ARCHIVED: Oncourse Form Builder: Known issues and resolutions

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The Form Builder tool allows you to create and edit XSD files to use as forms in a portfolio matrix. However, to correct the following known issues with the tool, you need to copy the complete XSD source for the form to a text or XML editor and make the changes manually.

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Character length restrictions on text, text area, and WYSIWYG fields

Form Builder imposes the following default character length restrictions on all text, text area, and WYSIWYG fields:

Field type Maximum length in characters
Text 50
Text area 100
WYSIWYG 5000

This restriction is added when the field is created, and, if the restriction is changed or removed, it is recreated the next time the form is opened in Form Builder. To change or remove this restriction:

  1. Select and copy the XSD source for the entire form to a text or XML editor.
  2. To increase the maximum length for a field:
    1. Within the element start and end tags for the field, locate the line that looks something like this (where n is the maximum allowable characters):
        <xs:maxLength value="n"/>
    2. Change n to the desired maximum length.

    To completely remove the length restriction from the field, delete the entire <xs:maxLength value="n"/> tag.

  3. Save your changes when finished.

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WYSIWYG fields converted to text area on open or import

When opening or importing an existing form in Form Builder, WYSIWYG fields are sometimes converted to text area fields due to a bug. Form Builder does not include an option to change the type for an existing field.

As a workaround, delete the field from the form in Form Builder, and then add the field again, using the same name and title.

Once you've recreated the field, if you want to remove the default character length restriction, follow the instructions in the previous section.

Alternatively, you can convert a text area field back to the WYSIWYG type by editing the source code by hand:

  1. Select and copy the XSD source for the entire form to a text or XML editor.
  2. In the annotations section of the element declaration for the WYSIWYG field, add the following line:
      <xs:documentation source="ospi.isRichText">true</xs:documentation> 

    Following is an example of this line in context:

      <xs:element name="commentsField" minOccurs="0">
           <xs:annotation>
                <xs:documentation source="ospi.label" xml:lang="en">Comments:</xs:documentation>
                <xs:documentation source="ospi.description" xml:lang="en"></xs:documentation>
                <xs:documentation source="ospi.inlinedescription" xml:lang="en"></xs:documentation>
                <xs:documentation source="ospi.isRichText">true</xs:documentation>
            </xs:annotation>
            <xs:simpleType>
                 <xs:restriction base="xs:string">
                 </xs:restriction>
            </xs:simpleType>
      </xs:element>
  3. Save your changes when finished.

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Selection fields do not permit an empty (null) selection value

To prevent evaluators from inadvertently selecting the first value in a selection menu, the evaluation form templates give a null value with a display label of "select a rating" as the first point in the rating scale. Form Builder does not allow null values in a selection field. So, if you attempt to edit a rating field in one of the templates, you'll get an error when you attempt to apply your changes.

To work around this problem, enter any value for the first selection and apply your changes. Then, when you are finished editing the form in Form Builder, copy the XSD source to a text or XML editor and restore the value for the first enumeration to null (no string between the quotes) as shown below:

  <xs:enumeration value="">
       <xs:annotation>
            <xs:documentation xml:lang="en">select a rating</xs:documentation>
       </xs:annotation>

Save your changes when finished.

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This is document azdg in the Knowledge Base.
Last modified on 2018-01-18 16:34:29.