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Associating form data with individuals

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Aaron Spike

Associating form data with individuals

I'm looking for ideas about different ways people tie form submissions into other records. We have a number of forms that are submitted as "evaluations" where one person (e.g. an advisor, instructor or supervisor) submits a form relating to a different person (e.g. a student or employee). I know that some of this could be done using the auth capabilities of the servlet container, but sometime we need to receive such evaluations from individuals for which we don't have accounts or credentials. We also have a number of multi-part forms where one section might need to be completed by a student and a second section completed by an advisor.

I've been thinking that some of this might be accomplished if I developed a related services which knew which forms were needed and it could generate urls with access codes. Access codes could be sent in the URL and a service could be queried for related information, etc. http://wiki.orbeon.com/forms/how-to/fb-fr/request-parameter

I realize this is all terribly general. But please share any experiences you think might be similar. Or suggest better questions that I could be asking.

Aaron Spike

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Aaron Spike

Re: Associating form data with individuals

Today I started evaluating PE features and I discovered the database services which I think could solve my need very well when combined with request parameters. I have seen various forum posts that recommend using the request parameter as the initial value of a hidden control. If the control is visible this works well for me. If I hide the control it stops working. What could I be doing wrong?

Aaron Spike

Alessandro Vernet

Re: Associating form data with individuals

Administrator

Hi Aaron,

Are you saying that xxf:get-request-parameter('my-parameter') as the initial value of a hidden control isn't working for you? And if that is the case, what version of Orbeon Forms are you seeing this on?

Alex

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Aaron Spike

Re: Associating form data with individuals

On Monday, October 13, 2014 12:56:04 PM UTC-5, Alessandro Vernet wrote:

Hi Aaron,

Are you saying that xxf:get-request-parameter('my-parameter') as the initial
value of a hidden control isn't working for you? And if that is the case,
what version of Orbeon Forms are you seeing this on?

I'm using HEAD with my postgresql persistence changes applied.

There seems to be a bit of nuance in your question. I can't say for sure that xxf:get-request-parameter('my-parameter') doesn't work with hidden controls because I don't know how to tell. This is what I know: when the control is visible my database service loads data and fills in form fields. As soon as I put "false()" in the visibility expression for the section or the control my data no longer loads. When I use the Chrome dev tools inspector the "value" attribute of the input remains empty.

I decided to do another test before posting this. I changed "xxf:get-request-parameter('my-parameter')" to simply "2" as the initial value for my control. When it is visible, I get data; when the section or control are hidden, I get no data.

I've very new to Orbeon Forms and it is quite probable I'm doing something wrong. But this is what I see.

Aaron Spike

Re: Associating form data with individuals

I just discovered the Xforms Inspector. Amazing! (Wish it was easier to enable for an average person and therefore easier to discover. Also wish it would allow arbitrary xpath expressions and not just selection expressions.) The instance/model was updating with the request parameter. But the action was not firing. "Value Change or Form Load" must hate hidden controls. (Which makes sense, but I thought the "or form change" would come through for me.) "Form Change" works fine. I'm really good at choosing the wrong options. Starting to think that I would be better off in QA.

Aaron Spike

On Monday, October 13, 2014 1:19:42 PM UTC-5, Aaron Spike wrote:

On Monday, October 13, 2014 12:56:04 PM UTC-5, Alessandro Vernet wrote:
Hi Aaron,

Are you saying that xxf:get-request-parameter('my-parameter') as the initial
value of a hidden control isn't working for you? And if that is the case,
what version of Orbeon Forms are you seeing this on?

I'm using HEAD with my postgresql persistence changes applied.

There seems to be a bit of nuance in your question. I can't say for sure that xxf:get-request-parameter('my-parameter') doesn't work with hidden controls because I don't know how to tell. This is what I know: when the control is visible my database service loads data and fills in form fields. As soon as I put "false()" in the visibility expression for the section or the control my data no longer loads. When I use the Chrome dev tools inspector the "value" attribute of the input remains empty.

I decided to do another test before posting this. I changed "xxf:get-request-parameter('my-parameter')" to simply "2" as the initial value for my control. When it is visible, I get data; when the section or control are hidden, I get no data.

I've very new to Orbeon Forms and it is quite probable I'm doing something wrong. But this is what I see.

Aaron Spike

This electronic communication, including any attached documents, may contain confidential and/or legally privileged information that is intended only for use by the recipient(s) named above. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the communication and any attachments. Views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent those of Martin Luther College.