Skip to content

Creating Custom Forms with Form Builder

Warning

The Form Builder and Viewer is provided "As Is", without warranty or support.

The Flywheel Form Builder and Viewer Application Extension allows users with Manage Project Settings permission to easily create custom forms for Flywheel users to fill out. The information captured in the form is saved as metadata on the associated container. Forms can be associated with a project, subject, session, or acquisition.

To install the Form Builder and Viewer Application Extension, please visit the Installation Documentation Page.

This article explains how to:

Example Custom Form Usage

  • Add sponsor-required information such as a data reuse policy
  • Document information about funding
  • Record intake information such as cognitive assessment or test scores (as shown in the example below)

CognitiveTestScoreFormExample.png

Create a New Form

  1. Sign in to Flywheel.
  2. Select a project.
  3. In the project's top menu, select the options menu add_ons_options_menu.png
  4. Choose View in Form Builder.

    EmptyStateFormBuilder.png

  5. Click Create New Form.

  6. Enter the basic information about the form:

    • Form Name: The full name of the form. This appears in the Applications section.
    • Form Key: Automatically populated as you enter the form name. This key appears as under the Custom Information section and is used to group submissions from a form.
    • Form Description: Enter description about what type of information the form collects.
    • Applies To: Choose the level of the Flywheel hierarchy you want to associate with this form. In general, the hierarchy level should be related to the type of data the form collects. For example, information about project funding should apply to the project whereas intake assessment results should be applied to subject.
  7. Click Save.

  8. The form builder appears. Forms are made up of a series of "components", which are flexible enough to build a variety of different types of forms– including conditional components that will only appear when certain conditions are true.

    Drag and drop a form component such as Text Field or Select to get started configuring a component.

  9. Start by using the Display options to configure how the component displays in the form. You can see a preview of the component to the right. See Form.io's documentation for more information on each component and all the options for customization.

    EditComponentDisplay.png

  10. For more advanced customization, go through each tab along the top of the form builder:

    • Data: Configure data rules such as minimum and maximum values, and the default value for a field. The options that appear in this tab are unique to each type of component.
    • Validation: Make the field required or write custom error messages. The options that appear in this tab are unique to each type of component.
    • API: Edit the Property Name. In Flywheel, the Property Name is what appears under Custom Information as the field name when the form data is collected.
    • Conditional: Set rules for when the component should display based on previous answers. For example, only show follow up questions if the user entered True.
    • Logic: Configure advanced logic for conditional rules
    • Layout: Configure a custom layout for the form.
  11. Continue adding components to your form. Once you are satisfied, click Save Form. The form now appears in the list of forms for the project.

    FormBuilderExampleForms.png

Fill Out Forms

The sections below describe how to access forms for a project, subject, session, or acquisition.

Note

Form values are persistent. Once the form is submitted, those values stay in the form. Any additional changes will overwrite the previous values.

Project Forms

  1. Select the project from the Projects page
  2. Click the Information tab.
  3. All forms applied to the project appear in the Applications section

ProjectForm.gif

Subject Forms

  1. Select the project from the Projects page.
  2. Click Sessions
  3. Open the Subject tab.
  4. All forms applied at the subject level appear in the Applications section

Subjectform.gif

Session Forms

  1. Select the project from the Projects page.
  2. Click Sessions
  3. Open the Session tab.
  4. All forms applied at the session level appear in the Applications section

SessionForm.gif

Acquisition Forms

  1. Select the project from the Projects page.
  2. Click Sessions
  3. Open the Acquisitions tab.
  4. Selection the options menu Optionsmenu-Acquisitions.pngnext to an acquisition.
  5. Choose View in Form Viewer
  6. Select the form.

AcquisitionForm.gif

FAQ

Where is the data from the forms located?

Flywheel indexes all data and metadata values, so you can create custom reports with data views or perform advanced searches based on this data.

All values from the form are saved in the Custom Information section. To view the latest data expand the section that matches the form key.

For example:

FormsCustomInfo.png

Additionally, Flywheel also captures metadata about who updated the form and when. To view, expand the metadata section.

How do I search for Forms Data?

There is a lot of data indexed in Flywheel, so understanding how to reference form data fields with Flywheel Advanced Search makes finding the right data easier. Here is the pattern for each container level.

  • Acquisition forms: acquisition.info.<form_key>.data.<propertyName>
  • Subject forms: subject.info.<form_key>.data.<propertyName>
  • Session forms: session.info.<form_key>.data.<propertyName>
  • Project forms: project.info.<form_key>.data.<propertyName>

To find the form key and property name, browse the Custom Information where a form as been completed:

FormKeyandPropertyNameHighlightCustomInfo.png