Digital Forms

Damstra Forms - Archiving of Forms and Actions

The archiving feature will help customers to:

• Speed up mobile data syncing 
• Reduce clutter in their Forms and Actions registers, making them easier to use and simpler to navigate.
  

Users are now empowered to manually archive forms and actions directly from the appropriate register, offering a convenient way to manage their data. Additionally, the newly introduced automatic archiving feature enables customers to effortlessly archive closed forms and completed actions. This automation is based on the specified duration since the form or action's last update, streamlining the process and enhancing overall efficiency.

Benefits of archiving

• Faster syncing to mobile devices, especially for new users. This is because archived forms are not synced to mobile devices, which means there is less data to be synced.

• Less visual clutter in Forms and Actions registers makes it easier for users to find the forms and actions they want to work with.

Target customers

This feature is available to all Forms customers, but will be most beneficial for:

• Long-term Forms customers who have a lot of items in their Forms and Actions registers.
• High-usage customers that create a lot of forms and actions (regardless of how long they have been Forms customers).

What happens when a form or action is archived?

When a form or action is archived:

1. It is removed from the normal view of the Forms register or Actions register in the web application and mobile applications.

2. It is still accessible by using the Archived button in the top right of the Forms register or Actions register screens, to toggle the screen into a mode where only Archived forms or actions are shown.

3. The same filters are available in the normal mode of the registers and the Archived mode.

4. You can unarchive an archived form or action by:

• Viewing the archived form or action in the relevant register.
• Selecting Actions > Unarchive for that form or action. When the form or action is unarchived, it is restored to the normal view of the relevant register and resynced to the mobile applications.

How to manually archive a form or action

Users who have the Edit Project permission for the relevant Project can manually archive a form or action as follows…

1. In the Forms web application, go to the Forms register or Actions register for the relevant Project.

Note: forms and actions can only be archived using the web application – you cannot archive a form or action using one of the mobile applications.

2. Find the form or action that you want to archive.

Note: you cannot archive a draft form or action.

3. Select the Actions button for that form or action.

4. Select the Archive action. The form or action will be removed from the normal view of the relevant register on the web application and the mobile applications.

How to manually unarchive a form or action

Users who have the Edit Project permission for the relevant Project can manually unarchive an archived form or action as follows…

1. In the Forms web application, go to the Forms register or Actions register for the relevant Project.

2. Select the Archived button in the top right of the screen to switch to the Archived mode of the register.

3. Find the form or action that you want to unarchive.

4. Select Actions > Unarchive for that form or action. The form or action will be restored to the normal view of the relevant register on the web application and the mobile applications.

What is automatic archiving?

• Automatic archiving is when a closed form or completed action is automatically archived, based on how many days have elapsed since the form or action was last updated.
• Customers use the Organisation Settings screen to set the number of elapsed days after which a closed form or completed action will be archived.
• Automatic archiving happens via a job that runs hourly.
• When the job runs:
  • Closed forms or completed actions will be archived if the number of days since they were last updated is greater than or equal to the number of days configured in the Organisation Settings screen.
  • For each of the customer’s projects, closed forms and completed actions are processed in order of oldest to newest.
  • It runs for a maximum of 15 minutes per customer each time it runs.
  • If a customer has a lot of items to be archived, initially it might take several runs of the job before all eligible items are archived. But once the backlog of items to be archived is cleared, it’s unlikely that a customer’s archiving job will hit the 15-minute limit.

How to configure automatic archiving

Users who have the Manage Organisation user permission can configure automatic archiving as follows…

1. In the Forms web application, select Admin > Organisation to go to the Organisation Settings screen.

2. Select the Edit button.

3. In the Days to wait to automatically archive field, type the number of days after which a closed form or completed action should be archived (leave this field blank or set to 0 if you don’t want to enable automatic archiving).

4. Select the Save button to apply your changes.

How Damstra Support can manually trigger an on-demand run of the automatic archiving job

In addition to the scheduled running of the automatic archiving job, the Damstra Support user can manually trigger an on-demand run.

• They do this using the Sys Admin > Run Archive Job menu option.

Digital Forms