Form Template Manager is designed specifically for creating and maintenance of form templates and its associated properties. A Form template is essentially a a design blue-print for create form. A form template contain a number of associate properties such as custom form security roles, a business workflow and states pertaining to the workflow. Form templates are created using a specially designed Form Template Designer, a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor that allows designated users to design and create the form blue-print as well as other properties.

Form Template Manager is itself a workflow manager that control how users create and manage form templates by using the security roles assigned through Template Manager Security Settings. Each template designer security role allow unique function to the form template. For more information refer to the Template Manager Security Settings screen.

Every form template must go through a series of approval steps before it can be used by the Data Collection Manager and Form Workflow Manager modules. The life-cycle of a form template can be one of the six states described below. A form template starts off in Development state and can end in one of the two states: Closed, and Archived.

Form Template Lifecycle States

• In Development: When a form template is created, it is automatically assigned to this state to indicate that the form template is being developed.
• Pending Approval: This state indicates the form template analysis and design are complete and is ready to be reviewed.
• Pending Publish: This state indicates the form template has been reviewed and is ready to be published.
• Ready: This state indicates the form template is now available for use. This is the only state in the form template life-cycle it can be used by the Data Collection Manager and Form Workflow Manager.
• Closed: This state indicates the form has been closed for some reason due to errors or not needed anymore. A form template can be closed only when it is in "In Development", "Pending Approval" and "Pending Publish" states.
• Archived: This state indicates the form was used for a period of time and is no longer needed any more thus is now archived. Only form templates that had been published can be archived.

Form Template Manager Workflow

The workflow of a form template is described in the diagram below (click for full-size image):

When a Form template is created or imported it automatically is given an "In Development" state. In this state users with Creator designer security access can lock a form template to gain exclusive rights to edit the form template layout. This is to prevent multiple form template CREATOR entities from modifying the form template simultaneously. In addition to creating and designing the form layout, a form template CREATOR can also create a business process workflow as well as other associated properties. Once designing is complete, a form template must be unlocked and validated before it can progress to the next state of the form template life cycle.

From the Development state, a form template can be "Closed" or submitted to the next state for "Pending Approval". When a form template is Closed, it can be changed back to Development state for redesign or reuse. A form template in Pending Approval state can be accepted (only by users with form APPROVER designer role) to the next state for Pending Publish, or rejected (only by users with form APPROVER designer role) to go back to the Development state. A form template in a Pending Publish state can be published (only by users with form PUBLISHER designer role) to the next Available state or rejected to the previous Pending Approval state. The Available state is the only state in the template designer workflow that allows the form template to be used by the Data Collection Manager and Form Workflow Manager modules. It is the only state where the form template can be used to collect and manage form data.

When a form template is Available and is no longer required its state can be changed to ARCHIVED. The ARCHIVED state indicates it is not in use anymore, however, historical data remains in the system.