Adaptive Forms editor

Last update: 2023-11-16

Adobe recommends using the modern and extensible data capture Core Components for creating new Adaptive Forms or adding Adaptive Forms to AEM Sites pages. These components represent a significant advancement in Adaptive Forms creation, ensuring impressive user experiences. This article describes older approach to author Adaptive Forms using foundation components.

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Overview

Adaptive Forms allow you to create forms that are engaging, responsive, dynamic, and adaptive. AEM Forms provides an intuitive user interface and out-of-the-box components for creating and working with Adaptive Forms. You can choose to create an Adaptive Form based on a form model or schema or without a form model. It is important to carefully choose the form model that not only suits your requirements but extends your existing infrastructural investments and assets. You get to choose from the following options to create an Adaptive Form:

  • Using a form data model
    Data integration lets you integrate entities and services from disparate data sources in to a Form Data Model that you can use to create Adaptive Forms. Choose Form Data Model if the Adaptive Form you are creating involves fetching and write data from and to multiple data source.

  • Using an XDP Form Template
    It is an ideal form model if you have investments in XFA-based or XDP forms. It provides a direct way to convert your XFA-based forms into Adaptive Forms. Any existing XFA rules are retained in the associated Adaptive Forms. The resulting Adaptive Forms support XFA constructs, such as validations, events, properties, and patterns.

  • Using an XML Schema Definition (XSD) or a JSON Schema
    XML and JSON schemas represent the structure in which data is produced or consumed by the back-end system in your organization. You can associate the schema to an Adaptive Form and use its elements to add dynamic content to the Adaptive Form. The elements of the schema are available for use in the Data Model Objects tab of the Content browser when authoring Adaptive Forms.

  • Using none or without a form model
    Adaptive Forms created with this option does not use any form model. The data XML generated from such forms has flat structure with fields and corresponding values.

    NOTE

    You can modify the form model properties from the Adaptive Form editor or Adaptive Form template editor. For more information, see Edit Form Model properties of an Adaptive Form.

To create an Adaptive Form, see Creating an Adaptive Form.

Adaptive Form Authoring UI

The touch-optimized UI for authoring Adaptive Forms is intuitive, and provides:

  • Drag-and-drop functionality
  • Standard form components
  • Integrated repository for assets

When you create or edit an existing Adaptive Form, you use the following UI elements:

The Sidebar lets you

  • Search, view, and use assets in your AEM Digital Asset Management (DAM) repository.
  • See form content such as panels, components, fields, and layout.
  • Add components on your form.
  • Edit component properties.

Sidebar

A. Content browser B. Properties browser C. Assets browser D. Components browser

The sidebar comprises the following browsers:

  • Content browser
    In the content browser, you can see:

    • Form Objects
      Shows object hierarchy of the Form. Author can navigate to specific form component by tapping that element in Form Object Tree. Author can search objects and rearrange them from this tree.

    • Data Model Objects
      Lets you see the form model hierarchy.
      It lets you drag and drop form-model elements on the Adaptive Form. The added elements automatically get converted into form components while retaining their original properties. You can see data model objects when your form uses XML schema, JSON schema, or XDP template.

  • Properties browser

    Lets you edit the properties of a component. Properties change according to a component. To see properties of the Adaptive Form container:

    Select a component, then tap field-level > Adaptive Form Container, and then tap properties.

  • Assets browser

    Segregates different types content such as images, documents, pages, movies, and so on.

  • Components browser

    Includes components that you can use to build an Adaptive Form. You can drag components from onto the Adaptive Form to add form elements, and configure added element as per the requirements. The following table describes the components listed in components browser.

Component Functionality
Adobe Sign Block Adds a block of text with placeholders for fields to be filled while signing using Adobe Sign.
Button Adds a button, which you can configure to perform actions, such as save, reset, go next, go previous, and so on.
Captcha Adds CAPTCHA validation using Google reCAPTCHA service.
Chart Adds a chart that you can use in Adaptive Forms and documents for visual representation of two-dimensional data in repeatable panels and table rows.
Check box Adds a check box.
Date Input Field Use Date Input Field component in your form, to let customers fill day, month, and year separately in three boxes. You can customize the look and feel of the component, and change the date format. For example, you can let your customers input dates in MM/DD/YYYY or DD/MM/YYYY format.
Date picker Adds a calender field to pick a date.
Document Fragment Lets you add reusable components of a correspondence.
Document Fragment Group Lets you add group of related document fragments that you can use in a letter template as a single unit.
Drop-down list Adds a drop-down list - single or multi-select
Email

Adds a field to capture email address. The Email component, by default, validates email addresses using the following regular expression.

^[a-zA-Z0-9.!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9-]+(?:.[a-zA-Z0-9-]+)*$
File attachment

Adds a button that allows users to browse and attach supporting documents to a form.

Note: The File Attachment component supports a pre-defined set of file formats in Adaptive Forms enabled for Adobe Sign. For more information, see Supported file formats.
File attachment listing Adds a field that lists all the attachments uploaded using the File Attachment component.
Footer
 Adds the page header that typically includes logo of a corporation, title of the form, and summary.
Header Adds the page footer that typically includes copyright information, and links to other pages.
Image Lets you insert an image.
Image Choice Lets your customers select an image to provide information. You can use the information to provide personalized services to your customers.
Next Button Adds a button to navigate to the next panel in a form.
Numeric box Adds a field for capturing numeric values
Numeric Stepper Use Numeric Stepper in your form to let your customers input a numeric value, which they can increase or decrease based on a predefined step.
Panel

Adds a panel or subpanel.

You can also add a panel component from the parent panel toolbar using the Add Child Panel button. Similarly, you can add a panel-specific toolbar using the Add Panel Toolbar button. You can configure the position of the panel toolbar using the Edit Panel dialog.
Password box Adds a field for capturing a password.
Previous button Adds a button that users require to go back to the previous page or panel.
Radio button Adds radio buttons.
Reset button Adds a button to reset form fields.
Save Button Adds a button to save form data.
Scribble signature Adds a field for capturing scribble signatures.
Separator Enables visual segregation of panels in your form.
Signature Step Displays the information provided in the form and the signature fields for the user to verify and sign the form.
Text Lets you specify static text.
Submit Button Adds a submit button to submit the form to the configured Submit Action.
Summary Step Submits the form and displays summary text that authors specifies after the form is submitted.
Switch Adds a switch that performs a toggle or enable/disable action. You cannot add more than two options in the Switch component. Since a switch can have only two values: On or Off, mandatory is not applicable. At-least one value is saved irrespective of the user input.
Table Adds a table that lets you organize data in rows and columns.
Telephone

Adds a field to capture telephone number. The Telephone component allows authors to configure one of following phone number types. Each type is associated with a default regular expression for validation.

  • Type International is validated by ^[+][0-9]{0,14}$.
  • Type USPhoneNumber is validated by {'+1 ('999') '999-9999}.
  • Type UKPhoneNumber is validated by text{'+'99 999 999 9999}.
  • Type Custom does not provide a default validation pattern. It takes the value of the last selected phone number type. You can also specify your own custom validation pattern.
Terms and Conditions
 Adds a field that authors can use to specify the terms and conditions for users to review before filling the form.
Text box

Adds a text box in which a user can specify the required information.

By default, the Text Box component accepts only plain text. You can enable a Text Box component to accept Rich Text. A Rich Text enabled text component provide options to add headers, change character styles (bold, italicize, underline the characters), create ordered and unordered lists, change text background and text color, and add hyperlinks. To enable rich text for a text box, enable the Allow Rich Text option in the component properties.
Title Specifies a title for the Adaptive Form.
Verify Step

Adds a placeholder to display the filled form for verification by user.

Note: Adaptive Form containing the Verify component does not support anonymous users. Also, it is not recommended to use the Verify component in an Adaptive Form Fragment.

Page toolbar

The page toolbar on the top provides options that let you preview the form, change form properties, and edit form layout. You can preview the form when you author it, and make changes accordingly. In the page toolbar, you see:

  • Toggle Side Panel toggle-side-panel: Lets you show or hide Sidebar.

  • Page information theme-options: Lets you view page properties, publish/unpublish a form, start a form workflow, and open the form in classic UI.

  • Emulator ruler: Lets you emulate the look of your form for different display sizes such as tablets and phones.

  • Edit: Lets you select other modes such as: Edit, Style, Developer, and Design.

    • Edit: Lets you edit the properties of the form and its components. For example, adding a component, dropping an image, and specifying mandatory fields.

    • Style: Lets you style the appearance of components of your form. For example, in style mode, you can select a panel and specify its background color.

    • Developer: Lets a developer to:

      • Discover what forms are composed of.

      • Debug what is happening where and when, which in turn helps to resolve issues.

      • Design. Lets you enable or disable custom components, or out-of-the-box components that are not listed in the Sidebar.

  • Preview: Lets you preview how the form looks when you publish it.

Component toolbar

Component toolbar in the touch UI

When you select a component, you see a toolbar that lets you work it. You get options to cut, paste, move, and specify properties of the components. Your options are:

A.Configure: When you tap Configure, component properties are visible in the sidebar. Configuring these properties let you customize the data capturing experience. You can change the element name of the component, specify the label text in the Title field of the component. Element name lets you capture values users enter using the component. In the component properties, you specify the behavior of the component, and manage user input. Configure properties in the sidebar to capture user data and use it for further processing. Properties for Adaptive Form container let you specify Client libraries, Layouts, Themes, Document of Record settings, save settings, submission settings, and metadata settings.

B.Copy: You can use the copy option to copy a component and paste it in other places in the form. When you paste a component, the pasted component gets a new element name but retains the properties of the copied component.

C.Cut: You can use the cut option to move a component from one place to another in the Adaptive Form.

D. Delete: Lets you delete the component from the form.

E. Insert: Lets you insert a component above the selected component.

F. Paste: Lets you paste the component you cut or copied using the options described above.

G. Edit rules: Lets you open the rule editor. For more information,

H. Group: Lets you select multiple components if you want to cut, copy, or paste more than one component together.

I. Parent: Lets you select the parent of a component. For example, a text field lies within a sub-section, which resides in a section. The section resides in the guide root panel, and the Adaptive Form container is the parent of a guide root panel. For a component, you can see all the options with the hierarchy sorted bottoms-up.

For example, if you tap Parent for a text box, you can see:

  • Sub-section
  • Section
  • guideRootPanel
  • Adaptive Form container

J. Others: Provides more options to work with the selected component.

  • View SOM expression
  • Save a panel as fragment (for panels only)
  • Add child panel (for panels only)
  • Add panel toolbar (for panels only)
  • Replace (not for panels)

Adaptive Form page

The Adaptive Form page is the actual form. It is like any other WCM page modeled as the WCM cq:Page component. The following image shows the content structure of a typical Adaptive Form.

Content structure of an Adaptive Form WCM page

The content structure typically contains the following primary components:

  • guideContainer: The root of an Adaptive Form, which is marked as Start of Adaptive Form in the Adaptive Form UI. In this component, you can specify:

    • Mobile Layout of the Adaptive Form: Defines the appearance of the form on mobile devices.
    • Thank You page: Defines the page where the user is redirected after submitting the form.
    • Submit Action: Defines how the form is processed on the server once the user submits the form.
    • Styling: Specifies the path to the CSS file used to customize the appearance of the form.

  • rootPanel: The root panel of an Adaptive Form. It can contain subpanels under the items node. Each panel including the root panel can have a layout associated with it. The layout of the panel dictates how the form is laid out. For example, in the Accordion layout, its items are laid out as Accordion steps.

  • toolbar: An Adaptive Form container has an associated global toolbar, which is global to the form. This toolbar can be added using the Add Toolbar action in the edit bar, which allows authors to add actions, such as Submit, Save, Reset, and so on.

  • assets: This node contains additional information used for form authoring. For example, form model details, localization details, and so on.

See Also

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