What's New

Digitise Forms v1.7 includes a new feature which allows PDFs to be stored in a SQL database. Now, whenever you configure a form to generate a PDF, you can choose to write the PDF to the file system (as in previous versions), or store it as a record within a designated NDLFXPDF table. Using either method, the PDF can be retrieved and displayed at form runtime with no noticeable difference between the two.

In order to implement the new functionality, a Save PDF to DB option has been added to the Publishing Profile which can easily be turned on and off, and which lets users quickly toggle the archiving of PDFs between each location.

In this latest release of Digitise Forms, the Save As option has been enhanced so that copies of a base form can be created which will incorporate all of the required 'starting point' elements included in the original. The copies will be fully functioning clones of the initial template, and can be used to establish versioning and branching of forms for different users or for different use cases.

The different versions of a form can be opened, developed, and published without having a detrimental impact upon any of the others, and by creating a series of forms using the Save As option, the progress of any number of projects can be measured against the original.

For more information, see the Save your Project topic.

For this latest version of Digitise Forms, a new Install topic item has been incorporated into the Top Navigation menu, beneath which links and sub-topics for all of the Installation and System Requirements information have been grouped.

The addition of the Install menu item brings the Digitise Forms User Guide in line with other NDL manuals, and ensures that users will be presented with a consistent interface across all Online Help resources.

As well as a new Install item being added to the Top Navigation menu, the colour of the header which contains the main topics has been changed.

The update to the appearance of the Digitise Forms Online Help provides uniformity in keeping with the rest of the NDL documentation, and ensures that cohesive visual branding will be maintained throughout all product materials.

This latest version of Digitise Forms includes the addition of a brand new Connect feature which allows data to be retrieved from Web APIs An API is a set of functions and procedures allowing the creation of applications that access the features or data of an operating system, application, or other service., which can then be displayed and mapped to elements within your NDL project.

By allowing a Web API's OpenAPI definition A file used to interpret and interact with a Web API (usually in YAML or JSON format). to be imported, Connect provides access to the Web API's configured operations An operation is a unit of a REST API which can be called and which comprises of an HTTP verb and a URL path. - each of which can be brought in as a separate Datasource without the need for complicated coding or any kind of complex set up.

See the separate Connect topics for more information.