In this article, we'll outline recommended best practices for building forms in Lightship. For additional form resources and step-by-step guidance on building new forms, click HERE.

Before building your form: 

• Determine the type of form that you are building (eg. geometry, linked, data, repeatable).
• Before adding questions to your form, plan the form’s data structure in a spreadsheet (such as Excel or Google Sheets)
• Determine FIELD NAMES (should be short and descriptive; avoid sentences or long phrases)
• Determine FIELD TYPES
• Determine ORDER OF FIELDS
• Determine CONDITIONAL FIELDS

While building your form:

• Ensure you have added some important auto-capture fields (auto-capture fields capture data automatically when a user is filling out the form)
• Auto Key - this will function as the auto-incrementing Lightship unique ID.
• Auto Account - Created - this will capture the user that fills outs the form.
• Auto Date/Time - Created - this will capture the date/time the user saves the form.
• When possible, try to use “picklist” fields rather than “text boxes”. Picklists make the form easier to use, and allow for more precise reporting and analysis.
• Determine which fields should be required.

After building your form:

• In the Form Settings, configure your ADD/EDIT button labels to make your form feel personalized to the data being captured.
• In the Layer Admin, configure your layer’s feature info pop-up.
• In the Layer Admin, configure your data source’s display settings (display fields and order).
• In the Layer Admin, alias your fields to common names.