Copy pages from one form to another

[pmeidingerParticipant]

Is there a way to copy complete pages of a form to another form? I have two existing forms and want to copy a couple pages from Form A to Form B. I’ve tried copying and pasting the objects within the page, but I lose the identity of items in my behaviors. For example, if I have a simple branch in a behavior that says “Text Input 1 is equal to 100”, when I copy the behavior to the new form it becomes “<undefined> is equal to 100”. Is there a way around this?

[Anonymous]

Why not migrate Form A and then import it and rename it as Form B. With that, you have the exact form.

[pmeidingerParticipant]

I need the pages from BOTH Form A and Form B in a single form; in other words, I need to combine the two, not create a copy of Form A.

[Dennis @ PerfectFormsBlocked]

Textinput’s suggestion was a good one, but there is an easier way. Simply “save as” another form. Unfortunately there is no way to merge two different form the way you are describing. You will have to copy and paste and then re-populate your behaviors.

[pmeidingerParticipant]

Thanks for the reply, Dennis, and that’s what I was afraid of. Better planning on my part next time.

[evelina.liuParticipant]

Dennis, if I have a need to make lots of changes on a production form (including form pages and workflow), which has already collected data from thousands of submitted form instances, what is the best way to complete my changes on production?

In this process, I have to set up a development/testing form for developing and testing purposes. But once I am done with testing phase on this testing form, is it possible for me to somehow “migrate” my form design changes to the production form: copy-paste pages, workflow and other objects….., without losing the connection to the existing production data. Just want to know your suggestion. Thanks.

[Dennis @ PerfectFormsBlocked]

My first suggestion is to never delete any fields from old versions. That way you can still report on old data even if you are no longer using those fields. Simply hide the fields.
If you are developing in another form any new workflow stages, behaviors, fields, etc… can be pasted into the production version. I would not paste or copy over existing fields. Even if the names are the same they will be treated as different fields in the DB.

[evelina.liuParticipant]

If I have newly added stages, plus adjusted notification email content and a bunch of behavior changes within the workflow portion, though not much changes on the form fields, is it ok to copy-paste and replace the entire workflow, from development to production form this way?

[Dennis @ PerfectFormsBlocked]

Yes it is – with one caveat: If you have added other form fields that are referenced by these behaviors make sure that you have pasted them in BEFORE you paste your workflow.

[evelina.liuParticipant]

Thank you! I will try that this time. Updating a production form is very difficult – In the past I feel that I am developing the same thing twice or several times because there is no “migration” tool to compare, pick up and carry over the “delta” objects, and everything has to be done and re-apply maunally…. Thank you very much, Dennis.

[evelina.liuParticipant]

What would be the impact for form fields rename in this process (copy-paste as part of migration steps)? For example, for an existing field on production form, if the object name is changed in development, what would be the sequence in order to migrate this change from development form to production form without losing anything on production? Thanks.

[Dennis @ PerfectFormsBlocked]

Do not paste that field into your production form. It will have a different name than the original and therefore a different field ID. If you want the field name to be different simply modify the name of the field in production.

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