Fields

Overview

Structuring forms from an ordered set of fields is a core functionality in EntryScape Models. In most situations a field corresponds to a property and a form to a class.

The main work flow is to first create a form, then create the fields you want to have in the form and finally add the fields to the form.

Start by clicking on "Fields" and then the "Create" button. If you already have a form that you want to reuse to make a new form, you can click on "Extend" instead.

Create field

To create a new text field, you need to specify the following:

Field type

• Text field - if you need to edit text strings.
• Datatype field - corresponding to integers, dates, booleans etc.
• Select field - corresponding to a controlled list of values, URIs or literals, e.g. drop down lists, a list of checkbox alternatives, radiobutton alternatives etc.
• Lookup field - when you need to make a request to a system to get an appropriate list of values existing as entities, always URIs.
• Inline field - when you need to use an inline subform (called an Object form) in EntryScape Models).

Title is mandatory for your field.

Purpose is recommended to specify.

Node type

• Literal - Corresponds to plain text. The recommended option for most fields.
• Only literal - Used rarely.
• Language literal - For text strings with predefined languages.
• URI - When a URI is needed. (Also comes with validation.)

In most cases, "Literal" is the suitable node type.

Property

Here you can select a corresponding property to your field.

Alternatively you can choose a Namespace property as well as a local name for your field. If you haven't declared a namespace before, you can enter a namespace URI by choosing Manual.

Save and create the new field by clicking on "Create" at the bottom.

On the fields overview page, you see the list of the fields that you created.

Extend field

You can reuse/extend already existing fields from other forms that you have access to. Click on "Extend" and choose the field you want models to reuse. This is especially handy when you want to use standard metadata fields that belong to known models or vocabularies, such as "Family name".

The new labels will override all old labels from the extended field.

Filter & search

If you have many fields, you might want to see only a subset of them, which you can do with the Filter function at the top. There you can filter your fields based on type.

Edit field

If you click on the field title you get to the detailed overview of the field. You can enter more information about the field by clicking "Edit".

When you click on "Edit", you can edit information about your field:

Title

Purpose

Status:

• Unstable - May change at any time (also default value)
• Stable - Finished, no changes expected
• Depracated - Outdated/replaced

RDF shape

• Property - Select a corresponding property to your field. Alternatively you can choose a Namespace property or enter a namespace URI manually.

• Node type - States if the field corresponds to a URI, Blank or Resource

• Cardinality - If the field is Mandatory, Recommended or Optional

• Max - Max number of fields of the specific type

Presenters and Editors can either see the same information, or can be shown different labels and descriptions. (The default is to show the presenter label and description for both user groups.)

Presenter:

• Label - Label name to be shown to end users
• Description - Description to be shown to end users

Editor:

• Edit label - Label name to be shown for editors
• Edit description - Descriptions to be shown for editors

• Placeholder - Example text in the field that disappears when the user enters information
• Validation help - Message shown when validation fails, such as "This must be an email adress"
• Pattern - Regular expression, such as "https?://.+" for URLs
• Value template - For adding invisible prefixes such as "mailto:"

* Depends on Field - When the field is secondary to another field and will appear together when chosen * Language - Language for the field * CSS class - Predefined CSS classes (such as card-groupfrom RDForms) or your own CSS classes.

Edit attributes

With the option "Edit attributes" you can choose how the field should be presented and behave, like for displayed as horizontal or vertical radiobuttons, a dropdown list, multiline textfield etc.

Change field type

You can change the underlying field type by clicking the button "Change type". Remember though that any type specific data will be lost, if you change to a different type.

Edit options

For Select field types, you get to add your own values.

Add fields to form

When you are done specifying your fields, go to your form and add your fields to the form.