enter the values that correspond to the labels on the form (which are taken from the name of the fields that you created).Users can add rows to the detail table by clicking Add Row. Once a user enters all their data, they click Submit to submit their data. If the submission is successful, a message similar to the following appears.When a user submits a form, the form data is pushed to the Transactions tab. The output is an XML file that contains the following structure:
