This session will explain how to configure the different forms in the X4 system to suit your company's needs. We will show you how to easily create and rearrange fields, forms, and related tables in the system.
The form design tool in eMaint allows you to configure the primary system forms (Work Requests, Work Orders, Assets, Parts, Contacts, etc) to suit your needs and requirements.
To customize your system forms you will need to be in design mode. To access this area of the system you will need to click on you user name at the top of your system tabs, then click on the “Manage Forms” option.
1 - Configuring Forms
In this article, we will demonstrate this feature by configuring the Work Order form.
1.1 - Adding Existing Fields
Navigate to “Manage Forms” then follow the steps below:
A - Click the “Work Orders” table under “Available Tables”.
B - Now you will see all existing WO forms displaying on the right side of this window. Click on the one that you would like to customize, then hit “Edit Form” at the bottom of this window.
C - Now that you are on “Design Mode”, click on any of the yellow folders.
D - On the “Select Existing Field” section, choose a field from the dropdown list and then hit “Select field” to add it to the form.
Note - If you want to remove a field from the form, click the blue trash can Icon next to the field that you wish to remove.
1.2 - Creating a New Field
A - While still in “Design Mode”, click on another yellow folder
B - In the “Create a New Field” section, type in a “Field Name” (this will be the field ID, so spaces and special characters are NOT accepted)
C - Type in a “Field Description” (spaces are okay)
D - Then choose a “Type” for the field (see next page for descriptions of all field types)
E - Click the “Create Field” button when you are done.
Note - The maximum # of characters can be extended later, but not decreased.
1.3 - Rearranging Fields on the Form
You can move any field to any area on the form where you can see a yellow folder icon. When you hover over the field over the field description, you will see the mouse icon turn to crosshairs. Next, simply drag and drop the field to the left of a yellow folder (it will highlight if it is an appropriate placement).
Note - If there are no yellow folders available, use the “Extend form rows to” button on the bottom of the page to add more folders.
Additional Information
Field Types
Text (Character) - A field in which you can type any text you like up to 254 characters.
Multi-line Text (Memo) - A field in which there is no text limit or one that contains HTML coding.
Numeric - A field for storing numbers and currency (defaults to a value of 0 and can only contain numbers).
Logical - A field for True/False and Yes/No data.
Date - A field in which you can choose a date for a calendar.
Date & Time - A field in which you can choose a date and time using a calendar / time box.
Properties Reference Guide
Once a field has been either created or added to the form, you can now change the properties of that particular field. To do so, you would first (while in design mode) click the wrench and screwdriver icon next to the field. This will bring up a pop-up box called “Properties.”
1. The name of the table in which the field is located.
2. The name of the field you are looking at (this will be what is located in () for that field while in design mode, not what you see in your day to day usage.).
3. The current size or length of the field.
4. The description is the field’s text that the user will see for the field while entering a value.
5. The reporting checkbox dictates whether or not you can use this field when reporting (this will default to checked on all newly created fields).
6. The required checkbox requires the user to enter a value into the field before saving the record.
7. The read only checkbox will disable editing abilities if it is checked.
Additional Information
(Extending Fields)
Based on the “Properties Reference Guide” in the previous page, we are going to go over how to extend the length of a field (increase the amount of accepted characters):
A - While in design mode on the form, click the wrench/screwdriver icon next to the field you wish to extend (this will bring up a pop-up box called “Properties”).
B - Change the field length to the size that you would like it to be.
C - Hit Save, then run “Verify Structures”.
Note: Keep in mind that “Key Fields” (Asset ID, Item No, Contact ID, etc) CANNOT be extended.
(Running Verify Structures)
After extending the length of a field, you will see a message at the bottom of the screen telling you that you need to run Verified Structures. When you see that message, you can contact our support team and they will run if for you. However, if you would like to do it yourself, you can follow the steps below.
1 - The URL below is an example of what you see on the top of your browser in the address line. Select everything after the first “~” sign:
http://x34.emaint.com/wc.dll?x3~emproc~uiMenu~&gotab=x3Menu
2 - Replace everything with the word “VERSTRUS”. Your URL should now look like this:
http://x34.emaint.com/wc.dll?x3~VERSTRUS
RESULT: Now you will see the Verify Structures screen, which means you have validated the field extension. You don’t need to do anything on this screen. Just click the back button on your browser. Next time you edit that field, you will notice that now you can type more characters into it.
2 - Creating a New Form
In this article, we will learn how to create new forms in the system. These forms can be used in addition to the default form for the work order, parts, assets, or contacts. They may be customized to include or exclude any of the available fields to allow for custom handling of different classifications of assets (Facility, Vehicles, etc.).
1 - Below are the steps to create a new asset form:
A - Click on the “User Name” link at the top of your system tabs, then click on “Manage Forms”.
B - To create a new form you can either click on “Add New Form” or you can make a copy of the Default form and then customize the copy (In this example we are creating a new form from scratch). First, we need to find the table for which you are creating the form for. In this example, click on “Assets”, then click on “Add New Form”.
C - In this screen, the “Form Table” will display as “COMPINFO”, which is the system name for the Assets table and it’s already what you need it to be. The two fields you need to change are Form ID and Description. The Form ID differentiates the fields that appear on each form. The description field is what you will see when selecting a form. For this exercise type in VEHICLES into the “Form ID” field and Vehicles into the “Description”, then hit “Save & Configure”.
2.1 - Customize your new form
D - This will take you to the “Design Mode Screen” where you can start adding fields and customize your “Vehicles” form.
As a result of creating this new form you will now have the option to choose which form you want to use at the time you are adding a new asset. You will just need to hover over the “Add” button and select the form you have just created.
