Building a Portal using Form Engine
Introduction
Portals are a great way to collaborate with external users/ organizations without providing them access to your organization’s source system. Portals can contain links to various Form Engine forms as well as reports. In turn, providing end users with everything they need to stay informed while providing you with valuable information. Because Form Engine is fully integrated with your source system, pre-filled content provided on forms and in the portal is a direct reflection of what exists in your source system.
1. Deciding on Portal Location
Where should your Form Engine Portal live in your source system? Think about the content that you want to share on the Portal? Are you sharing links to various forms? Reports for sharing the review status of content already submitted? A mix of both? Or something else all together?
Are your forms/ content spread across multiple tables, or does it all live in a single table?
- If your forms/ content is spread across multiple tables, then there needs to be a Parent table that all the content feeds up to. In this case, the Portal will live at the Parent table.
- If your forms/ content exists within a single table, then the Portal can live in the same table as well.
2. Create Portal Header
Using a Formula – Rich Text field, create a Concatenation Formula to build a Header for the Form Portal. By creating the Header first, you can move into Step 3 and have a field to place on the Portal so you can Save it.
Example of Concatenation Formula and what it looks like rendered.
Formula: [Manufacturer] & "_" & [Equipment Name] & "_" & "Equip #:" & " " & [Equipment No.]
Rendered Format: Ingersoll Rand_Air Compressor_Equip #: UP6-15C-TAS
3. Create Portal
Portals are built using Dynamic templates in the Builder. Create your Dynamic Form and place the Portal Header on it. Once you have saved the template, create an Edit Permalink to Quickbase . This will create a Formula URL field (button) in the Table the Portal is connected too. This will enable you to test the Portal as you build it out.
4. Digitize Forms for Portal
If you haven’t already, digitize the forms that you would like to display links for on your Portal. As you digitize each template, create a Permalink (Formula URL field) back to the Quickbase Table that your Portal is link to (this is important).
5. Create the Form Links for the Portal
For each Formula URL field created in Step 4, create a Formula – Rich Text field. Use the Formula format below…
"<a href='[Formula URL goes HERE]' target='_blank'>Form Link Text HERE</a>"
Below is an example of a Formula URL field that is created via the Permalink Wizard in Form Engine. Copy the Yellow Highlighted section below to Paste in the Green Highlight section, “Formula URL goes HERE”, shown above.
IMPORTANT: Make sure you Copy what is INSIDE the Double Quotations below to Paste INSIDE the Single Quotations above. Do NOT Copy the Double Quotations below or the Formula above WILL NOT work.
var bool integratedAuth = false; var text redirUrl = "https://advantageintegratedsolutionsinc.quickbase.com/db/buf8juxpx?a=dbpage&pagename=FormEngineLink.html&authRedirect="; var text destUrl = "https://quickbase.formengine.com/#!/render-dynamic?templateId=af0f0123-299f-4f66-9ebb-f87d40abcd41&" & "action=submit&" & "prefill={" &
"\"49987d96-a58e-4bcf-87x0-9d5abc69123d\": {" &
"\"00\": \"" & URLEncode(SearchAndReplace(ToText([Record ID#]), "\"", "\\\"")) & "\"," &
"\"01\": \"" & URLEncode(SearchAndReplace(ToText([Equipment No.]), "\"", "\\\"")) & "\"," &
"\"02\": \"" & URLEncode(SearchAndReplace(ToText([Required PPE]), "\"", "\\\"")) & "\"," &
"\"03\": \"" & URLEncode(SearchAndReplace(ToText([Equipment Name]), "\"", "\\\"")) & "\"" & "}" & "}"; If($integratedAuth=true, $redirUrl & URLEncode($destUrl), $destUrl)
6. Applying Form Links to Portal
Once all the Form Link fields have been created, begin placing the Formula-Rich Text fields on the Portal. After clicking SAVE, test the Portal by clicking the Portal Link/ Button created in Step 3.
Note: Review the Demo Video below for Tips on Formatting.