Using the Intake Form Designer for Code Enforcement

This topic describes how to use the Intake Form Designer for the Code Enforcement offering.

Public users access an online form, fill out it out, and submit it to report issues. You use the Intake Form Designer to create intake forms for Oracle Public Sector Licensing and Permitting offerings, including Code Enforcement.

Using the Intake Form Designer to create intake forms for the Code Enforcement offering is similar to creating intake forms for the other Public Sector Compliance and Regulation offerings, such as permits or planning applications. However, in the case of Code Enforcement, creating intake forms relies on a delivered template that has all the pages and fields already in place for a working form right from the start. You can add user-defined fields in specific areas to capture additional information if needed. This underlying template both simplifies and streamlines the form design process, requiring you to create little, if anything, from scratch.

This topic describes the concepts and steps you’ll need to understand to create intake forms specifically for the Code Enforcement offering. For concepts that apply to all Oracle Permitting and Licensing offerings, you will be linked to that common topic in the “Creating Intake Forms” chapter of this guide.

Prerequisites

Before creating an intake form for a Code Enforcement issue subtype, these items must exist:

• Issue type

• Issue subtype

For more information see Setting Up Issue Types and Setting Up Issue Subtypes.

Accessing the Intake Form Designer for Code Enforcement

An intake form for a Code Enforcement incident is associated with an issue subtype.

To access the Intake Form Designer, click Design Form from the Issue Subtype page.

For more information on creating issue subtypes, see Setting Up Issue Subtypes.

Working with the Intake Form Designer

After you have created an issue subtype, you use the Intake Form Designer to create the form public users will access to report issues to your agency.

This example illustrates the general user interface of the Intake Form Designer used to create issue intake forms for Code Enforcement.

Page Element	Description
Status	Indicates the status of the current design. Draft: the form is in sandbox mode, and currently being designed and tested. Published: the form design is complete and it no longer needs to be in sandbox mode. A published form can be migrated to other environments. For more information on form status, see Working with Sandboxes.
Add Logic	Enables you to add programming logic scripts using the Groovy programming language. For more information on Groovy, see Adding Logic.
Preview	Enables you to preview your form to get a quick snapshot of the current layout. For more information, see Testing Intake Forms.
Save	Saves changes made to the form design.
Manage Design	Enables you to access various tasks for the intake form related to reordering form elements, managing the sandbox, exporting forms, and publishing forms. For more information on sandboxes, see Working with Sandboxes. For more information on publishing, see Publishing Intake Forms. For more information on reordering form layouts, see Reorder Intake Form Elements. For more information on exporting and importing forms, see Exporting and Importing Intake Forms.
Form Options	Click to display the Form Options dialog box where you can set options that apply to the entire form. For more information on form options, see Setting Form Options.
Elements panel	Displays the list of user-defined elements you can add to your form design, such as the fields you can add to your form by dragging and dropping into the drop zone on selected pages. Note: The elements within the Ready to Use node are not intended to be added to your intake forms manually. They have already been added by way of the underlying template. For Code Enforcement, the Ready to Use node is intended to be used by internal Oracle development teams.
Workspace	This is the main area displaying page tabs and drop zones used for configuring your forms.
Attributes panel	Displays the available attributes that you can configure for the currently selected form element. For example, if you have a field selected, the attributes panel reads "Field Attributes,” and it contains attributes specific to fields. If you have a group box selected, the attributes panel reads "Group Box Attributes,” and it contains attributes specific to group boxes.

Working with Page Tabs

Page tabs appear across the top of the work area.

Each page tab represents a separate page that the public user will access at runtime to provide the necessary information when reporting an issue. The majority of the intake form for Code Enforcement is defined by the underlying template, which you can’t modify. Because the page tabs are defined in the underlying template, you can’t add or remove page tabs that appear in the default Code Enforcement intake form.

Note: You can’t add or remove page tabs from the default intake form template.

The page tab containing the pencil icon indicates where the drop zone resides. The drop zone is the area of the intake form where you can add user-defined fields and group boxes to configure the intake form to include any additional requirements for that issue subtype.

For example, if you want to add a field to capture the length of the overgrown grass being reported, you can drag and drop a Number field type into the drop zone.

The following table provides descriptions of the default page tabs provided by the template. The page tabs derived from the template are:

Page Tab	Description
Provide the Location of the Issue	Used for specifying the location of an issue that’s being reported. This tab includes a map with a crosshair marker for identifying a location. A search field enables user to easily find a location and place it in the crosshairs. A separate text field captures additional location information such as an apartment number or a description of where to find the issue at the given address.
Tell us what’s going on	Used to describe the issue that’s being reported. This tab includes a freeform text field for describing the issue. The tab also supports attachments so that users can upload photos, videos, or other documentation.
Just a Few More Questions	Used to collect additional information about the issue that’s being reported. In the delivered template, the only field on this page is a switch for indicating if the issue is a health hazard or public safety risk. This tab also has a drop zone where you can add your own fields for collecting additional information.
Provide Contact Information	Used to collect the name and contact information for the person who is reporting the issue. The template includes a switch for hiding the user’s information, but this switch is visible to the end user only if the agency allows anonymous reporting. This option is configured on the Code Enforcement Options page. See Setting Up Agency-Level Options for Code Enforcement.

Working with the Drop Zone

The drop zone is the area of the issue subtype intake form where you can add user-defined fields and group boxes. You can locate drop zones by selecting the page tabs with the pencil icon.

This example illustrates the pencil icon on a page tab, which indicates which tab(s) a drop zone resides where you can add custom fields.

Note: The drop zone is the only area on the form that you can add and configure group boxes and fields.

You can drag and drop these form elements into a drop zone:

• User-defined fields

• Group boxes

This example illustrates dragging and dropping a user-defined field type from the Elements panel into the drop zone.

The drop zone itself is a group box into which you can drag user-defined fields and other group boxes if needed.

Note: While the drop zone is technically a group box, you can’t modify its attributes or remove it from the page.

Working with User-Defined Fields

You can drag and drop user-defined fields directly into the drop zone, or you can add group boxes to the drop zone and drag and drop user-defined fields into the group boxes.

To add a user defined field to the drop zone:

1. Expand the Add New list.

2. Expand the General list.

3. Select the desired field type by clicking and holding.

4. Drag and drop the field type onto the drop zone.

To modify field attributes:

1. Select the field in the drop zone.

2. Use the Field Attributes panel to configure the field.

3. Click Save.

For more information on working with fields, see Working with Fields.

Working with Group Boxes

You can use group boxes to organize user-defined fields you add to the drop zone. User-defined fields can be added only to the drop zone or to group boxes.

For more information on group boxes, see Working with Group Boxes.

Displaying Form Elements Conditionally

In some cases, you may want to display or hide certain elements in the drop zone only if the public user has made specific selections on previous fields also in the drop zone.

Note: The fields that you want to display conditionally must be within a group box container. You can display group boxes conditionally, but not a field on its own. You can’t control the display of the drop zone. Conditional display applies only to elements contained within the drop zone.

For more information on conditional display, see Displaying Form Elements Conditionally.

Setting Form Options

Form options enable you to configure features that apply to the entire form. For example, for the Code Enforcement issue intake form, you can control whether a review page displays to show the public user all their selections before submitting.

For more information on form options, see Setting Form Options.

Working with Sandboxes

When developing intake forms, you design and modify the form layout within a sandbox. A sandbox is an Oracle Fusion Applications technology that enables intake form developers to work on projects simultaneously, save, and test their work without affecting other developers or testers in the environment.

For more information on sandboxes, see Working with Sandboxes.

Testing Intake Forms

After creating an issue intake form, you can test it by:

• Viewing it in preview mode.

• Making it available from the landing page where you can select Report an Issue, which can be done in draft mode and published mode.

For more information on testing, see Testing Intake Forms.

Publishing Intake Forms

While you are actively designing or modifying an intake form, the intake form resides in draft mode in a development sandbox. You can test the intake form in draft mode while it is still in the sandbox. To make the intake form available to migrate to another environment, the intake form needs to be published.

For more information on publishing forms, see Publishing Intake Forms.

Cloning Transaction Type Definitions

You can clone issue subtype definitions and the associated intake form layout to:

• Avoid duplicating work while creating similar issue subtypes and intake forms.

• Create a new version of an existing issue subtype and intake form.

To clone an issue subtype and its associated intake form, click Clone on the Issue Subtype page.

For more information on cloning, see Cloning Transaction Type Definitions.

Managing Transaction Type Configurations

After developing your intake forms on your development and/or test environment, you need to migrate the setup data and configuration data from the source development/test environment to the target production environment.

For more information on migrating setup data and configuration data from one environment to another, see Managing Transaction Type Configurations.

Example: Adding User-Defined Fields to an Intake Form for an Issue Subtype

While the default intake form based on the underlying template is ready to be used without any changes, this section illustrates how you can add user-defined fields to the drop zone if you need to capture additional information.

This example creates an intake form for an issue subtype that enables public users to report an issue for an abandoned vehicle. Assume that the code enforcement organization wants to capture all of the information in the default intake form and also a user-defined field to indicate if there are multiple vehicles on the property.

To create an intake form for an issue subtype:

1. Ensure a valid issue and issue subtype exist.

   You create issue types and issue subtypes separately.

   For more information see Setting Up Issue Types and Setting Up Issue Subtypes.

2. While on the Issue Subtype page, make sure your issue subtype is saved and click Design Form.

3. In the Intake Form Designer, locate the page tab with the drop zone.

   This example illustrates the pencil icon on a page tab, which indicates which tab(s) a drop zone resides where you can add custom fields.

   

4. Expand the Add New list in the Elements panel.

5. In the General list, select Switch, and drag and drop it in the drop zone.

   This example illustrates dragging and dropping a field type into the drop zone.

   

6. Select the switch, and observe the attributes you can configure for that field in the Field Attributes panel on the right.

7. Update the Label value.

   For example Are there multiple abandoned vehicles on the property?

   This example illustrates setting the label attribute.

   

8. Click Save.

Result:

This example illustrates a user-defined field added to the drop zone of an issue subtype form layout.