We have a workflow we would like to use with JotForm

I read in JotForm.com that Process Maker and ApprovalMonkey can do approval process. However, we need a 2-way workflow process, so we would like to seek sone advice. 

Here’s the flow, all based around Jotform. Hopefully we can automate as much as we can. 

1. Our clients fill in a form

2. We get notified (by both Jotform mobile and email about the new submission)

2a. Clients also get an email about his submission 

3. We approval the form by 2 layers of management

4. Once approved, Jotform will automatically send emails about this submission to ~100 vendors

5. The first N number of vendors put their names in the form

5a. Each of these N vendors will be able to upload 1 PDF to the form. Once submitted, this value must be locked, except by the original submitter. 

6. We will get notified after each new upload

7. We approve (release) the PDF

7a. After we approve the PDF, client will be notified via email

8. Client access the form again and this time can see the PDFs

Can we do these all in 1 form? I can’t quite figure out if the combo of show/hide, lock/unlock and access control can do this. 

Or may be we build another form after Step 4? We send this form to the vendors for PDF submission. I read that PDF Editor can prepare form submission data into a PDF automatically, and with autoresponder, emails can be sent to vendors. 

Thanks!

Hey Charles,

Happy to help you today.

You should be able to achieve this easily with two forms combo. Please have a look at the following user guide to see how you can build an approval process workflow. 

https://www.jotform.com/help/432-A-General-Approach-on-Building-an-Approval-Process-Workflow

Please check out the link below to see how you can create conditional logic for using JotForms.

https://www.jotform.com/help/57-Smart-Forms-Conditional-Logic-for-Online-Forms

The PDF Forms does give you the ability to add form submission data automatically into a PDF. Check out the links below for more details on PDF Forms.

https://www.jotform.com/help/312-JotForm-Fillable-PDF-Creator-with-All-Points

https://www.jotform.com/help/552-How-to-Create-PDF-Forms-with-PDF-Editor

https://www.jotform.com/help/548-How-Can-I-Import-My-Own-PDF-to-JotForm

Let us know if you need further assistance.

Thanks

I will try this on 1 form first.

I am afraid it is not quite enough.

Since there are 3 groups of users on this single form, we need to present different fields to different users. Again, the users are: clients, admin, vendors. Each should see different values.

I want to utilise the Get Form Page URL more by adding keywords to edit_submission and edit_link so that the form can check the keywords and present the right values. Currently all community articles uses Get Form Page URL to check "edit" only...

Is this possible?
...

BTW, followed the guides and set up
1. Autoresponder email
2. Approved followup email
3. Reject followup email.
1 works.
2 & 3 won't send out email.
Can you check what's happening?
https://www.jotform.com/201622356474453/
Thank you!
...

Hi Charles,

Let me have some more time to check your form and cross-check it with the above requirements. I will get back to you on shortly.

I want to utilise the Get Form Page URL more by adding keywords to edit_submission and edit_link so that the form can check the keywords and present the right values. Currently all community articles uses Get Form Page URL to check "edit" only... Is this possible?

Yes, it is possible. I can see that you have already added this widget to your form.

2 & 3 won't send out email. Can you check what's happening?

Upon checking, I have found that the emails were successfully sent. You can check your account email history here: https://www.jotform.com/help/293-How-to-View-All-Your-Form-Email-History

You are able to have many groups of users on a form. The guide mentioned above only demonstrates the possibility. I have noticed you have multiple conditions hiding the fields of the form. Alternatively, you can just add conditions to show the fields and they will be hidden by default. This will make your workflow easier to set up.

1. Our clients fill in a form

Hide the fields that shouldn't be shown to clients. (You can also show them with conditions)

2. We get notified (by both JotForm mobile and email about the new submission)

You will automatically get notifications from your mobile app every time the form is submitted. 

Set up Notification emails to get notified by email. 

2a. Clients also get an email about his submission 

You can setup autoresponders for the clients.

3. We approval the form by 2 layers of management

Each manager will get notification email from first submission. From your notification email setup. Enable Edit submissions and add fields to approve the submission which will be accessible to the two layers of management through conditions with the Get Form Page URL widget.

4. Once approved, JotForm will automatically send emails about this submission to ~100 vendors

Set up notification emails with conditions to send a notification email to the vendors. Based on the status of approval.

5. The first N number of vendors put their names in the form

There should be two different notification emails to the vendors depending on how you will select the N number of vendors. The first one to those who should put their names in the form and the second one will just act as a simple notification email.

5a. Each of these N vendors will be able to upload 1 PDF to the form. Once submitted, this value must be locked, except by the original submitter. 

You can either add multiple files to one file upload widget or add one file upload field for each vendor. 

6. We will get notified after each new upload

Enable the Send on edit option from NOTIFICATION > ADVANCED. You will receive a notification every time the form has been edited.  

7. We approve (release) the PDF

Setup the notification email for this step and add an approve button (Multiple choice field). 

7a. After we approve the PDF, client will be notified via email

After you enable the Send on Edit option. You can add the edit link to the email and remove/reject the PDF. Then, you can setup another autoresponder which will be triggered when the PDF if removed.

8. Client access the form again and this time can see the PDFs

You can setup another autoresponder to be sent after the final approval. The client will be able to receive the links to all the uploaded PDFs.

To summarize, you need to setup conditions and autoresponder/notification email for each step of the workflow.

I want to utilise the Get Form Page URL more by adding keywords to edit_submission and edit_link so that the form can check the keywords and present the right values. Currently all community articles uses Get Form Page URL to check "edit" only... Is this possible?

Yes, it is possible. I can see that you have already added this widget to your form.

How do I do this? I'm excited!

 

5. The first N number of vendors put their names in the form

There should be two different notification emails to the vendors depending on how you will select the N number of vendors. The first one to those who should put their names in the form and the second one will just act as a simple notification email.

I was not clear enough in this regard; there is no selection of the N vendors. The 100 vendors will race to fill in their names in the form, of which 5 slots are free to fill in. I don't think this is possible as I can't lock the fields? E.g. the 5 slots are all filled in, and the 6th one loads the form and erase one of the first 5s.... this will be nasty.

 

5a. Each of these N vendors will be able to upload 1 PDF to the form. Once submitted, this value must be locked, except by the original submitter. 

You can either add multiple files to one file upload widget or add one file upload field for each vendor. 

It seems that there is no Download function in all file "upload" widget... may be I'm wrong?

 

It seems that the rest of the functionalities using CONDITIONS are already implemented in my form. Just need the above to be solved, and then I can finish building the prototype.

Hello
May be you have fixed something at the back. Both Approve and Reject email working now.
Can you help with the Get FORM URL question?
...

Hi,

We are glad to hear that there's progress in the workflow you're trying to achieve and I think you're almost there. 

Now with regard to the Get form URL page question, you can use any keywords included in the address bar when you access the edit URL. May we know what keywords do you have in mind? 

Now with regard to the Get form URL page question, you can use any keywords included in the address bar when you access the edit URL. 

The keywords are to be specified in autoresponder and custom emails. How to specify? Like this?

{edit_link}?userType=whatever 

 

How about file upload and download? I believe I found a workaround... if this can’t be done then so be it. Honestly the lack of this feature seems to be an over-sight.

 

How about locking fields after it is filled in? Any workaround? Actually this is more important because this will really affect our business. 

Thank you for your reply.

The keywords are to be specified in autoresponder and custom emails. How to specify? Like this?

Unfortunately, simply adding {edit_link}?userType=whatever won't work. You need to create a link the following way:

https://www.jotform.com/edit/{id}?userType=whatever. {id} will be automatically replaced with the submission ID, and additional information will be added. You can click here to read an article which is on a different subject, but it can help you to achieve what you need. 

How about file upload and download?

If you wish to disable file removal, the only workaround would be to create multiple upload fields and then show fields depending on the URL.

How about locking fields after it is filled in?

You can achieve also lock the fields by checking the URL. 

Please let us know if these solutions will work for you.

Sent from my iPhone XX
...

Greetings and thank you for your message.

Your latest question has been moved to a new ticket. You will get a reply soon on the following link:
https://www.jotform.com/answers/2394226

If you have any questions, please post them in the new ticket.

Thank you for your cooperation. 

Can you please check my set up? It seems that it is not working as expected.

https://www.jotform.com/201622356474453

Flow:

* form being used for the first time, everything is working well. Hidden fields aren't shown

* form is submitted

* Notification email is received

* Autoresponder email is received

So far so good.

Then we click a link in the notification email to edit the form. This time all hidden fields are shown! 

I can't proceed to building extra the conditions...

Greetings,

I've checked your form and you have a condition set on Get Page URL when the application was approved or not.

Are you referring to the edit link sent for application approval? If so, you may need to create another condition for Get Page URL to hide certain fields. However, using the keyword edit might affect the other conditions you have. You can change the edit link in the notification and add a different keyword just like what you did before. e.g https://www.jotform.com/edit/{id}?forApproval=keyWordhere. Then use the new keyword in setting up another condition. 

I hope this information helps. 

Hello

Thanks for the reply.

However, using the keyword editmight affect the other conditions you have. You can change the edit link in the notification and add a different keyword just like what you did before. e.g https://www.jotform.com/edit/{id}?forApproval=keyWordhere. 

Yes, I know and I'm using keyword "a78kneRm0E" already. No "edit" is checked in Get Page URL.

Are you referring to the edit link sent for application approval? If so, you may need to create another condition for Get Page URL to hide certain fields.

The issue is here. Those fields are supposed to be hidden are already set to hidden. So, in /edit mode, I guess "hidden" is meaningless. 

[Edit] further to the above, the current conditions I have now makes ALL hidden fields visible, even in non-edit URL. This is really strange. I'll stop working on it so that you can take a look at it.

 

Hey there,

Thanks for writing back to us.

I will really appreciate if you can provide screenshots of the fields you are referring to as I'm unable to replicate it in a cloned form. Please use the following guide to see how you can upload screenshots on our support system.

https://www.jotform.com/help/438-How-to-Post-Screenshots-to-Our-Support-Forum

Looking forward to your reply.

Thanks.

Hello

I have enabled Form Cloning. Would this help more?

Anyone?

Thank you for your reply.

Please note that the conditions will override the visibility settings from the builder. 

If the condition is true, and it's set to show the field, the field will be visible even if it's hidden in the builder. 

Please let us know if you have any additional questions. 

Thank you.

There is no condition set to show the fields, and therefore it is very strange that the fields are displayed when it is set to hidden. 

These are the conditions. 

So you are saying, if Get Page URL is used, then all hidden fields will be displayed regardless of setting?

Hey there,

I'm looking into this for you and will get back to you shortly.

Thanks.

Hey there,

Thanks for the wait. 

It seems that the conditions you are trying to implement are conflicting with each other. This is why they are not working properly. For example:

In 4th Condition, you are hiding field 1 and field 9 if the "Get Page URL" contains "AE9oP04Bqm". Field 9 is in both If and Do. It will not work like this. It is set to get form page URL but also hidden in the action part.

The same is being repeated in multiple conditions. Please go through your conditions again and fix them.

Let us know if you need further assistance.

Thanks.