Contents
Overview
Each field in a Zengine form has a number of different settings and options that can be configured to determine the appearance and behavior of a given field, ranging from providing a field description to setting validation options that restrict the data entered into that field to certain types or lengths. Depending on the field type, the options here might be different. In this article, you will find the different options across all fields and how to use them.
Where to Find the Advanced Options for a Field
The Advanced Options settings for a field can be found in the Form Builder. (For more information on the Form Builder, see the article Form Builder Overview.)
To access the Advanced Options for a specific field:
1. In your workspace, navigate to Settings & Tools (gear icon in the upper right corner of blue navigation bar)
2. Select the Forms card, under the Workspace Settings area.
3. From your list of forms, click the Edit Form button on the form you wish to edit.
4. In the form builder, you will click the Edit button to open the field options.
5. Click on "See advanced options" to expand the field options.
Field Advanced Options
The Advanced Options section contains a number of options that are standard across all field types. The one exception is Validation Options, which varies by different field types.
Short Name
If the label of your field is long, you can choose to give the field a short name. The short name you create will be used for column headings in your data view, internal dropdown fields and reports. An example of this would be, if you had a long essay question, you could give if a short name of "Essay 1" for easier viewing and identifying.
Default Value
The Default Value option allows you to set a value in the field that every new record will start with in that field. the user will be able to edit or remove this value, but you can set the default.
Help Text
If your field needs an extra explanation or maybe you want to give the user a suggested input for the field, Help Text is your friend. This option allows you to type in text that will serve as additional info about this field. It will display as slightly smaller and gray text directly under the field. Text input limit: 255 characters.
Field Purpose
Sometimes deleting certain fields can negatively affect data in your workspace. If this is a field you don't want users to remove, add a warning message that alerts them to the consequences if they're attempting to delete it. To do this, you can edit Field Purpose, found in the settings for each individual field in your form builder.
Layout Options
Field Layout Options will allow you to place form fields next to each other on the same row. You have the option to select the percentage of the row each field will take up. In the image below, you can see an example form with different layout option percentages selected for the various fields:
-- IMPORTANT --
Layout Options are no longer supported in Zengine. While they still function, please be aware that they can be difficult to use: the length of a field name, for example, can offset a field to the next row, and the layout appearance is often different in the form view of a workspace than it appears in a submission or review portal page. If you would like to use layout options, we recommend testing the appearance in both the workspace and in a submission or review portal before going live with a program.
Using Layout Options
This feature is feature is enabled on a field by field basis and may affect some surrounding fields. This section will go through step by step instructions on how to enable the layout options on your form fields. The new setting will allow you to choose the width of the field(s).
1. Open Advanced Options for a field and scroll until you see Layout Options. By default, all fields are at full width. To choose a different width for this field, click in the Field Width dropdown to see your options. You will choose how much (in terms of percentage) of the line on your form this field will take up (100% takes up the full horizontal space).
2. There is a "No Label" checkbox in this section: if checked, this will hide the label of this field to the end user. This is optional and can be checked/unchecked at anytime, but a field width must be selected to use this.
3. Once you make your selections, click Save Form in the lower left corner. You can view the change right away on the administrator side when viewing a record in this form. In a portal, the change could take up to five minutes.
Configuring different field layouts may affect surrounding fields. It is important to test your changes to ensure you do not make any unintentional changes to surrounding fields.
Validation Options
Under Advanced Options, several field types have Validation Options which can be configured to determine what format of data is allowed, or will be validated, in that field. Note that not every field type has validation options; the screenshot below displays the validation options available for a Text field.
Below is a list and description of the validation options available to Text, Text Box, Number, and File Upload fields.
Validation Options: Text Fields
| Field | Description |
| Maximum Length | Sets the maximum allowed number of characters; characters include letters, numbers, punctuation/symbols, and spaces. |
| Alphabetic | Allows only alphabetic characters (letters); no numbers or symbols will be allowed. |
| Alphanumeric | Allows only alphanumeric characters (letter and numbers); no symbols will be allowed. |
| Email Address | Allows only input that is entered in email format, e.g. emailaddress@email.com. |
| Number | Allows only numeric characters, as well as decimal points; no letters or other symbols (including commas) will be allowed. |
| Zip | Allows only input that is entered in U.S. zip code format, e.g. 00000 or 00000-0000. |
| No Duplicates | Checking this off will allow only unique values. This is useful for IDs such as Social Security Numbers. (Note that checking "No Duplicates" on a Linked Form field will affect form relationships. For more information on form relationships, see the article Linking Forms.) |
Validation Options: Text Box Fields
| Maximum Length | Sets the maximum allowed number of characters; characters include letters, numbers, punctuation/symbols, and spaces. |
| Minimum Amount of Words | Sets the minimum number of words a user must enter before the field can be considered "complete." |
| Maximum Amount of Words | Sets the maximum number of words that a user can enter when filling in this field. |
Validation Options: Number Fields
| Minimum Value | Sets the minimum numerical value a user can enter when filling out this field. |
| Maximum Value | Sets the maximum numerical value a user can enter when filling out this field. |
Validation Options: File Upload Fields
| Valid File Extensions | Sets the allowable file types that can be uploaded. The file extensions should be entered, without periods, and separated by commas (if more than one). Upper/lower case does not matter. For example: pdf, jpg, docx (for file types PDF, JPG image, Microsoft Word) |
| Max Upload Size | Sets the maximum file upload size that is permitted. Note that the number entered here is in MB; for example, if the file upload limit should be 1 GB, then the number "1000" should be entered here (1000 MB = 1 GB). |
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