Tables

Tables are a special field type that allows you to create a table with a variety of field types available as columns. Tables can have repeatable rows or have a fixed number of rows.

To edit a table

  1. Select the field on the canvas, and the options will appear in the right pane.
  2. Under Field label, enter the field label that will appear next to the field on the form.
  3. Under Variable, specify a name for the field variable associated with this field. If you do not specify a variable name, Forms will automatically assign the field one based on its label.
  4. Under Text Above Field and Text Below Field, you can enter any additional text that should appear with the field. Click the Insert Variables button to include a variable with this text.
  5. Under Row deletion, select Confirm deletion to display a confirmation dialog when a user attempts to delete a row.
  6. Under Table View Settings, the following options are available:
    • Select Enable pagination to set the Pagination Page Size and control the number of rows displayed at one time.
    • Select Enable search to allow the user to search for data within the table. The rows displayed will be limited to rows that contain data matching the entered parameter.
    • Select Enable filter to allow the table data to be filtered through a custom filter dialog.
  7. To configure advanced options, click the Advanced tab.
    • Under Row Settings, select how the table will control the number of rows and how the rows can be added to the table.
      • Select Range of rows to specify that the table can have a minimum and/or maximum number of rows.
      • Select Fixed number of rows to specify exactly how many rows the table will contain.
      • Select Append rows to the rows populated by a data source or variable to specify how many rows can be added to the existing table, and set a maximum number of rows if desired.
      • For the range of and append rows options, you may also change the Text for Add Row Link.
    • Under Row Label Settings, select Show row label to display a descriptive column, and to set the Column Name for Row Labels, the Column Size, and the text used for Row Labels.
    • Under Tooltip, specify the help text that will appear when users hover over the field. Click the Insert Variables button to include a variable with this text.
    • Under CSS classes, specify the CSS classes to assign this field. Learn more about using CSS.
  8. To configure field specific rules, click the Rules tab.
  9. Your field changes will be applied to the form automatically.

Note: The labels, tooltip, text above, and text below settings support the use of simple HTML markup for formatting purposes.

  1. Select the table on the canvas and click Edit.
  2. Under Field label, enter the field label that will appear above the table on the form. Click the Insert Variables button to include a variable with this label.

    Note: The header for a table in a form is an h2 header, not an h1 header. Only the header of the form can be an h1 header.

  3. Under Text above field and Text below field, you can enter any additional text that should appear with the field. Click the Insert Variables button to include a variable with this text.
  4. Under Variable, specify a name for the field variable associated with this table. If you do not specify a variable name, Laserfiche will automatically assign the table one based on its label.
  5. Under Column label, specify the name for each column.
  6. In the drop-down list next to each column label, specify the field type (Single Line, Number, etc.) for that column. You can also specify the column's relative width by filling in the Percent text box to the right.

    Tip: You can rearrange the column order by dragging the button to the left of a column to the appropriate location.

  7. To edit each column's settings, click the Field options button to its right. This button lets you edit the fields in the column just like you would any other field of that type. In addition to the options specific to each field type, fields in a column have the following additional options:
    • Required: Users must fill out at least one row in this column.
    • Read-only: All fields in the column are read-only. If a user manually adds rows to the table, the added fields in this column will be read-only and will display their default values (if they have them).
    • Accept barcode scan: Allow the Laserfiche app to insert data from a barcode.
    • Previous data and new rows with lookup data will be read-only, but user-added rows will be editable: If selected, this means that data that was filled in a previous version of the form or by lookup data will not be editable, but any additional rows the latest user adds will be editable.
  8. To add a column, click Add a column.
  9. Tip: If you added this table as a variable from another form, and then edited the original table by adding more columns, you can add those extra columns to this table by clicking Add a column from variable.

  10. Under Number of rows, select if the table will have a fixed number of rows or if users can add rows to the table as needed.
    • Fixed number of rows: Select this option to specify the number of rows in the table. If the table is being populated from a data source or variable, the results will be capped at this number of rows. If fewer than this number of rows are returned from a data source or variable, the remaining rows will be left blank. Users cannot add rows with this option.
    • Range of rows: Select this option to allow the table to have a variable range of rows. This option is helpful in the following situations
      •  If you want the table to have a set minimum number of rows and then allow users add up to a maximum number of rows.
      • If the table is being populated with data from a data source or a variable, then you might not know the exact number of rows being populated, so setting a range allows for some flexibility. In this situation, the minimum number of rows specified will always be displayed, even if you don't have enough values from the data source or variable to fill them (blank rows will be added until the minimum is reached). Users can always manually add rows up to the maximum number specified. If the number of rows returned by the data source or variable is the maximum number of rows or higher, the number of rows will be capped at the maximum, and users won't be able to add rows.
      • Tip: Leave the maximum value blank to return all rows from the data source or variable, or to let users add an unlimited number of rows.

    • Append rows to the rows populated by a data source or variable: Select this option if you want to return all rows from a data source or variable and then append rows to the bottom of that list. In the Min text box, specify the number of rows that will be automatically added to the rows returned by the data source or variable. In the Max text box, specify the total number of rows that can be added to the rows returned by the data source or variable. Users will be able to add up to this number of rows by clicking the link for adding rows. Set both these numbers to zero if you only want to display all the lookup or variable results and not let users add to the table.
  11. If you had selected Range of rows or Append rows to the rows populated by a data source or variable in the previous step, you can also edit the text that appears on the button for adding more sets. Do this by editing the text under Text for add row link.
  12. Specify if you want to show or hide row labels.

    If you show the row labels, you can

    • Give the column in which the row labels appear a name and specify its relative width under Percent.
    • Specify the name for each row. If users can add rows to the table, "{n}" will increase as more rows are added.
    • Example: If you type "Vehicle {n}" in the Row labels text box, the first row will be labeled "Vehicle 1," the second row will be labeled "Vehicle 2," etc.

  13. To configure advanced options, click the Advanced tab.
    • Under CSS class, specify a CSS class to assign this table.
    • Next to Table width, specify the overall width of the table.
  14. When you are finished editing the field settings, click Done. Your changes will be saved automatically.

For an example that uses this feature across process automation, see the Migrating Laserfiche Form Tables into Microsoft Word Documents whitepaper.