I have been working on a Dynamic Form for several months now (on & off).  I have made several posts to the Dynamic Forms
Forum in order to figure out a way to successfully build this form using Dynamic Forms.  I have finally succeeded using a
combination of Dynamic Forms and Javascript to make it work. Based upon numerous attempts at making this a complete
Dynamic Forms solution I have several suggestions for enhancements to this product.

First my Form Requirements:

- I need to build a form where a user selects from a list of communities (drop down list, SQL Driven).
- I need to retrieve additional data elements from the database based upon the above selection.
- The user will also need to make several other selections (Checkboxes).
- Upon form submission I need to display a well formatted list of responses to the user based upon selections(Another DF).

Next Dynamic Forms Short Comings:

(1) Hidden fields are not SQL Driven. I had to retrieve the additional database elements to additional drop down lists fields
which are visible to the user.

(2) Question Events can not be created for SQL Driven drop down lists where the SQL uses a retrieval argument. I should clarify
here by saying they will not work if you need to specify an "Initiation Response". The "Initiation Response" field is soley
option driven and thus is not populated for the above scenario.  This one drove me nuts!  I tried to enter the "Initiation
Response" value manually thru SQL Server Management Studio Express. The value saved OK in the database but was not reflected in the DF - Question Event Screen. So much for back dooring it.

(3) Question Events do not appear to fire when passing query string parameters to another DF (Never did get a forum response on this). This was going to be my solution for displaying custom results (a series of text/html fields). I planned on displaying/hiding the text/html fields based upon the passed query parameters. I should mention here that the form elements receiving the query string values were those capable of initiating a Question Event. I finally replaced the 2nd DF with a DotNetNuke HTML module and used Javascript for this.

Suggestions for Improvement:

1. Allow SQL Driven Hidden Fields.
2. Have a visual representation of a hidden field on the form while in edit mode (minor, if possible).
3. Open up the "Initiation Response" field for Question Events for manual entry.
4. Provide for Short names on Custom HTML fields so they can be distinguished from one another.
5. Allow for Question Event triggering on hidden fields.
6. Question Events should fire if the values are auto-set (such as retrieved from a query string) not just user selected.

 
I am still relatively new to Dynamic Forms so maybe a total solution is possible and I'm just missing it. If so, I would much
appreciate any ideas. I believe the above suggestions would be well received.

Hi. Sorry for the late reply, I was awaiting the release of 2.5 to answer your questions/post but I thought I would go ahead and follow up here since its running a little behind.

First, we do have many of the features you requested on the Dynamic Forms 2.5 Roadmap which is currently in development and should be released soon.

Here are some specific responses to your thread:

Allow SQL Driven Hidden Fields. -Yes this is addressed in 2.5. This already exists in Dynamic Registration and has also been added to Dynamic Forms for upcoming release.

Have a visual representation of a hidden field on the form while in edit mode (minor, if possible). -This will not be in the 2.5 release but we will see to add it in an incremental release later. The problem here is that you would want to make sure its a hidden field to make sure that its testing/working properly and so forth.

Open up the "Initiation Response" field for Question Events for manual entry.  - I am somewhat confused about this, is this because you might be using a SQL Query for the field? Since the initiation question is not allowed for fields such as textbox fields I am not sure why free form would be necessary (I guess for SQL Queries on fields it might be necessary though). If you need a work around for this now you could manually update a table in the database for the initiation response. We also have many new client side events coming up which you can check out on the roadmap.

Provide for Short names on Custom HTML fields so they can be distinguished from one another. -This is addressed in 2.5 release.

Allow for Question Event triggering on hidden fields. - Hi. Well the problem here is that hidden fields do not typically 'trigger' anything, in other words there is nothing the user could do on a hidden field that would be able to present the a postback etc... I can see the benefits though if you are using this in conjunction with the SQL Default (so that way whatever is pulled in would then be able to be used upon initial load for question events) or I guess if you were passing something in from a querystring or session variable. I am not sure this will be in 2.5 release but I can see how this could be used and it shouldn't be very difficult to add.

Question Events should fire if the values are auto-set (such as retrieved from a query string) not just user selected. - This should already be able to function this way?

Sorry for the late response. Let me know any feedback you might have on these comments as we are right in the middle of development on the 2.5 release now.

-Chad

Thank you for the reply.

My post is the result of attempting to use Dynamic Forms to replace a simple data driven Cold Fusion application that we support.

I think that this new version may solve my remaining issues.  Actually, I would be willing to Beta test this version for you if you would like.


Now for some responses to your responses:

Open up the "Initiation Response" field for Question Events for manual entry - The reason for this request is that SQL driven options do not appear in this field if the SQL source uses retrieval argument(s).  I tried (as you suggest) to manually update the table in the database but the Question Event screen does not indicate the manual change.  It has been a while since my original post so I will have to try a simple test to refresh my memory.

Allow for Question Event triggering on hidden fields.  You've got it!  I'm looking for the ability to execute an event based upon the population of a hidden field, either by querystring, session variable, or SQL.  This also ties in with the above item of opening up the "Initiation Response" field.

Question Events should fire if the values are auto-set (such as retrieved from a query string) not just user selected.  I tried passing several form values to another Dynamic Form (tried as session Variables & QueryString variables).  I wanted the 2nd form to display specific content based upon the variables being passed. I could not get the Question Event to fire upon populating the form elements with the variables. Only a manual change to the form element would execute the Event.  Again, it has been some time since I tested this so I will set up a simple test form this week.

Looking forward to V2.5. I love this product and will gladly test out this new version for you.

Thanks,
MikeF