What's New

This latest version of Digitise Forms includes support for Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022.

Withdrawal of support for Microsoft SQL Server 2014 and 2012.

Digitise Forms now allows you to change the location into which uploaded files will be saved so that they can be retained when a re-publish is performed. In previous versions, uploaded files were automatically stored within a Fileuploads folder which was deleted whenever a form was re-published. Files which you wanted to keep had to be copied from this folder before each re-publish then pasted back in again afterwards. With this new feature, an alternative folder location can be configured, and you no longer have to take backups of any files that you wish to retain.

For more details, see the File Upload Element topic.

In previous versions of Digitise Forms, the connection strings specified in the Publish settings for both the Digitise Forms configuration and server logging databases were written in plain text to the web application's web.config file. This meant that both user names and passwords were readable by anyone who had access to the file. To prevent this from happening, the web.config file had to be manually encrypted using Microsoft's RsaProtectedConfigurationProvider.

With this latest version of Digitise Forms, automatic encryption of the connection strings takes place, and the encrypted connection strings are now stored in the web application's FXWebApp.xml file, rather than the web.config file.

For this latest version of Digitise Forms, several improvements have been made to the way in which PDF copies of published forms are produced, including:

• Improvements to the UI and process for generating a template
• Retaining changes previously made to the existing Word template whilst updating it with new changes
• Previewing the PDF without publishing or running the form
• Selecting elements to be included or excluded in the Word template and PDF
• Including HTML-style formatting of text in the form within the PDF
• Including input-mapped data values within the PDF as downloaded to the form at runtime
• Human-readable values of selected drop-list/checklist items now displayed within the PDF
• Primary Key values of the submitted record can now be displayed within the PDF

Details of the enhanced features can be found in the Create PDF Copies of Completed Forms and Map Data to Elements topics.

This latest version of Digitise Forms includes an additional set of PDF options which have been added to the Form Studio Ribbon. Located on the Data tab, these allow you to Preview, Edit or Generate a PDF, and provide the same functionality as the options which appear when you expand the Forms node in the project tree view and right-click on the form name.

See the Create PDF of Completed Forms topic for more information.

With this latest version of Digitise Forms, you can upgrade a form's Word/PDF template if it's been generated by an earlier version without any issues arising. The following enhancements have been incorporated into v1.6 with the aim of making working with legacy templates easier:

• The text of labels in the old version of the template will be replaced by bookmarks
• Input-mapped elements will now be included
• Hyperlinks will now work in the generated PDF

Before updating/replacing the old template, you may wish to check that the Is Visible in PDF option is deselected for elements which you don't want to appear in the PDF (see the Map Data to Elements topic for more information). Conversely, if you have elements which you would like to appear and which currently have this property deselected, this will need selecting (along with the Store Request Data option within your form's Publishing Profile).

You also have the ability to re-generate and upgrade a new template for reviewing purposes as many times as you like before finally committing it to the project. See the Create PDF Copies of Completed Forms topic for more information.

For this latest release of Digitise Forms, enhancements have been made to the Progress Bar, File Upload and Slider Elements, available within Form Studio. The following new Elements have also been added:

• Custom Ink Picture
• Email Text Box
• Toast Notification
• Map
• Schedule
• Charts (Bar Chart, Column Chart, Donut Chart, Line Chart and Pie Chart Elements)