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Form Building Overview and Guide

Form Building Overview and Guide

Owned by TK Support, created
Last updated: Apr 15, 2022
4 min read

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The TrialKit Form Builder enables novice users and non-programmers to create very sophisticated forms for compliant and structured data collection.

Accessing the form Builder

Access to the form builder and the functions within are based on permissions.

There are two form builders in TrialKit, for collecting data at different levels:

  • Host-level - Found under the Website Host menu

  • Study level - Found under the Study menu as shown below

Most forms, like subject eCRFs, are built at the study level. Please ensure you are building your forms in the desired location and choosing the correct form type.

Form Builder Components

Reference the annotated image below for an overview of the page layout and links to more descriptive articles of each item.

  1. Form Name and Type of all existing forms.

  2. Sequence

  3. Export/Import Links

  4. Data Dictionary

  5. Annotate

  6. Version selection - For studies using versioning

  7. Design Tools and Form Layout

  8. Field Types

  9. Form or Field Properties, depending on what is currently selected in the workspace (10)

  10. Form Workspace - Drag and drop field types (7 & 8) here

  11. Editing tools

  12. Save Form - Saves current work in the workspace. This is not automatic. Be sure to regularly save your work.

  13. Re-run Edit Checks - Only appears for non-versioned studies. This re-runs all conditional actions on all records in the study database.

  14. Replicate Form - Can be used to copy the form to another study in the same Host or another Host you are a part of.

  15. Auto-Validate forms

  16. Setup notification messages and distribution lists for use in conditional actions

  17. Field Source Verification

  1. Form Library access and saving

    • Open form library list

    • Save current form

    • Save the current form as something new

    • Start a new form

  2. Basic form properties

    • Form name

    • Page name (see item 9 for multi-page forms)

    • Form version

    • Width and Height of the overall page

  3. Open conditional action builder for the currently selected form or field. Quick access is also provided via the small window on the right.

  4. Preview form and collapse top properties panel. These are helpful to increase canvas area when building.

  5. Width and height of the currently selected field. Text labels will also include wrapping and font options.

  6. Field name and field reporting label for the currently selected field

  7. Tap to open either the advanced form properties or the advanced field properties for the currently selected form/field. To select the form, just tap anywhere outside of any field on the form.

  8. Basic editing tools: Cut, copy, paste, select all, undo, redo, and delete.

  9. Add or remove pages. See item 2 for page naming

  10. Toolbox of form elements which the user can drag onto the form

  11. Form canvas/working area

  12. Export and view options

    • Data dictionary table - exportable

    • Display query icons on the workspace. This helps the user see how the form appears to Monitors

    • Download blank PDF to iCloud

    • Annotated PDF of the current form. This produces an annotated PDF with the data dictionary.

  13. Merge all checkboxes with their associate text labels. This is not required but makes it so the user can tap the text to check a box, rather than tapping directly on the box itself.

 

Form Building Guide

This section serves as a simple guide to build forms.

 

  1. Creating New or Editing Forms

  2. Repeat step 1 for all forms needed in the study

  3. Add objects and fields.

  4. Ensure the registration/enrollment form for the study (as defined here) has at least one log field identified.

  5. Build Form Logic and Edit Checks

  6. Copying, Moving & Reusing Forms

    1. Form and Image Libraries

    2. Importing and Exporting

    3. Moving fields to another form tab

    4. Replicate Form

  7. Identify which forms are log forms. These are forms that can be collected anytime

  8. As you make changes, be sure to test them. You can do this by entering test data in the Subject Manager

  9. Making form changes after moving the study live

  10. Other optional form building topics:

    1. Auto-validation

    2. Automated email notifications

    3. Form Preview

Form Size Limitations:

The underlying database limits forms from containing more than 1,170 fields. Additionally there is a limit in table memory which could be possible to reach if there are, for example, 1,169 fields on the form and each one contains multiple edit checks. Keep this in mind if you are considering combining multiple forms into one.

 

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