¶ Form Builder
For admins. This page covers designing forms. Forms are used by activity templates and by registers.
The Form Builder is where you design the forms people fill in: the fields an activity or register record captures, how they're laid out, and the rules they follow. Drag in the fields you need, set how each one behaves, preview the result, and save. One form can be reused across many activity templates and registers, so information is captured the same way everywhere.
¶ Why This Matters
Form Builder lets you:
- Standardise data capture across every activity and register that uses the form.
- Tailor forms to your process, with no developer needed.
- Govern with confidence: required, read-only, and structured fields keep submissions consistent.
- Calculate automatically: formulas work out totals, scores, and dates for you.
- Guide people to the right answer: dependent dropdowns and lookup lists narrow the choices.
- Iterate quickly: preview before saving, edit anytime, and reuse one form in many places.
¶ How Forms Fit In
- A form is the set of fields and their layout.
- An activity template uses one form. Every activity created from the template shows that form. See Templates, Swimlanes & Activities.
- A register also uses one form. Every record in the register is filled in with it. See Setting Up Registers.
The same form can be used by several templates and registers.
¶ Where to Find It
- Open your workflow and go to Configuration → Projects → Forms.
- Click Add New Form to build a new form, or select a form and click Update to edit it.
Add Existing Form adds one of Planally's ready-made forms (such as a Gate form) under your own name, instead of building one.
¶ The Three Modes
The Form Builder opens full-screen. Enter the form's name in Form Name at the top, then switch between:
- Form Builder (default): the drag-and-drop editor.
- Preview: the form exactly as people will see it. Fill in test values to check layout and calculations.
- Code Editor: the form's underlying definition. For advanced cases only.
Your work is kept when you switch modes. Click Save to save and keep working, Save & Close to save and exit, or Cancel to leave without saving.
¶ Form Elements
Drag any element from the Form Elements panel onto the form.
| Element | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Input Field | Single-line text, numbers, emails, phone numbers, or website addresses (set by Input Format). |
| Text Area | Multi-line text such as descriptions, notes, or findings. |
| Date | A date picker. |
| Single Select | One choice from a short list (radio buttons). |
| Multi Select | Several choices from a list (checkboxes). |
| Dropdown | One choice from a longer list, in a compact dropdown. |
| Dependent Dropdown | A dropdown whose options depend on an earlier answer, such as Country → State. See Dependent Dropdown. |
| Content Block | Instructions or guidance for the person filling in the form. |
| File Upload | Lets people attach files, restricted by type if you want. |
| Data Source Field | A choice from one of your workflow's Simple Config lists. See Data Source Field. |
| Static Table | A fixed table of information inside the form. |
| Editable Table | A table people fill in row by row: line items, actions, risks. See Editable Table. |
| Divider | A line between groups of fields. |
| Rich Text | A formatted text box people fill in. |
| User Selector | Pick one or more people from the project team or the organisation. |
| Formula | A calculated field. See Formula Builder. |
No Checkbox element? For a yes/no question, use a Single Select with two options, or a Multi Select with one.
¶ Sections and Layout
Every form starts with a Section. Sections group fields under a heading and appear as navigation on the left of the form.
- Click Section at the bottom of the form to add another section.
- Click Subsection on a section to add a group inside it (one level deep).
- Select a section to set its Layout Options: one, two, or three columns. Use two or three columns for short related fields (name, department, email) and one column for long text.
- Turn on Hidden to hide a whole section.
Tables are always added at the top level of the form, not inside a section.
¶ Configuring an Element
Click any element to open its Properties panel. Most elements have:
- Label: the name people see.
- Placeholder Text and Hover Text: hints inside and next to the field.
- Default Value: a starting answer.
- Required: the field must be filled in before saving.
- Read-only: people can see the value but not change it.
- Hidden: the field isn't shown.
Use Delete at the bottom of the panel to remove the element.
¶ Element-specific settings
| Element | Extra settings |
|---|---|
| Input Field | Input Format: Text, Email, Website, Phone Number, Number, or Password. Choose Number for anything a formula will calculate with. |
| Text Area | Text Area Height, Character Limit |
| Date | Sub Label, Minimum Date, Maximum Date |
| Single Select, Multi Select | Options, Alignment (Vertical or Horizontal), Pre-select Option |
| Dropdown | Options, Pre-select Option |
| File Upload | Upload Button Text, Accepted File Types |
| User Selector | Selection Type (Single Selection or Multiple Selection), User List Source (Project Users or All Users), Default User |
| Rich Text | Height |
| Content Block | Content (rich text), Content Area Height, Editable |
| Divider | Border Style, Border Width, Top Margin, Bottom Margin |
¶ Options for select fields
For Single Select, Multi Select, and Dropdown:
- Click Add Option, or Add Predefined List for ready-made lists such as Country, Currency, or Language.
- For each option, enter:
- Name (required): what people see.
- Value (optional): what formulas read. Give every option a Value if a formula uses this field, e.g. Likely →
4. - Hover Text and Description (optional): extra guidance.
- Drag options to reorder them. Clear All removes every option.
¶ Dependent Dropdown
A Dependent Dropdown shows different options depending on an earlier answer, for example Country → State → City.
¶ Steps
- Add the first field: a Dropdown, Single Select, or another Dependent Dropdown (e.g. Country), with its options.
- Add a Dependent Dropdown (e.g. State).
- In Depends on, choose the first field.
- Click Dependent Field Options. The list shows every option of the first field.
- Click an option (e.g. Malaysia) and add the options that should appear for it (e.g. Selangor, Johor). Repeat for each option.
- Click Save.
How it works for people filling in the form:
- The dependent dropdown stays disabled, showing Select the parent option first, until the first field is answered.
- Changing the first answer clears the dependent answer.
Good to know:
- Changing Depends on later clears all the options you set up, so choose the parent first.
- A Dependent Dropdown can also be a column in an editable table. There, it depends on another column in the same table.
- Formulas can't read Dependent Dropdowns.
¶ Data Source Field
A Data Source Field lets people choose from a list your admins already maintain in Simple Config, such as Business Segment, Project Area, Asset Type, Currency, or Document Type. When the list changes in Simple Config, every form using it updates automatically, with no need to edit each form.
¶ Steps
- Add a Data Source Field.
- Set Data Source to Simple Config.
- Choose the Simple Config Type (the list to use).
- Set the Label and toggles, then save.
Good to know:
- People choose one value. If the list has parent and child values, they appear as a tree.
- Data Source Fields can't be used as table columns or read by formulas.
- To add or change the values, go to Configuration → Workflow → Simple Config. See Creating & Configuring Workflows.
¶ Editable Table
An Editable Table lets people add rows inside the form, each row a small form of its own. Use it for line items, actions, deliverables, or anything that repeats.
¶ Table settings
Select the table to set:
- Table Section Title: the heading above the table.
- Edit Table: opens the Table Editor, where you add and arrange columns.
- Table Export Option: shows XLSX and CSV export buttons on the table.
- Show ID Column: shows each row's ID.
- Hidden: hides the whole table.
¶ Add a column
- Click Edit Table, then Add Column.
- Enter a Column Name. It must be unique in the table.
- Choose the Data Type: Input Field, Text Area, Date, Single Select, Multi Select, Dropdown, Dependent Dropdown, Attachment, User Selector, or Formula.
- Fill in the settings for that type, plus Required and Hidden (not available for Formula columns).
- Click Save.
Drag column headers in the Table Editor to resize or reorder columns.
For people filling in the form: they click Add to open the Add Row panel, fill it in, and click Save. They select a row to Update or Delete it. Hidden columns don't appear to them at all.
¶ Building a Form: Step by Step
- Go to Configuration → Projects → Forms and click Add New Form.
- Enter the Form Name.
- Plan your sections (e.g. Details, Assessment, Actions) and set each section's layout.
- Drag in elements and arrange them in the order people will think about them.
- Configure each element: label, format, options, and Required only where it's genuinely needed.
- Add formulas after the fields they read. See Formula Builder.
- Add Content Blocks for instructions where people might hesitate.
- Preview and fill in test values, including empty and extreme ones.
- Click Save & Close.
- Use the form in an activity template or a register.
¶ Editing a Form in Use
You can edit a form at any time. If activities or register records already use it and your change could affect their data (for example, deleting a field or a table column, changing a field's format, or removing an option), Planally warns you first:
Are you sure you want to continue editing form? Existing data may be lost depending on the changes made to the structure.
Click Continue to go ahead. When you save, existing records are updated to the new structure, and data in removed fields is deleted.
A form that's in use can't be deleted. Remove it from every register and activity template first.
¶ Best Practices
- Keep labels short and clear; they become column names in registers and exports.
- Use Required sparingly, only where the record is incomplete without it.
- Use Number format and option Values for anything you'll calculate.
- Use Read-only, not Hidden, for values a formula needs.
- Prefer Predefined Lists and Data Source Fields over typing the same list into many forms.
- Use Dependent Dropdowns to stop impossible combinations.
- Preview before saving, and avoid big changes to forms already in use. Add a new field rather than changing the type of an existing one.
- Avoid the Code Editor unless necessary.