The Form Data screen allows you to review data from all forms submitted to Formatta E-Forms Manager and export this data to popular formats such as XML. Data available for export is defined for each version of a form using the both the General and Data tabs in Form Management Properties. A detailed search screen allows you to narrow criteria to specific form versions, categories or submission dates.
Select Form Data from the Submissions tab to review and export data from forms submitted to Formatta E-Forms Manager.
The Submitted Form Data screen provides a comprehensive method of mixing and matching search criteria for form data.
Search criteria fields include:
Submitted From / To: Allows you to search form data using a specified data range.
Form Category: Allows searching by a particular form category since all forms must be assigned to a category when uploaded to Formatta E-Forms Manager.
Form: Allows searching on any form uploaded to Formatta E-Forms Manager.
Form Version Report Format: If there are multiple versions of the same form that have different form fields selected for reporting and export, you may use this field to choose the form version whose field list you want to display and/or export. By default, this field specifies simply the most recent version of the form you have selected in the Form field.
Include Exported Records: Using the checkbox provided, you may specify whether you want the results that are returned to include records that have already been searched on and exported to a file. This is useful when you want to run multiple exports of data for the same form, but you want to ensure that you do not export information from the same form more than once.
For example, a company may have two versions of a purchase order form - versions 1.0, and 2.0 - both of which are valid through the end of the year. On January 1st, only version 2.0 forms can be submitted by end users. With Formatta E-Forms Manager, you can schedule publication of version 2.0, schedule obsolescence of version 1.0 on December 31st, automatically upgrade users to version 2.0 starting on January 1st, and lastly, view separate data reports for each version at any time.
After entering your search criteria, press Search to display these results (see below).
Search results are displayed after selecting search criteria in the Submitted Form Data screen.
The report displays all the data and corresponding fields that were specified in Form Management Properties for each version of a form. Consequently, the report may or may not display all the data associated with each submitted form.
For example, a purchase order form may have both a shipping and billing address. For reporting purposes, you may determine that only the billing address is needed for data export. To define the billing address as reportable, use the Data tab (part of Form Management Properties). The Data tab allows Form Administrators to determine which, if any, fields will be available for export.
Because Formatta E-Forms Manager retains an exact copy of every submitted form, available fields for reporting can later be changed just by editing the Data tab.
Formatta E-Forms Manager exports form data in the following formats:
XML Format - Export data to Extensible Markup Language, a non-proprietary format for exchanging data between different applications. An example of XML data is displayed below:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<FORMLIST><FORM><efm_tracking_num>869</efm_tracking_num><efm_submitted_on>12/20/2012 08:06 PM</efm_submitted_on><efm_submitted_by>Gerald Ford</efm_submitted_by><employee_name>Jimmy Carter</employee_name></FORM></FORMLIST>
Microsoft Excel (XLS) - Export data to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. An example of a spreadsheet export is displayed below:
Comma-Separated Values (CSV) - Export data to a file with commas (",") separating each field of data. An example of CSV data is displayed below:
Submission ID,Submitted On,Submitted By,employee_name
869,12/20/2012 08:06 PM,Gerald Ford,Jimmy Carter
870,12/21/2012 10:24 AM,Franklin Pierce,James Garfield
Pipe-Separated Values (|) - Export data to a file with pipes ("|") separating each field of data.
Submission ID|Submitted On|Submitted By|employee_name
869|12/20/2012 08:06 PM|Gerald Ford|Jimmy Carter
870|12/21/2012 10:24 AM|Franklin Pierce|James Garfield
Tab-Separated Values - Export data to a file with TAB characters separating each field of data.
Submission ID Submitted On Submitted By employee_name
869|12/20/2012 08:06 PM Gerald Ford Jimmy Carter
870|12/21/2012 10:24 AM Franklin Pierce James Garfield
Custom Transformation - Export data to a file using your own XSLT Transformation file. If a custom XSLT file has been associated with the form you are working with through the Custom Transformation setting in the Form Catalog's Data tab, choosing this option will export the form data into its native XML format (as it would appear if you were to export using the XML format described above) but then processes this XML with the XSLT transformation that is associated with the form version. The format and layout of the exported data will then be determined by the transformation itself.
After you're satisfied with the results of your search, select from one of available data formats, and then press the Export button. A File Download dialog displays allowing you to open or save the exported data to your computer.
Three field names are automatically generated by Formatta E-Forms Manager: Submission ID, Submitted On, and Submitted By. Other field names such as "employee_name" are defined in the form itself by the form author when the form is created using Formatta Designer. These form author field names are used as XML tags (for XML export), or column titles (XLS, CSV, or Pipe export).
Integrating captured e-forms data with enterprise applications and data sources is a key requirement in many organizations. Data Export Scheduler enables administrators to set up an automated schedule to export data from submitted e-forms to a target file and directory which can then be imported into other applications.
Supported export file formats include:
XML (customization using XSLT available)
Excel (XLS)
CSV
Pipe-Delimited
Tab-Delimited
Note: You must have a license for Data Export Scheduler purchased and imported.
When forms that have been set up for Data Export get submitted by end users into Formatta E-Forms Manager, the system can then export XML data as specified in the Form Catalog's Data tab, and converts them into the selected format automatically. Since the process of exporting the content is handled automatically by Formatta E-Forms Manager, the interface on this screen allows you to mainly track progress of exports by their last submission time, but it also allows you to edit the export details if necessary.
The interface screen consists of a table listing existing exports and their details, as well as a link to schedule new exports. Information displayed in this table includes:
Job Name: The name of the scheduled export job you want to view.
Form: The name of the form whose submissions the data will be extracted from.
Active: This value denotes whether the export job is enabled or disabled.
Last Run: The date and time of the most recently attempted export.
Status: There are four possible statuses associated with scheduled data exports. The available statuses are:
None: This is the default status that indicates the export job has not been run yet.
In Progress: This status indicates that the export process is currently running, and submissions of the form are in the process of being exported into the selected format. A job should only have this status for a short period of time.
Success: This status indicates that the export job completed successfully.
Failure: This indicates that Formatta E-Forms Manager has attempted unsuccessfully to export submissions data.
Edit: Clicking on this icon/link will take you to the Scheduled Job Setup dialog window to edit an existing scheduled export job. This is the same process as clicking on the New Scheduled Export link on the top right of the Data Export Scheduler interface, except that the values will already be entered.
Delete: This link allows you to quickly delete a scheduled export. After you click the link, a dialog window appears confirming the deletion.
Note: In order to create, edit, and delete scheduled export jobs, you must have full Administrative privileges.
To create a new data export, click on the New Scheduled Export link. This will take you to the Scheduled Job Setup window.
This process is also used for editing existing jobs when you click the Edit link on the Data Export Scheduler list.
Initially, you will need to enter the following values:
Job Name: This is a name for the export job to identify it in the scheduler list. The name must be unique.
Enable: This checkbox enables and disables the scheduling of the job. You would leave this box unchecked if you were scheduling a job to begin in the future. Also, if in the future, you wanted to disable an existing export, you would return to this screen and uncheck this box.
Click Cancel if you wish to quit the setup, or click Next to move on to the next step.
These settings specify which form and version to export and the format and location to export it to.
Form Category: This is a dropdown list of category values from the Form Catalog used to narrow down your choice of forms for the particular job.
Form: This is a dropdown list of all the forms in the selected category. You will pick your form for export from this list.
Version for Field List: This dropdown list specifies which version of your form contains the list of fields that will be used for data export.
Export Format: This dropdown list specifies the data file format and type for your export.
Export Location: This value is a physical location on your hard drive, a shared drive, or a UNC path where all the exported data will be collected for this job.
Export File Name: This value is the file name for the exported data file you've created for this particular job.
Click Cancel if you wish to quit the setup, click Back to return to the previous screen, or click Next to move on to the next step.
These settings specify how often you wish your export job to run.
Daily: Check this box to run your data export job every day.
Weekly: Check this box to run your job only certain days of the week. Once this is checked, a list of the days of the week appears. Check the boxes for the days of the week you wish it to run.
Monthly: Check this box to run your job once a month. Once you check this box, a drop-down list appears for you to specify the day of the month you wish to export. Also, there is an alternative checkbox option to automatically select the last day of each month.
Click Cancel if you wish to quit the setup, click Back to return to the previous screen, or click Next to move on to the next step.
These settings specify the time of day and the daily frequency you wish your export job to run.
Start Time: Select the hour you wish to begin your export.
Repeat: Select how often you want the export to repeatedly run. You can select the number of hours in between exports, or choose to repeat at customizable intervals as short as 5 minutes. Conversely, you can select Do Not Repeat if you only wish to run a single export.
Until: If you select a repeat frequency, this value specifies the time you wish your job to stop exporting.
Click Cancel if you wish to quit the setup, click Back to return to the previous screen, or click Finish to close the window and finish your Scheduled Job Setup.
To view a summary of a scheduled data export job and its export log, click on the Job Name of an existing job in the Data Export Scheduler list. This will take you to Scheduled Job Details page, which contains the following information:
Schedule: This section outlines the values selected in the Scheduled Job Setup for Job Name, Job Type, Schedule Type, Start Time, Repeat, and Status. This also includes an Execute button, which allows you override the schedule and run the export routine.
Status: This section outlines the details for Last Run, Last Run Status, and Last Run Message. This also includes a View Log command. This shows you the log of the last 25 exports with details.
Job Parameters: This section outlines the details for the Form, Export Directory, and Export File Name.