Table forms

Table forms allow designers to create a form for a Nintex Data table which can be used to save data directly to the table when the form is submitted - without requiring a workflow.

When you generate a form for a table, the form is created with form controls are automatically mapped to the table’s columns. You can further customize the layout and add fields as required.

After the form is created, a unique form URL is generated, which can be shared with users to submit data. The data entered is saved directly into the table.

Open a Table form

From the Forms page

1. Go to Forms > All forms.

2. Click Standalone or Solution to view forms that are part of solutions or forms that are standalone and not part of solutions.

3. Open the form you want.

From Tables page:

1. Go to Tables.

2. Open the table you want.

3. On the toolbar, click Form.

   The Manage form panel is displayed.

4. Do one of the following:

   • If a form exists, click next to the form , and then click Edit.

   • If there's no form, click Open Table Form designer.

     The Form designer is displayed.

Create a table form

You can create a table form from the Tables or Forms page.

From Tables page:

1. Go to Tables.

2. Open the table for which you want to create a form.

3. On the toolbar, click Form.

   The Manage form panel is displayed.

4. Click Open Table Form designer.

   The Form designer opens with a form automatically generated from the table's columns. Each form field is connected to its corresponding table column.

5. Customize the table form as needed. See, Customize the table form.

From Forms page:

Note: Only available when you are using the new Nintex CE Platform Experience. See, Opt in to the new Nintex CE Platform.

1. Go to Forms > All forms.

2. Create a table to add the form to and create a table form. See, Open the Form designer for a table form

3. Customize the table form as needed. See, Customize the table form.

Customize the table form

After you open the Form designer, customize the form as needed:

Note: The form controls related to table columns are grouped by the table name in the form controls toolbox.

• Each control is connected to a table column, which can be viewed and configured in the Connected to field of the control configuration panel. Table columns with the matching data type can be connected to the form control. For more information, see Connect a form control to a table column.

• To access options for a form control, hover over the control and click the options menu in the upper-right corner.

• To change a control to a different type of form control, click .

• To remove a control from the form, click .

  Note: 

  • Reference type columns in the table cannot be connected to a form.

  • Forms plugins will work, however, plugins that output data of type object are not currently supported.

4. Click Apply changes.

   Important: For any changes to take effect, you must click Apply changes.

After a form is created for the table, its status will show as Draft in the Manage form panel until it is published.

Connect a form control to a table column

Form controls can be added to table forms. When you add a form control to a table form, you can connect it to a specific table column using the Connected to configuration field.

The Connected to setting is available only for controls used in table forms.

Use Connected to configuration field in table forms to:

• Connect a form control to a specific table column.

• Capture and save user input to the corresponding table column.

For more information form controls, see Form controls.

Publish the form

After a form is created for a table, you must publish it for it to be available for participants to submit data.

1. Go to Tables.

The Tables page is displayed and lists all the existing tables created in the tenant.

2. Open the table.

3. On the toolbar, click Form.

   The Manage form panel is displayed. The form status is shown as Draft if the form is not published.

4. Click Publish.

5. Enter a Form name and Form Description.

6. Select a Form Access type.

   • Anyone with the form URL: Anyone who has the form URL can access and submit the form, and does not need to log in with a Nintex Workflow user name and password. To find the URL of your form, see Edit, deactivate, reactivate, reset a table form using the options menu.

   • Authenticated users in this tenant: To access a web-based form using its URL, users must log in with their Nintex Workflow username and password. To find the URL of your form, see Edit, deactivate, reactivate, reset a table form using the options menu. By default, this allows all authenticated users in the tenant to access the form. To restrict access to specific users and groups you choose, publish the form and use the Manage access setting to select the users and groups that can have access to the form.

7. (Optional) The Available in My Nintex check box is selected by default. Clear this check box if you don't want the form to be available in My Nintex.

8. Click Confirm.

   The form is published and the Form published dialog is displayed with the generated Form URL.

9. To copy the URL of the web form, click to copy the link or copy the URL from its text box.

   You can use this URL to paste to a web browser to open the form or you can share the URL with users to enter data.

   Alternatively, you can click the Open in new tab icon to directly navigate to the form in a new tab.

10. Click Manage access to add users to table permissions. Users can’t view or use the form until they have the required permission. Unauthenticated users can submit the form but can’t view the data. For details, see Tables permissions and roles

11. Click OK to close the Form published dialog box.

    The form status will now change to Published.

Edit, deactivate, reactivate, reset a table form using the options menu

After a form is created for a table, you can use the options in the options menu to manage the form.

Note: Changes made to the table after a form is published will not invalidate the form and participants are still able to submit the form. However, if the table is deleted, the form will still appear in My Nintex and be viewable, but participants will not be able to submit it.

1. Go to Tables.

The Tables page is displayed and lists all the existing tables created in the tenant.

2. Open the table.

3. On the toolbar, click Form.

   The Manage form panel is displayed.

4. On the right of the form, click .

   The options menu is displayed with the following options:

   Option	Description
   Edit	Edit the created table form. If a published form is edited and changes are applied, a new draft is created and displayed with the Draft status under the published form in the Manage form panel. Once a draft form is published that will become the published form for the table.
   Reset	Remove any changes and revert to the original auto-generated form.
   Delete	(Available only for Draft forms. After a form is published, you can only Deactivate or Reset the form) Delete the table form created for the table.
   Deactivate	(Available only for published forms) Deactivate and unpublish a published form. This can be used to pause data entry using the form. The status of deactivated forms is shown as Deactivated in the manage form panel.
   Reactivate	(Available only for published forms that has been deactivated) Reactivate a form that has been previously deactivated. The form is reactivated, and the status is changed to Published.
   Form URL	(Available only for published forms) View or copy the generated form URL. You can use this link to the view the published form and enter data to the table.

Invalid forms

If a table has a published or draft form created, and a column referenced by any of those forms is deleted from the table, the affected forms become invalid. When a form is invalid:

• The Manage form panel will display a message indicating that the form is invalid due to missing columns.

• The Publish button will be disabled for invalid draft forms.

• Published forms that become invalid can no longer be accessed by users, attempting to open them will show a message stating that the form is unavailable.

You can have:

A valid published form and an invalid draft form, an invalid published form and a valid draft form, or both draft and published form can be invalid at the same time.

Resolving an invalid form

To resolve an invalid form, you must reset or edit the form.

Note: You must reset each invalid form individually. Draft and published forms must be fixed separately if both are invalid.

1. On the right of the invalid form, click .

2. Select Reset or Edit.

   The Form designer is displayed with a form created using the current columns in the table.

3. Make changes as required and Apply changes.

4. Publish the form.

Anonymous table forms

Anonymous table forms allow anyone with the form URL to access and submit data without signing in. Create a table form and share the form URL to add data to the table. Each submission adds a row to the table. For anonymous form submissions, the fields in Created by and Modified by columns will display Anonymous user. The form can also be filled using the Add via form button in the table grid. Even if the user is authenticated (and has access to My Nintex), because the form is anonymous, the Created by field in the table will display Anonymous user.

Create and publish Anonymous table forms

1. Create a table form. For details, see Create a table form.

2. Publish the form. For details, see Publish the form.

3. In Form access, select Anyone with the form URL.

4. Click Confirm.

After you publish, the Form published dialog shows the Form URL. Anyone with the URL can submit the form. To disable anonymous access, clear Anyone with form URL and republish the form or deactivate the form. To switch between authenticated and anonymous access, create a new version of the form by making a minor change and then republish it.

File upload and Signature controls in table forms

The File upload and Signature controls are associated with File type columns in table forms. By default, these columns are mapped to the File Upload control when a form is created or reset.

Configure and publish table forms with File type columns

1. Go to Tables.

The Tables page is displayed and lists all the existing tables created in the tenant.

2. Click and open the table you want to add columns to.

   Note: You can also click to the right of the table you want to edit and select Open.

3. Click to the right of the table header.

4. Select the File column type. For more information, see Table forms.

   Note: 

   • To add a signature to a table, use the File column type. When you open the Form designer, the signature column will be associated with the File upload type by default.

   • File column settings for table forms are defined on the table. These include file type, number of files, and file size limits. If you select a custom file type for a File column, the table form uses the same settings.

5. In the Name field, type a name for the column.

6. Complete the fields as required to create the column. For more information, see Tables list.

7. Click Add.

8. On the toolbar, click Form.

9. Click Open Table Form designer.
   This opens the Form designer, displaying all the columns associated with the table.

10. Edit the form as required and click Apply changes.

11. Click Publish.

When you open a table form, you can view files and signatures that were submitted earlier. While editing you can add, remove, and download them, depending on the form configuration.