Form Designer Introduction

Workspace fields are used to track information for issues in the current workspace. The fields, tabs, and other data configured here are displayed on the tabs of the Create Issue and Edit Issue pages. The fields are available as criteria for searches, reports, escalation rules, and auto-assignment. The Form Designer designs the form used for issues. A form comprises the format of the issue page (the number of columns in which the fields are represented and the tabs or sections in which those fields appear) as well as the fields contained on the issue page. BMC FootPrints Service Core issue pages have built-in fields and the workspace administrator may add custom fields.

The FootPrints built-in fields are:

• Title—Single line character field for providing a brief synopsis of the issue. Default maximum length is 240 characters.
• Description—Multi-line character field for providing an in-depth description of the issue and related information. Maximum length is unlimited. The Workspace administrator can define the size of the visible portion of the field.
• Status—Drop-down field for selecting a status of an issue. Workspace administrator can define the values of this field. The Open and Closed statuses are built-in, but can be renamed by the Workspace administrator.
• Priority—Drop-down field for assigning a priority to an issue. Workspace administrator can define the values of this field.
• Assignees—Multi-select field for assigning agents to be responsible for the issue.
• Submitter—Individual who submitted the issue (not necessarily the same as the "contact").
• Last update date/time—BMC FootPrints Service Core automatically enters the date and time of the last time an issue was updated.
• Submitted date/time—BMC FootPrints Service Core automatically enters the date and time of the last time an issue was submitted.

Only one version of a form can be developed in a single Workspace. That is, you cannot have forms with different fields and layouts in the same Workspace. Different forms can be designed for different Workspaces and also fields can be displayed or hidden based on user role and permissions.

Field Types

FootPrints supports the following field types:

• Single line text
• Multi-line text
• Integer
• Checkbox
• Real number
• Date only
• Date and time
• Drop-down
• Multiple selection choice
• Web site URL
• FTP URL
• Email address

Restrictions

With respect to any size limits for fields, there is very little danger of exceeding the limits of most databases. Nevertheless, there are limits of which administrators should be aware.  When the number of fields in an individual workspace grows into the hundreds, performance may begin to degrade or data may begin to be truncated. Administrators should at least be aware of this possibility. There are two ways in which field proliferation could get out of hand. One is through the use of field dependencies. The other can occur by using field-level permissions to combine multiple workspaces into a single workspace.  Both of these features are extremely valuable and help to simplify life for the user. Administrators should not in any way avoid using these features. They are mentioned here only because of the slim chance that they could cause a problem through field proliferation.

Reserved Words

For a list of FootPrints Reserved Words, open the mrReservedWords.pl file in the BMC FootPrints Service Core/cgi directory.