Quickstart Text
Description
A description of the simple "lines of text" method for defining the fields and headings that make up a form.
- Name
- Description
- Full Quickstart Text Help
Quickstart Text is a quick and easy method for adding form fields and explanatory text to a form type definition.
In addition to using the Commands List and its associated buttons and properties to enter the commands that define the fields, headings, and other behavior of a form type, there is a simple method for entering commands using just simple lines of text. This is called "Quickstart Text".
You can use this method when you are first creating a form type by clicking the "Input Quickstart Text to start creating a new form type" button on the Forms Properties Screen. You can also enter Quickstart Text to insert new commands into an existing form type when using the Commands List by choosing "Quickstart-style Input" as the type of command to insert.
While entering Quickstart Text, extensive help is displayed, along with short-cut buttons for inserting and modifying the text.
Quickstart Text looks like this:
# Work Apron Request Form Name Badge Number:number ### Correspond to sweatshirt sizes Size::Small, Medium, Large
You can see two types of lines in the sample. The first starts with one or more "#" characters and specifies a Heading command. Heading Commands specify text to be displayed as lines in the form for informational and organizational purposes. There are different types of headings, including Group (major heading), Section (sub-heading), and Instructions (italic text). The "#" prefixes indicate which of these three you are specifying (#=Group, ##=Section, and ###=Instructions).
The second type of lines starts with plain text, with an optional second part separated by a ":" character. These define data fields in the form. The first (or only) part of the line specifies the Title to appear for the field. A field name (the attribute name in the JSON that makes up the data) will be automatically assigned, as well as a Preview Value.
For example, in the example above, the first field is given the field name "field1" and a title of "Name". The second field will be given the field name "field2" and a title of "Badge Number".
The second part, with just the word "number", specifies the type of field if it is not a plain text field. The word "number" indicates the way that the field data will be entered, in this case with a keypad.
The field types are:
Field title:number Field title:signed Field title:integer Field title:currency Field title:phone Field title:date Field title:datetime Field title:timenow Field title:stopwatch Field title:photo Field title:scanner Field title:audio Field title:signature Field title:location
If the second part of the line consists of two or more pieces of text separated by commas, then that specifies that the field data will be entered using a list consisting of those pieces of text as choices.
If the two parts are separated by two ":" characters, as shown in the last line of the example above, then instead of needing to tap on the field and then choose from a list on a separate screen, the choices will be individual buttons in the form display itself. This is known as a "button list" data field.
For both a list (e.g., title:first,second,third) and a button list (title::1st,2nd,3rd), the pieces of text may optionally themselves have two parts, separated by a "|" character. The text after the "|" will be the value that will be assigned to the field if the choice is selected. If there is no "|" for a choice, then the value will be the same as the displayed choice. For example, if the line of Quickstart Text was "Married?:Yes|y, No|n", choosing the first choice would set the field to "y" and the second to "n".
There are other line formats that may be used to define Data Groups and Change Status buttons:
#Group Heading:dataGroup ##Section Heading:dataGroup >Change Status Button text