Design forms in Nintex Workflow

Nintex Forms can be used to edit and design workflow start forms and task forms from within Nintex Workflow.

Note: The Nintex Forms for Nintex Workflow site collection feature must be activated before use. For more information, see Activate Nintex Forms.

The following Nintex Workflow forms can be edited using Nintex Forms:

  • Start form (list and site workflow)
  • Assign Flexi task
  • Request approval
  • Request review
  • Request data 

Note: Nintex Forms does not support editing and designing Nintex Workflow forms in User Defined Actions.

Design workflow forms

To design or edit Nintex Workflow forms using Nintex Forms

  1. Do one of the following.
    • To edit a start form, open the Workflow settings dialog box.
    • To edit a task form, open the Action settings dialog box for a task action (listed above).
  2. In the ribbon at the top of the opened dialog box, select Edit Task Form or Edit Start Form, then select Edit with Nintex Forms.

    The Nintex Forms designer appears in a new dialog box.

  3. Edit the form as needed.

    For more information, see Forms designer.

  4. Save changes.

    No publish option is available in the Nintex Forms designer as the form is published when the workflow is published.

To revert back to the default SharePoint form

  • Set the Form type property to Default.

    The form created with Nintex Forms will be retained in the system and can be re-attached at any time by setting the Form type property back to Nintex Forms. For task forms within list workflows, the fields from the underlying list that the workflow is running on will be preloaded onto the form when it is created. These will be in read only and will replace the previously used list item control. This allows for the item information to be reviewed on external forms as well as Nintex Mobile.

Considerations

  • When designing start forms - The start form is auto-generated. All workflow variables that are set to Show on start form are added to the form when the form is first edited in Nintex Forms. Once the form has been saved, any new workflow variables that are set to Show on start form will not be displayed on the form. To add the new workflow variable onto the form, drag and drop the control from the Workflow Variable group in the Form Controls toolbox onto the form canvas. 
  • When designing task forms for Assign Flexi task - The task form is auto-generated. The Outcomes are automatically added to the Decision choice control when the form is first edited in Nintex Forms. Once the form has been saved, any changes to the Outcomes will not be reflected in the Decision choice control. The values in the Decision choice control must be updated manually. 
  • When designing task forms for Request data action - To create a new content type to collect data, the workflow must be saved and published. On publishing, the content type and columns specified are created. The task form can then be edited. The task form is auto-generated. All columns specified for the content type are automatically added to the form. Once the form has been saved, any new columns added to the content type will not be displayed on the form. A control must be added manually to the form and the Connected to setting must be set to the new content type column.

Shared forms

When a workflow action containing a form created with Nintex Forms is copied and pasted, each action will share the form by default.

When the form is edited, a dialog message will confirm whether a separate instance of the form should be created.

  • Clicking OK will create a copy of the shared form. Changes to the form from this point onwards will apply only to this action. The original form will not be modified.
  • Clicking Cancel will edit the shared form. Changes will affect this action and all other actions using this form.

Note: Once a separate instance of the form has been created and saved, the action cannot will not be able to revert back to the original shared form. 

Publish workflow forms to the Nintex external platform

Task forms (list and site workflow), and start forms (site workflow only), created with Nintex Forms can be published to the Nintex external platform.

  • To publish a form to the Nintex external platform, configure the external forms settings and save the form. For more information, see Publish external forms settings.
  • On a site workflow start form, the form is published to the platform when the workflow is published.
  • On a task form, the form is published to the platform when the workflow action is executed.

To provide assignees with the URL to access the Nintex external platform

  • Add the reference Approval URL (through the Nintex external platform) into the workflow action's Task Notification setting. For more information, see Insert reference fields.

Considerations

When a site workflow start form is submitted by an anonymous user, the workflow will run under the identity of the form designer.

When a site workflow start form is submitted by an authenticated user, the workflow tries to run using the authenticated user's credentials if the user can be found in Active Directory. If the user credentials cannot be found, the workflow runs under the identity of the form designer. If the user is found but has no access to the site, the workflow runs under the identity of the form designer.

Related information

Activate Nintex Forms

Forms designer

Save and publish forms