Announcing Alpha TransForm Web Filler. We've taken our mobile TransForm App and adapted a web filler for creating, filling out, and submitting forms. The web filler lets users who don't have a mobile device fill out forms, allowing you to expand your use of TransForm throughout your organization.
In addition to rolling out a new web app, we've also upgraded the Alpha TransForm mobile form filler application framework as part of our commitment to keeping Alpha TransForm up-to-date and in compliance with the App Store and Google Play requirements. We're confident you won't notice this change.
TransForm Web Filler
To access the Web Filler, you need to create a new Permission Role called "browseruser". Users with this role can log into the Web Filler, found at https://transform.alphasoftware.com/transformFiller.a5w, to create and fill-out forms.
Some features are unavailable or may not behave as expected in this initial version of the Web Filler. This includes:
- Access to On-device Data: on-device data cannot be downloaded to the browser and is unavailable. You can access images, however, if hosted on an external server. See On-device Policy Updates to learn more.
- Barcode Scanning: barcode scanning is not available. Barcode values must be entered manually.
- GPS functions: values returned by the browser depend on the computer's IP address, which may not return the user's actual location.
- ajaxGET() function: calls using this function may fail in the browser filler. Use ajaxSendRequest() or ajaxSendRequestFromServer().
- On-device Data TPL Functions: this includes phoneGapTFExecuteSQL(), inappbrowser(), and fileviewer().
- phonecall() TPL function: calls may only be made from the web filler in browsers that have been configured to use a specific application to make phone calls and support opening an app to make the call.
Future versions will include features currently not available in the initial release of the web filler.
New TPL Variables and Functions
New system variables and TPL functions have been added. They can be used to determine what filler, the mobile or web filler, the user is using to fill in a form. If your forms use TPL code to access on-device data, you'll want to take advantage of them to adapt your forms for use in the web filler:
- $environment - this system variable has several properties that can be used to determine which filler application (mobile or web) is being used. Properties include:
- $environment.browser - has a value of 1 when running in the web filler.
- $environment.browserurl - if running in the web filler, the portion of the URL after the domain name.
- $enviornment.nativemobile - has a value of 1 when running in the mobile filler.
- ajaxSendRequestFromServer() - this function is an alternative for ajaxSendRequest() when making calls to a web service that keeps your API keys secret and safe. See Calling Web Services in TransForm Forms to learn why you should use this function and how to use it.
Other New Features and Changes
This release is not without other notable improvements. We're constantly iterating to ensure our product is reliable. We've made additional improvements throughout TransForm Central and the filler application. This includes the addition of a new TransForm API endpoint, ExecuteOnSubmitEvents. We've also modified Location fields to only display the Map of the location if the device can connect to Alpha TransForm's Servers and the login is not expired.
Bug Fixes in TransForm Web Filler Release
And last but not least, we took care of some issues a few folks encountered. Of course, our goal is always to prevent these problems from ever making it into our products, but at the end of the day, we're still human.
- Improved form rendering.
- The Scan button is now disabled while the scanner is launching when a field is configured to automatically open the scanner when the value is blank. This fixes an issue where users could launch the scanner twice, causing an error in the filler app.
- Fixed issue with API endpoint where API calls would fail if a form id contained characters that required URL encoding
- Fixed issue where the editorCatchAll event doesn't fire.
- Fixed issue where Upload One would hang after changing a form's status using the Change Status button.
- Fixed issue where an error message would appear when saving a new form design.
- Various TPL fixes.
