Online Form Templates Overview

Online forms are intended to allow users to work on their documents or submit new ideas without having to download templates and upload document versions. Online forms are ideal for documents that are brief and contain no graphics, such as executive summaries of research, or for documents with a fixed structure, such as scorecards or idea forms.

An online form contains one more section with rows containing text boxes or list boxes that users use to update metrics, to record user ideas, and to record and display information in online deliverables or activity documents. Administrators build the structure of the online form template. After the template is added to the Template Library, Process Designers can assign the online form as a template to deliverables and activities within a model. Users open the online form to complete information for projects based on the model.

Base Templates

Online form templates are written using XML. Create your own XML forms if you are comfortable and knowledgeable in writing XML code. Each Accolade release contains a set of base templates that you can use to build templates for your business, including the following files specific to online forms:

  • Process Document - Online Form Example<version>.xml - A base template that Administrators unfamiliar with XML can use to copy and paste into a text editor. Creating an online form by copying and pasting from this template file is appropriate in most cases. The information in this section describes how to create an XML template using this file as the base.
  • Process Document - Online Form Schema<version>.xsd - The Accolade online form schema for Administrators who are familiar and comfortable using XML, and who prefer to create online form templates using an XML editor.

See Creating Online Form Templates for information about using the examples to build your own templates.

Idea Forms

An idea form is an online form, and is created using XML and added to the Template Library as an online form template. An idea form is different from other online forms in content and use. Its content includes data controls designed to record new product ideas and is the template for the idea deliverable in an idea model. The selection as the template of the idea deliverable activates the idea form and makes it available through the Idea menu's Submit Idea option with using Idea Submission and makes the idea model available for selection in a campaign model when using Ideation.

See the following to get started: