Work with Form Data Model work-with-form-data-model

Form Data Model editor provides an intuitive user interface and tools for editing and configuring a form data model. Using the editor, you can add and configure data model objects, properties, and services from associated data sources in the form data model. In addition, it lets you create data model objects and properties without data sources and bind them with respective data model objects and properties later. You can also generate and edit sample data for data model object properties that you can use to prefill Adaptive Forms while previewing. You can test data model objects and services configured in a Form Data Model to ensure it is properly integrated with data sources.

If you are new to Forms data integration and have not configured a data source or created a form data model, see the following topics:

Read on for details about various tasks and configurations you can perform using the Form Data Model editor.

Add data model objects and services add-data-model-objects-and-services

If you created a Form Data Model with data sources, you can use the Form Data Model editor to add data model objects and services, configure their properties, build associations between data model objects, and test the Form Data Model and services.

You can add data model objects and services from available data sources in the form data model. While added data model objects appear in the Model tab, added services appear in the Services tab.

To add data model objects and services:

Create data model objects and child properties create-data-model-objects-and-child-properties

Create data model objects create-data-model-objects

While you can add data model objects from configured data sources, you can also create data model objects or entities without data sources. It is helpful especially if you have not configured data sources in the form data model.

To create a data model object without data sources:

Next, you can add child properties in unbound data model objects.

Add child properties child-properties

Form Data Model editor lets you create child properties in a data model object. The property when created is not bound to any property in a data source. You can later bind the child property with another property in the containing data model object.

To create a child property:

After you have created data model objects and properties, you can continue to create Adaptive Forms based on the form data model. Later, when you have data sources available and configured, you can bind the Form Data Model with data sources. The binding automatically gets updated in associated Adaptive Forms . For more information about creating Adaptive Forms using form data model, see Use form data model.

Bind data model objects and properties bind-data-model-objects-and-properties

When the data sources you want to integrate with the Form Data Model are available, you can add them to the Form Data Model as described in Update data sources. Then, do the following to bind the unbound data model objects and properties:

Configure services configure-services

To read and write data for a data model object, do the following to configure read and write services:

Bind Read service arguments bindargument

Bind Read service argument to a User Profile Attribute, Request Attribute, or Literal value based on a binding value. The value is passed to the service as an argument to fetch details associated with the specified value from the data source.

Literal value literal-value

Select Literal from the Binding To drop-down menu and enter a value in the Binding Value field. The details associated with the value are retrieved from the data source. Use this option to retrieve details associated with a static value.

In this example, the details associated with 4367655678, as the value for the mobilenum argument, are retrieved from the data source. The associated details if you pass the value for a mobile number argument can include properties such as customer name, customer address, and city.

User Profile Attribute user-profile-attribute

Select User Profile Attribute from the Binding To drop-down menu and enter the attribute name in the Binding Value field. The details of the user logged in to the Experience Manager instance are retrieved from the data source based on the attribute name.

The attribute name specified in the Binding Value field must include the complete binding path till the attribute name for the user. Open the following URL to access the user details on CRXDE:

https://[server-name]:[port]/crx/de/index.jsp#/home/users/

In this example, specify profile.empid in the Binding Value field for the grios user.

The id argument takes the value of the empid attribute of the user profile and pass it as an argument to the Read service. It reads and return values of associated properties from the employee data model object for the empid associated with the logged in user.

Request Attribute request-attribute

Use the request attribute to retrieve the associated properties from the data source.

The details are retrieved from the data source based on the attribute name specified in the request.

For example, specifying attribute as petid=100 in the request retrieves properties associated to the attribute value from the data source.

Add associations add-associations

Typically, there are associations built between data model objects in a data source. The association can be one-to-one or one-to-many. For example, there can be multiple dependents associated with an employee. It is referred to as one-to-many association and depicted by 1:n on the line connecting associated data model objects. However, if an association returns a unique employee name for a given employee ID, it is referred to as one-to-one association.

When you add associated data model objects in a data source to a form data model, their associations are retained and displayed as connected by arrow lines. You can add associations between data model objects across disparate data sources in a form data model.

To add an association:

Edit properties properties

You can edit properties of data model objects, their properties, and services added in the form data model.

To edit properties:

Create computed properties computed

A computed property is the one whose value is computed based on a rule or an expression. Using a rule, you can set the value of a computed property to a literal string, a number, result of a mathematical expression, or the value of another property in the form data model.

For example, you can create a computed property FullName whose value is a result of concatenation the existing FirstName and LastName properties. To do so:

Work with navigation properties of OData services work-with-navigation-properties-of-odata-services

In OData services, navigation properties are used to define associations between two data model objects. These properties are defined on an entity type or a complex type. For example, in the following extract from the metadata file of the sample TripPin OData sample services, the person entity contains three navigation properties - Friends, BestFriend, and Trips.

For more information about navigation properties, see OData documentation.

<edmx:Edmx xmlns:edmx="https://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/edmx" Version="4.0">
<script/>
<edmx:DataServices>
<Schema xmlns="https://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/edm" Namespace="Microsoft.OData.Service.Sample.TrippinInMemory.Models">
<EntityType Name="Person">
<Key>
<PropertyRef Name="UserName"/>
</Key>
<Property Name="UserName" Type="Edm.String" Nullable="false"/>
<Property Name="FirstName" Type="Edm.String" Nullable="false"/>
<Property Name="LastName" Type="Edm.String"/>
<Property Name="MiddleName" Type="Edm.String"/>
<Property Name="Gender" Type="Microsoft.OData.Service.Sample.TrippinInMemory.Models.PersonGender" Nullable="false"/>
<Property Name="Age" Type="Edm.Int64"/>
<Property Name="Emails" Type="Collection(Edm.String)"/>
<Property Name="AddressInfo" Type="Collection(Microsoft.OData.Service.Sample.TrippinInMemory.Models.Location)"/>
<Property Name="HomeAddress" Type="Microsoft.OData.Service.Sample.TrippinInMemory.Models.Location"/>
<Property Name="FavoriteFeature" Type="Microsoft.OData.Service.Sample.TrippinInMemory.Models.Feature" Nullable="false"/>
<Property Name="Features" Type="Collection(Microsoft.OData.Service.Sample.TrippinInMemory.Models.Feature)" Nullable="false"/>
<NavigationProperty Name="Friends" Type="Collection(Microsoft.OData.Service.Sample.TrippinInMemory.Models.Person)"/>
<NavigationProperty Name="BestFriend" Type="Microsoft.OData.Service.Sample.TrippinInMemory.Models.Person"/>
<NavigationProperty Name="Trips" Type="Collection(Microsoft.OData.Service.Sample.TrippinInMemory.Models.Trip)"/>
</EntityType>

When you configure an OData service in a Form Data Model, all navigation properties in an entity container are made available through a service in the Form Data Model. In this example of TripPin OData service, the three navigation properties in the Person entity container can be read using one GET LINK service in the Form Data Model.

The following highlights the GET LINK of Person /People service in the Form Data Model, which is a combined service for the three navigation properties in the Person entity of the TripPin OData service.

Once you add the GET LINK service to the Services tab in the Form Data Model, you can edit the properties to choose the output model object and the navigation property to use in the service. For example, the following GET LINK of Person /People service in the following example uses Trip as the output model object and the navigation property as Trips.

In this example, you can also choose the output model object as Person and navigation property argument as Friends or BestFriend (depending on whether Return array? is enabled or disabled).

Similarly, you can choose a GET LINK service and configure its navigation properties when adding associations in the Form Data Model. However, to be able to select a navigation property, ensure that the Binding To field is set to Literal.

Generate and edit sample data sample

Form Data Model editor lets you generate sample data for all data model object properties, including computed properties, in a form data model. It is a set of random values that comply with the data type configured for each property. You can also edit and save data, which is retained even if you regenerate the sample data.

Do the following to generate and edit sample data:

Test data model objects and services test-data-model-objects-and-services

Your Form Data Model is configured but before putting it in use, you may want to test if the configured data model objects and services are working as expected. To test data model objects and services:

Similarly, you can test other data model objects and services in the form data model.

Automated validation of input data automated-validation-of-input-data

The Form Data Model validates data received as input while invoking DermisBridge API (based on validation criteria available in form data model). The validation is based on the ValidationOptions flag set in the query object that is used to invoke the API.

The flag can be set to any of the following values:

If no value is set for the ValidationOptionsflag, BASIC validation is performed on the input data.

The following is an example of setting the validation flag to FULL:

operationOptions.setValidationOptions(ValidationOptions.FULL);

The Form Data Model validates input data based on a list of data type constraints. The list of constraints for input data can vary based on the data source.

The following table lists the constraints for input data based on the data source:

In this example, the input data is validated based on maximum, minimum, and required constraints defined in the Swagger file. The input data meets the validation criteria only if Order Id is present and its value is from 1–10.

   parameters: [
   {
   name: "orderId",
   in: "path",
   description: "ID of pet that must be fetched",
   required: true,
   type: "integer",
   maximum: 10,
   minimum: 1,
   format: "int64"
   }
   ]

An exception is displayed if the input data does not meet the validation criteria. If the log level is set to Debug, an error is logged to the error.log file. For example,

21.01.2019 17:26:37.411 *ERROR* com.adobe.aem.dermis.core.validation.JsonSchemaValidator {"errorCode":"AEM-FDM-001-044","errorMessage":"Input validations failed during operation execution.","violations":{"/orderId":["numeric instance is greater than the required maximum (maximum: 10, found: 16)"]}}

Next steps next-steps

You have a working Form Data Model that is now ready for use in Adaptive Forms workflows. For more information, see Use form data model.