Get started with form policies

Form policies help merge eForms-produced electronic forms into Workplace. They allow you to customize form presentation and implement a number of Workplace functions such as field mapping, workflows and versioning tools, with your forms.

A form policy ties together the various components necessary to present a form to users in Workplace. To fill out a form in Workplace, users launch a policy which contains the instructions that describe:

Because policies are used to control various functions within Workplace, it's important that you, as the policy author, direct users to a form's policy to launch an electronic form, and not the form template.

When a user completes and saves a form, a form data document is created which retains all the policy settings along with the data the user entered.

Policy authors are granted security rights within Workplace which provide access to tools they can use to build policies to define form presentation behavior. Two policy types can be created.

Document Policy

A document policy defines the relationship between a form and a form data entry template. This includes mapping rules between published form template cells and the form data properties. If the name of a published cell is identical to the name of the form data subclass property name, then mapping automatically occurs when the document policy is created. If the published cell name does not have a corresponding matching name or you want to edit an existing mapping, then you can manually map form template cells to form data properties when you create the document policy.

NOTES  

Workflow Policy

A workflow policy defines the relationship between a form template, a workflow definition, and a form data entry template. This includes the mapping rules between the published form template cells, the workflow data fields, and the form data properties. If the name of a published cell is identical to the name of the workflow data field or the form data subclass property name, then mapping automatically occurs when the workflow policy is created. If the published cell name does not have a corresponding matching name or you want to edit an existing mapping, then you can manually map form template cells to workflow fields and form data properties when you create the workflow policy.

NOTES  

For a description of the overall process of creating form policies, see How Form Policies Integrate with Workplace.

For more information about creating policies, see Document Policy Wizard or Workflow Policy Wizard.

For more information on mapping, see Form template and form policy field mapping.

For more information on creating entry templates, See Workplace Help.