Work
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Forms
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are the fundamental building blocks of a PM, inspection, testing, or audit program. Each
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Work Form defines the sequence of steps
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that must be completed to execute
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work, as well as the data collection requirements.
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Typically, each step of the work procedure requires the
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User to capture some work completion data. For some work steps, that may be as simple as checking a checkbox, while other
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steps may require
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a measurement,
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comment,
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picture, or
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other artifact.
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Work Forms may be viewed as interactive scripts or
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checklists
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.
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This article provides information and guidance on the following topics related to InfraLink Work Forms.
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Work Forms Grid View
To access the library of existing Work Forms:
- Select the Main Menu from the top-level navigation bar.
- Select Manage Work Forms from the PM, Inspect, Test stack.
The Work Forms grid view allows Users to filter by:
- Contract - This filter displays only those Work Forms associated with at least one of the selected Contracts.
- Categories - This filter displays only those Work Forms associated with at least one of the selected Categories. Categories are simply text tags defined by the Instance Administrator via the Configure menu. Categories allow for effective navigation and selection of Work Forms.
- Groups - This filter allows the Instance Administrator to quickly separate the Work Forms already utilized in PM Group definitions ("Associated") from those that are not associated with any of the defined PM Groups ("Not Associated").
- System Element Types - This filter displays only those Work Forms associated with the selected System Element Types. Work forms are associated with System Element Types to streamline selection when defining PM Groups and help prevent the selection of incorrect Work Forms.
- Deleted items - This filter allows Users to apply the Include Deleted option, which displays deleted Work Forms within the grid view.
Types of Work Forms (Native and PDF)
InfraLink supports two kinds of Work Forms
- Important Concepts
- Browsing Work Forms
- Managing Work Form Details
Important Concepts
Native and PDF Forms
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- web-native (or simply, "native") and PDF.
- Native (linear) forms may be created using
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- InfraLink's built-in web-based composer and provide the following capabilities:
- Nested grouping of fields
- Broad range of data types, including simple data types (numeric, textual, date/time), specialized data types (email address, IP address) and file (document, picture, video)
- Data validation using regular expressions and other criteria
- Ability to specify default values
- Support for conditional field groups, allowing for capturing dependent data
- Ability to define
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- Contract-specific export/print-out template using standard office tools, such as MS Excel and Word
- PDF Forms
- standards-based PDF
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- forms that provide the following features and benefits:
- WYSIWYG authoring using any standard PDF form creator or using MS Word or Excel and converting to PDF
- Support for all standard data types
- Data integrity via:
- Required and optional fields
- Acceptable values, data ranges and data types
- Built-in JavaScript to validate and/or calculate fields, including complex formulas based on one or multiple user-input fields
- forms that provide the following features and benefits:
Work Form Revisions
It is not unusual for work procedure to change as the project relying on them evolves. To allow for the already completed
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Work Forms to be rendered correctly while ensuring that the new tasks are completed using the updated
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Work Form,
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InfraLink implemented the concept of
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Work Form revisions. The concept of revisions has the following key characteristics:
- The user with sufficient privileges may create any number of revisions for a given
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- Work Form;
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- InfraLink allows for a given
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- Work Form to have both native and PDF revisions, thus allowing the administrator to change the format;
- The administrator must designate one of the revisions of the form as active.
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- InfraLink uses the active revision when presenting the form as part of task completion. (
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- InfraLink can render the already completed forms using inactive revisions);
- The administrator may delete previously created revisions, provided that there are no completed
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- Work Forms associated with it. If a revision was previously activated AND users completed
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- Work Forms using that revision, it can no longer be
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Browsing Work Forms
To access the library of defined work forms use the "Manage Work Forms" option in the PM, Inspect, Test stack of the Main Menu.
The Work Forms view relies on the standard three-pane layout. The filters available in the left-most pane allow the user to narrow the list of forms as follows:
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- deleted
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Managing Work Form Details
The Work Form Details panel follow the standard layout organized in multiple widgets with their respective controls.
Updating General Information
The work form general information includes the name, description, and category associations. The user with sufficient privileges (Work Form - Edit) may change these fields using the "Edit" button.
Managing System Element Type Associations
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- .
The user with sufficient privileges (Work Forms - Edit) may add or remove associations as follows:
- To associate with work form with additional system element types, click the Manage button in the System Element Types widget, then use the System Element Type lookup to select additional items;
- To remove one or multiple associations, select it/them in the list in the System Element Types widget, then click the Delete button
Managing Work Form Revisions
As discussed earlier,
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InfraLink Work Forms are version-controlled. Specifically, each
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Work Form may have one or multiple revisions, and the revision contains the actual definition of the
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Work Form, which is used when completing a task. To make changes to the
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Work Form description, completion time estimated, and/or structure (i.e. fields, sections, etc) the administrator should
- Create and save a new revision of the
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- Work Form
- Review and (optionally) further edit the revision
- Activate the revision when all necessary changes have been made
The Form Revisions widget of the Work Form Details panel lists all revisions defined for the
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Work Form and provides the user with sufficient privileges (Work Form - Edit) the ability to add, remove, and activate revisions.
Additionally, the Form Revisions widget provides the options to export and import form revision definitions, which is useful when reusing
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Work Form across multiple
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InfraLink instances and/or relying on external version control management system (e.g. git) to manage the reference repository of
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Work Form definitions.
Creating a New Revision of a Work Form
The easiest and the most common way to create a new native revision of a
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Work Form is by starting with a previously defined one. To do so, select the revision you would like to use as the starting point and click the "Edit" button. When the native
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Work Form editor page loads, click the New Revision button at the top.
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InfraLink will create a new revision of the
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Work Form, load it in the
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Work Form editor, and present all applicable controls to make changes. Refer to the "Using Native Work Form Editor" section for guidelines on navigating and modifying the native
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Work Form structure.
If you would like to create a new revision from scratch (without cloning an existing one), you can use the Add button in the top-left corner of the Form Revisions widgets and subsequently select the desired format - native or PDF.
Editing a Work Form Revision
You can edit a previously created
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Work Form revision provided that the following conditions are true:
- The revision is not active
- The revision has not been previously used, i.e. there are no completed or partially completed
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- Work Forms associated with the revision
In other words, editing a
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Work Form revision is typically reserved for a revision, which has been created, but is yet to be activated. To edit such revision of a
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Work Form, select it from the list in the Form Revisions widget and click the Edit button.
Depending on the revision format - native or PDF, -
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InfraLink will present the Native Work Form Editor view or the PDF Form Edit pop-up.
Activating a Work Form Revision
Only one revision of the
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Work Form may be active at a given time. To make a previously created revision of the form active, select the revision from the list (be sure to select a revision not marked "Active"), then click the
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Activate
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button.
Activating a revision of a
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Work Form takes effect as follows:
- As soon as a new revision of the form is activated, any user attempting to complete a task based on the particular
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- Work Form will be presented with the form based on the newly activated revisions.
- Any tasks initiated prior to the activation of a new revision will remain associated with their respective revisions and will be completed using the previously active
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- Work Form definition.
Note: When making changes to
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Work Forms and activating new
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Work Form revisions, the administrator should be mindful of the mobile Job Connect users who may be working offline. Such users will continue using the previously active revision until they sync the application. For critical form changes, the administrator should plan and communicate them to the user base to ensure timely transition to the new revision.
Updating General Information
The Work Form general information includes the name, description, and category associations. The user with sufficient privileges (Work Form - Edit) may change these fields using the Edit button.
Managing System Element Type Associations
Each Work Form may be associated with one or multiple types of system elements to streamline selection in other parts of the application and to prevent the use of incorrect forms.
The user with sufficient privileges (Work Forms - Edit) may add or remove associations as follows:
- To associate with Work Form with additional system element types, click the Manage button in the System Element Types widget, then use the System Element Type lookup to select additional items;
- To remove one or multiple associations, select it/them in the list in the System Element Types widget, then click the Delete button
Associating Work Forms with Contracts
A Work Form may be associated with one or multiple Contracts. Only the Work Forms associated with a particular Contract may be used to track work on the Contract.
The user with sufficient privileges may add or remove Contract associations as follows:
- To associate with Work Form with additional System Element types, click the Add button in the Contracts widget, then use the Contract lookup to select additional Contracts to be associated;
- To remove one or multiple associations, select it/them in the list in the Contracts widget, then click the Remove button
To associate a Work Form with a Contract, the user must have the following permissions (defined by the roles(s) assigned to the user):
- The Contract - View permission globally or for the specific Contract; AND
- The Work Form - Create permission globally or within the scope of the specific Contract
PM Groups and (Production) Task Templates Using the Work Form
The Groups widget of the Work Form Details allows the user to assess how the Work Form in question is used. Specifically,
- The counter in the title of the widget indicates how many active PM Groups include tasks that rely on the Work Form. The zero value of the counter indicates that the Work Form is not in use by any of the PM Groups.
- The body of the widget lists PM Groups that rely on the Work Form. Each of the listed groups includes at least one task relying on the particular Work Form. The user is able to navigate to the details of the PM Group and the details of the associated Contract using by clicking on their respective names. Users can also narrow the list of groups based on current status - active or inactive.
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In addition to PM Groups, Work Forms may be used to define production Task Templates (part of the task-based workflows). The Task Templates widget provides a list of and the ability to navigate to the task templates that rely on the particular Work Form. The organization and functionality of the widget is similar to that of the Groups widget described above. |
Exporting and Importing Native Work Form Definitions
To enable effective reuse of native
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Work Form definitions among different
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InfraLink instances or across different task templates within the same instance,
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InfraLink provides the ability to export and import
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Work Form definitions.
To export a
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Work Form structure for use elsewhere, perform the following steps:
- Select the revision you would like to export from the list in the Form Revisions widget (Note: you can export an active revision or an inactive one)
- Click the Export button, which becomes available
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- InfraLink will export the selected revision in the JSON-based .frm format. Use your browser's download functions to save the generated file on your local disk.
You can reuse a previously exported
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Work Form definition by importing it as a new revision of a
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Work Form. To do so,
- Click the Import button in the Form Revisions widget
- Use the Browse control in the appeared Work Form Import dialogue to select a .frm file saved on your local disk
- If you are confident that the
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- Work Form definitions do not require further editing, you can choose the Activate Revision option in the dialogue to immediately activate the newly created revision upon import. Alternatively, you may choose to deselect this option, which will allow you to review and potentially edit the form structure after importing it.
- Click OK to upload the file for processing.
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- InfraLink will validate the .frm file structure and create and, optionally, activate the new
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- Work Form revision if no errors are found.
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A work form may be associated with one or multiple contracts. Only the work forms associated with a particular contract may be used to track work on the contract.
The user with sufficient privileges may add or remove contract associations as follows:
- To associate with work form with additional system element types, click the Add button in the Contracts widget, then use the Contract lookup to select additional contracts to be associated;
- To remove one or multiple associations, select it/them in the list in the Contracts widget, then click the Remove button
To associate a work form with a contract, the user must have the following permissions (defined by the roles(s) assigned to the user):
- The Contract - View permission globally or for the specific contract; AND
- The Work Form - Create permission globally or within the scope of the specific contract
Managing Export Templates
Export templates allow
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InfraLink to output the work results (completed
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Work Forms) in a customized, project-specific, user- and
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print-friendly format.
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InfraLink currently supports
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Work Form export templates defined in the MS Word (.doc, .docx) and MS Excel (.xlx, .xlsx) formats:
- The format of the template defines what file format will be generated when
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- InfraLink exports the completed form. That is, if the template is defined as a MS Word file,
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- InfraLink will export the completed form(s) using the MS Word format. Likewise, if the template is defined in MS Excel,
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- InfraLink will use the MS Excel format when exporting completed forms.
- Additionally,
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- InfraLink can export completed forms in the PDF format based on both MS Word and MS Excel templates.
The user with sufficient privileges can upload or delete export template using the New, Edit, and Delete functions in the Export Template widget
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Please refer to the "Building Work Form Export Templates" guide for the detailed instructions on authoring the templates in MS Word and MS Excel.
PM Groups and (Production) Task Templates Using the Work Form
The Groups widget of the Work Form Details allows the user to assess how the work form in question is used. Specifically,
- The counter in the title of the widget indicates how many active PM groups include tasks that rely on the work form. The zero value of the counter indicates that the work form is not in use by any of the PM groups.
- The body of the widget lists PM groups that rely on the work form. Each of the listed groups includes at least one task relying on the particular work form. The user is able to navigate to the details of the PM group and the details of the associated contract using by clicking on their respective names. The user can also narrow the list of groups based on its status - active or inactive.
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.