Empty Forms

An empty form is a form that contains no fields that you can deploy to prevent changes from being applied to the User view during form processing.

Example 2–2 Empty Form Object

<?xml version=’1.0’ encoding=’UTF-8’?>
<!DOCTYPE Configuration PUBLIC ’waveset.dtd’ ’waveset.dtd’>
<Configuration wstype=’UserForm’name=’Empty Form’>
   <Extension>
      <Form name=’Empty Form’>
      </Form>
   </Extension>
   <MemberObjectGroups>
      <ObjectRef type=’ObjectGroup’ name=’Top’/>
   </MemberObjectGroups>
</Configuration>

You can implement an empty form as an alternative to MissingFields. MissingFields attempts to perform its function across the Accounts list in the User view. In contrast, an empty form effectively prevents any changes being applied to the User view during form processing.

When to Use an Empty Form

Use an empty form when

• Checking out a view with minimal side effects.

• Synchronizing data from Active Sync resources and during Load from File. Deployers typically create a customized input form for data synchronization. Waveset performs all attribute translations in that input form, and no further form processing is needed. However, because the operation requires an administrative context, and all administrators must use a form, you should assign the administrator’s form to an empty form to prevent further, unnecessary form processing being done on the target view.

• Implementing a custom workflow that performs a particular action against a User view but which must avoid any other unforeseen side effects. In those custom workflows, it is common to specify an empty form during the checkout view process.

Using Empty Form during Active Sync Processing

The use of an empty form is an integral part of successful Active Sync processing.

When Waveset processes records from the Active Sync resource, it uses either the default form configured for the system (Tabbed User form) or the form, if any, that has been defined for the administrator account.

Because the default Tabbed User Form can have undesired effects on data from the Active Sync resource, best practice suggests creating an empty form and assigning it directly to the proxy administrator rather than using the default form.

You should directly associate the empty form to the proxy administrator and not through an Admin Role. Setting the empty form at the Admin Role level causes the Tabbed User Form to be invoked during Active Sync processing.