Working with Versions

PerfectForms™ Help Guide > Designing a Form >

After publishing a form, you will often find that you need to make changes to the form. Once a form is deployed and form instances have been submitted, you still have the ability to make changes to the form without invalidating previously completed form instances.

PerfectForms™ provides a version control mechanism that allows repeated changes to the form without invalidating its existing form instances. Changes made to the form can then be tested in draft without affecting the data collected in previously published versions.

Version Numbers

Major version numbers are incremented as whole numbers when forms are published. Any version number ending in 0 indicates a published form. For example, if your latest version number prior to deployment was 3.1, this will generate a version 4.0. When you edit a form and save your changes, the decimal numeral is incremented. For example, if you have opened a published form for editing, made and saved your changes and returned to the Dashboard, the version number would be 1.1.

Version Selection

By default, new instances of a form are always created using the latest published version of a form. However, the form designer (and users with design permissions for the form) can change the version setting to Published or Draft.

To learn about versions, complete the following steps:

1.	After publishing the form as described in the Publishing and Deploying Your Form topic, click Design to open the form for editing.

2.	Make changes to the form.

3.	On the menu bar, click Form > Save as New Version.

4.	On the menu bar, click Form > Close. PerfectForms™ loads the Dashboard and shows that the version is 1.1 (or, if the form is new, the version will be 0.1).

5.	Click New Instance in the detail area of the Dashboard. Note that the changes you made to the form have not taken effect. By default, forms use the latest published version when creating new instances and you haven't published the new version yet.

6.	Close the new instance.

7.	Select the Draft radio button and version 1.1 from the drop-down.

8.	Click New Instance. Notice that the changes are shown. Fill out the form and click Submit.

9.	Click Publish. The form version increments to 2.0.

10.	Click New Instance and the form loads with the changes you made.

11.	Use the Delete button to delete the draft instance that you just created.

For more information on the Draft option, see the Testing Your Form Using Draft Instances topic.

For more information on the Published option, see the Reverting to a Previous Version of a Form topic.

Video Tutorial: Version Control

Demonstrates how to modify and test your forms without affecting the version currently in use

Updated: 17/04/2012 Page url: http://www.perfectforms.com/Documentation/manual/html/?fl_working_with_form_versioning.htm
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