Creating alternative forms

Alternative forms allow you to create different versions of existing forms. The alternative forms can then be used instead of the default form in the system’s administration interface or on the live site. You can create multiple alternative forms for a single object and use each of them in a different situation.

Object types for which you can create alternative forms

Object	Usage	UI for creating alternative forms	Example
Forms	Note: Alternative forms are only supported for on-line forms on Portal Engine sites (not for forms created on MVC sites). Live site – you can choose to display an alternative form using the On-line form web part. Administration interface – to replace the default forms for creating and editing the form’s recorded data (via the Automatically used alternative forms).	Forms -> Edit form -> Alternative forms	Creating alternative forms for on-line forms
Custom tables	Administration interface – to replace the default forms for creating and editing data entries (via the Automatically used alternative forms).	Custom tables -> Edit custom table -> Alternative forms	Creating alternative editing forms for custom tables
Page types	In the Pages application to replace the default forms for adding or editing pages (after clicking New or on the page’s Form/Content tab). In the Pages application on the Listing to allow editors to use custom fields of a specific page type when filtering the listing. Live site – for example using the Contributions list web part (see the User contributions chapter for more details).	Page types -> Edit page type -> Alternative forms	Creating alternative forms for page types Extending the page type listing filter
System objects	Both on the live site and in the administration interface, depending on the object type.	Modules -> Edit module -> Classes -> Edit class -> Alternative forms	Using the Custom registration form web part

Alternative forms have no dedicated application in the administration interface, only the Alternative forms tab available when editing one of the listed objects.

Additional topics:

Code names of automatically used alternative forms – provides a list of special code names, which can be assigned to alternative forms. The system uses such forms automatically for certain actions (typically creation of new items or editing of existing ones).
Displaying filters using alternative forms – explains the usage of alternative forms as filters for displaying large numbers of records.

Alternative form properties

When creating new alternative forms or when editing existing alternative forms, you can set the following properties:

Display name

The name shown to users in the administration interface, e.g. when selecting alternative forms.

Code name

A unique name that serves as an identifier for the alternative form.

Make new fields hidden

Enabling this property ensures that any new fields added to the main form are not visible in the alternative form by default (the system adds the fields to the alternative form with the Display field in the editing form flag set as false).

Note: If the form uses a custom layout, it will not automatically display new fields even if this property is disabled. In this case, you must also add the new fields to the form layout.