Why are fields not showing up on my form?

I'm trying to show users a note section (text box) along with Collapse section elements that are revealed by dropdown selection on the "Add'l Tenants" tab of my "Renter Interview Form". However, no matter how I set the Hide (or visible) state of the Notes text box properties, they don't appear on the web page (see 3 screenshots, attached). I've tried hiding them in Properties, and not. I've tried having them revealed by SHOW condition of element #17 at the bottom of Page 1, and not. Nothing seems to work! Any idea what's wrong?

Thanks for your help!

I have been checking your form and noticed the fields are set to be hidden, for example, the "(end of Eighth tenant)" section is set to be hidden: 

I also checked the "Second Tenant" and noticed the fields are hidden, but they do not seem to be conditionally displayed again: 

I would recommend you to turn off the hidden property so the fields are displayed when the collapse tool is expanded. You will also need to set the collapse tool to be displayed. 

Please let us know how it goes. 

Thanks for getting right back to me! I hear what you're saying. Unfortunately, I've spent HOURS today wrestling with these Collapse sections, and this is the only way I can get them to be hidden on the "Add'l. Tenants" page until selected by response to Question #17. (I should say "Button Visibility"). I've never played with the "Section Visibility" switch. I assume its set to "HIDDEN" by default!?!

The configuration that seems to work for what I'm trying to do is as follows:

1. Properties for all elements in all sections set to "HIDE", except the initial Collapse buttons in every section; and,

2. SHOW each of the eight sections as determined by choice of Conditional selection in response to Question #17.

What am I missing here? Everything is working exactly as I wanted, except this one "Note" textbox. Are you SURE you need me to reset everything to visible, before I go to all the trouble of resetting all those elements, and changing all the Conditions?

P.S.

To see how the Collapse buttons work, Select Yes to Question #17 on Page 1, and make a selection (1-7, not 8) from the dropdown in Question #17. That activates the Conditions that reveal the buttons in sequence on the "Add'l. Tenants" page.

Thanks for the additional details. 

Please allow me some time to further investigate the issue, I will get back to you as soon as possible. 

I have been checking your form and found what you're reporting. 

First off, the text you are mentioning is currently set up as hidden by default and it's not being included in any conditions, if you would need the field to be always visible, I would recommend you to turn off the hidden property so the  field always show, you may also include it in your conditions if you need it to be displayed only when certain selection has been made on "How many people will you be living with?". 

I have just tested  this on a cloned form of yours and it worked: 

Also, I would recommend you to set conditions to the collapse tools only and set the fields within the collapse tool as not hidden. 

Here are some screenshots about how I have set up the conditions on a cloned form of yours (Note: this is just a recommendation as I have tested your current conditions and they seem to be working fine at the moment, this would just clear a bit your conditions and avoid to have multiple fields showing at the same time should also help to consume less resources on the device the form is loaded on): 

Here is my cloned form where you can see  how this works: https://form.jotformpro.com/72448285127966 

Please if the Text still does not show, leave it as not hidden and let us know, we  will be glad to further investigate it. 

Thanks for your continued effort on this problem Kevin! I ran your demo, and all I got was Collapse buttons that didn't open!?! You did program the buttons to respond to the conditions, right? Don't know why this is so hard!?!

>>First off, the text you are mentioning is currently set up as hidden by default and it's not being included in any conditions, if you would need the field to be always visible, I would recommend you to turn off the hidden property so the  field always show, you may also include it in your conditions if you need it to be displayed only when certain selection has been made on "How many people will you be living with? [Question #17]"

First off, I think you troubleshot the wrong textbox! The image you sent back with steps 1-3 marked on it is the first hidden textbox at the top of the"Secondary Tenants Contact Info" page. Its hidden because I use it like an HTML notation to myself; kinda like "<!-.......->". Its not to be displayed, and its never included in SHOW conditions. The screenshot that I sent you, which I'm having trouble with, is the note at the bottom of that page. (Double-check the text; the one in question starts with, "...all residents must be on the lease."

[Originally, I only wanted that textbox to appear with any of the Collapse sections being shown via Condition selection. Otherwise, I wanted nothing but the Tabs and the BACK/NEXT buttons visible on that page. (Ideally, I wanted the "Add'l. Tenants" tab to be hidden entirely, until 1-8 of the Question #17 responses was selected. But, I couldn't figure out how to hide an entire tab. So, this was the next best thing. My only other option was to have these additional Tenant sections created dynamically on-the-fly by the user via the "Multiple Text Fields" widget, which one of your colleagues suggested. However, its default formatting seemed way different than what I'm using. And, it looked like it was going to have a steep learning curve in HTML and CSS configuration to make it usable. (You'll see it hidden on my 1st page, right above Question #17.)]

Secondly, the textbox that's having trouble was included in all previous Question #17 Conditions before I contacted you. I deleted them again with the previous troubleshooting steps that you suggested. Also, I hid that textbox because I found I had to hide all the other section elements for some reason (except for each first Collapse button of the pair) in order to get them to SHOW/HIDE correctly. (I thought that was odd though, because that's not how I've programmed my other Collapse sections. I did them exactly as you describe. Something else must be at play here!?!) Irregardless, it didn't seem to matter whether the textbox was hidden or not; it wasn't visible in either Property state, with or without Conditions! So, I flipped a coin, left it hidden (like the other elements), and contacted YOU.

>> Also, I would recommend you to set conditions to the collapse tools only and set the fields within the collapse tool as not hidden.

Already tried that idea too, unsuccessfully, I might add! All that happened is that the Collapse buttons were hidden, and the sections elements were visible even before a Condition was selected.

>> Here are some screenshots about how I have set up the conditions on a cloned form of yours (Note: this is just a recommendation as I have tested your current conditions and they seem to be working fine at the moment, this would just clear a bit your conditions and avoid to have multiple fields showing at the same time should also help to consume less resources on the device the form is loaded on):

I appreciate your suggestions to help reduce programming overhead! I'll fiddle with it some more, and see if I can get mine to work the way yours has. I'll let you know what I find out. In the meantime, take another gander at it and see if anything else pops out at you.

Thanks!

Kevin -

Results of further troubleshooting, following your suggestions:

1.  Un-hiding the textbox did not cause it to SHOW on the desired page, as expected. So far, the textbox's SHOW/HIDE status remains unchanged (hidden) from before.

2. If I understood you correctly, you asked me to HIDE the Collapse buttons, which I did for the firs two as a test. And, you wanted me to un-HIDE all the elements within each section. I did that for the first two Tenant sections, as well. In either case, the buttons remained hidden, as did the textbox. (See new Conditions 1 and 2 for the page.)

[Note: I cloned the Conditions for Selection 1 and 2, Disabled one pair and reprogrammed the other two, as you suggested.]

Where do we go from here?

Hello,

If I'm understanding correctly the primary concern here is that you want the note at the bottom of the ADD'L TENANTS tab to appear regardless whether the collapse elements above it are collapsed or not. 

Here are the things you need to do:

1) Add one section collapse element
2) Open the properties and set the Section Visibility to Visible. This means the content below this will always be expanded.
3) Set the Button Visibility to Hidden. This way this element cannot be seen and cannot be toggled.

Basically, inserting another Section Collapse element and doing the steps above are your break points in preventing parts of the form from being included when the section collapse is triggered to close or open.

Thanks Liyam! That finally worked, in combination with my original code? Could you please explain what you found in my programming that prevented the Notes section from displaying? That way, I won't have to go through all this again the next time?

The concept behind the Section Collapse element is that it acts as a container. Therefore, everything below it will be considered to be part of the content from that element above those fields. And in order to enclose that container, you add another Section Collapse element. So by adding another Section collapse element, this makes the fields within it be under that collapse element

Here is an illustration:

On your form's case, the notes were part of the Section collapse (end of Eighth tenant). While the said element is hidden, it is also collapsed (Section Visibility is hidden). Therefore, everything inside this Section Collapse is hidden as well.

And since I'm not sure what you need to do with the said section, I recommended adding a new one with the specific setting I have provided.

However, if there is no other purpose for this (end of Eight tenant) section collapse other than being an closing container, then just do the same setting on this like the one I have provided and just remove the collapse element that I have recommended to add, and your form is good.

If you have additional questions, please let us know.

That's a good explanation Liyam! The "(end of Section.....)" Collapse elements that I've been using were suggested to me to enable the accordion affect I've designed. As I understand it, they help mark the end of the collapse sections, almost like brackets.

I also understood that you hide the bottom one so that it doesn't appear on your form, which would be redundant. And, you only make the top Collapse element visible to use it as a button on your form. Is there a better way to do this?

I read that a possible "end of section" upgrade suggestion was in the works so that the end of Collapse section is more automatic; less confusing and less problematic. Where is JotForm on that project? And, does the "Divider" element mark the end of a section (transition between sections), or is it purely decorative?

I've been using were suggested to me to enable the accordion affect I've designed. As I understand it, they help mark the end of the collapse sections, almost like brackets.

Yes that is correct but each form collapse element should have a closing collapse element to make it a container except the last form collapse element.

I also understood that you hide the bottom one so that it doesn't appear on your form, which would be redundant. And, you only make the top Collapse element visible to use it as a button on your form. Is there a better way to do this?

Well that depends on your requirement. If there is not form field added after the last form collapse section, then it is not required to display it and it can remain hidden. This is how form collapse field works and there is not other or better way.

I read that a possible "end of section" upgrade suggestion was in the works so that the end of Collapse section is more automatic; less confusing and less problematic. Where is JotForm on that project? And, does the "Divider" element mark the end of a section (transition between sections), or is it purely decorative?

I am not sure if I have understood this part of the question correctly. I would suggest you to please explain this a bit more in detail and we will take a look.

We will wait for your response.

I read in another user's forum thread that JotForm had submitted a ticket to upgrade the Collapse Section element so that it automatically adds an "end of section" when you drag the Collapse button to the form. And, I assume it would be pre-configured by default for what I've been trying to do. I mean, I've finally figured it out, with all of your help (until the next time it doesn't work).  LoL  But, I'm sure it would life much easier for people who use it in the future.

The other half of my question was whether or not the "Divider" element is mere decoration, or is it functional? Does it have section break capability?

Okay understood. Let me look for the ticket but that's how "Section Collapse" field works.

Do you mean the "Divider" form element that you have added in form? No it does not have a section break capabilities. It's just a visual form separator which creates a visible horizontal bar in form.