You can now export form documents utilizing our new PDF Experience!  The new PDF export utilizes a headless browser to get a PDF that is much closer to what the form looks like on the screen and it's fully accessible!!  This functionality will eventually replace the PDF generation in Kuali forms but we're providing the option to preview the functionality so we can gather your feedback and not disrupt your currently configured export setup.  Within Form Settings you'll see a new option of 'New PDF Experience' option once the 'Allow PDF export of documents' is enabled.  You also have the option to append all the PDF attachments uploaded in the form to the end of the PDF in the new generator if you select the 'Include PDFs uploaded through the form' option:

Here's a side-by-side comparison of the current print verses the new PDF Experience:

Some things to keep in mind:

• There is no immediate impact or action required - the current PDF export will continue to work as is and you'll need to update your configuration in Form Settings to take advantage of the new PDF Experience.
• When the new option is selected all PDF exports in that app will use the new PDF export. This includes the document view, workflow notification attachments and the GraphQL API.
• New PDF export meets accessibility standards and it will render a PDF that looks like the actual form on the screen.

Start using today and let us know your feedback! :)

Please note, we have many requests to be able to control which sections of the form are exported when the PDF is created (included Office Use Only sections).  This new PDF Experience does not address that need but that's still on our roadmap to address in the future.

We've added a new meta data field of 'Current Workflow Step' which will display the name (Step Label) of the current step where the document is in the workflow. Meta Data Fields can be used in Form Builder (as a field or with Conditional Visibility), the Form Workflow, and in the Document List when creating reports.  

Add the new 'Current Workflow Step' column in the Document List to see which workflow step each document is on:

Or hide/show sections on the form based on the current workflow step. 

More information can be found in the Meta Data Fields article.

We wanted to give you a heads up on some changes related to Workflow Status that will be deployed this Thursday 3/6.  First, we've pulled out 'Workflow Status' from the menu options and put it the main header of documents so it's easier for users to find. Please note, the Workflow Status option is available to System, App Admins, and end users if it's configured as visible in Workflow Settings.

Second, we're releasing a new option of 'Save a copy of all email notifications sent' in Workflow Settings. When enabled all future notifications sent by the workflow system will be saved as entries in the Workflow Status tracker. This will allow you to have a history of all notifications sent for a given document and be viewable if the document is opened from the Document List or Action List (not visible to end user if document is opened from My Documents).

When you open the Workflow Status Tracker in a document and view a workflow action that has taken place since the above setting was turned on you will see associated emails collapsed within the workflow action. Please note, reminder emails will be recorded in individual entries in the Workflow Status Tracker.

A simple view without formatting or images will be displayed when you expand the Workflow Status drawer:

You can click 'Full Email' to open the email as it was sent to the user with formatting and images in a full screen printable view. 

Please note, any user with permissions to view the workflow tracker will be able to view and print saved notifications.

You can now configure custom send back workflow notifications and include the entered send back comments.  Within an Approval or Task workflow step you'll now see a 'Customize send back email notification' option:

Once enabled you can customize the message (subject and body) of the notification that will send when the send back action is taken.  You can also include the new 'Sendback Comment' variable to include the comments entered by the reviewer on the send back action:

The email sent will include the customized subject/body text including the send back comments:

More information on how to configure can be found in the Approval Step and Task Step workflow articles.

Now in the Form Settings you have two additional options in Submission Settings to limit the number of submissions for the given form:

Limit submissions to one per user:

Allows you to limit to only one submission per user in the form.  If enabled and a user creates a new document when they are the creator on another submission in the dataset the below validation error will display and the submit button will be inactive.

Limit total submissions for this dataset:

Once you click this option you can then 'Enter submission limit' to specify the limit of total submissions allowed in the form overall.  Could be used for a variety of scenarios - for example, a contest app that will only take the first 25 entries. If enabled and a user creates a document when the submission limit has already been met the following validation error will display and the submit button will be inactive.

Have you wanted to add a custom error validation in a form based on certain field selections?? Now you can with the new Validation gadget!!!

The Validation gadget can be used to add a form validation under certain criteria (beyond just "A required field is blank") to prevent submission or a workflow action.  Sometimes gadgets require a certain number of responses, or a field is only required if specific data is entered elsewhere in the form (otherwise it's optional), certain lookup selections aren't allowed, etc.  You can set any combination of desired criteria in the Validation rules to trigger when appropriate.

Within the Validation gadget you must first enter the desired Error Text that will display when the rule(s) for visibility are met.  And then you can add the desired rule(s) to fire that validation.  For example, in the below example the validation will display when the Sponsor selected is 'To Be Determined':

Within the form the user will see the Validation message immediately:

And if they attempt to submit the form or take a workflow action (i.e. Approve, Complete Task) without addressing the validation they'll also see the error display:

If you are pointing to other Kuali forms to pull data via a Data Lookup (List) or Data Lookup (Multiselect) gadget you now have options to configure when data will update from the linked document in the gadget Advanced Settings:

• Never - The data will be static once linked and never update from the source document.
• When the linked document is saved - This includes when a document is edited then saved on the specific version that is linked (whether as a draft, submitted to workflow, or completed). This does not update upon creation or saving of a new version of the linked document

Also, if versioning is enabled in the app you are linking to then you'll have additional document updating options based on versions - more information can be found in the Document Versions article.

Some things to keep in mind with this functionality:

• By default, all existing data lookups will be set to not update.
• If an admin updates an existing data lookup then it will only work on documents linked in the data lookup after the gadget configuration update is published. It will not impact the update logic on any existing document data.
• If a data lookup is configured to update when document is changed, and the linked document is deleted, the data from that document will be removed from the data lookup and all auto-linked gadgets.
• If a user tries to delete a document linked in a data lookup set to update on save, they will receive a warning. The warning will list the documents that will lose data due to this change.
• Data lookups that are configured to update cannot be used in calculations or integration fields.  If a data lookup is configured to update when changes are made, they will not be able to be used in calculations or integration fields because those fields could get out of date.
• If you have Document Versions enabled in the app you're linking to in the gadget and the lookup is configured to update with one of the new version options, it will also update when edits are saved to the currently linked document version.

The Autocomplete option in Short Text, Long Text, and Email gadgets allows you to configure an autocomplete suggestion for a form field.  By utilizing the user's browser autocomplete settings it will suggest a value on a form field for selection which can be used to improve the built-in accessibility of your forms. 

Autocomplete configuration will be omitted by default (even if autocomplete is not enabled, the browser still could offer hints).  If you don't want to include autocomplete at all you'll want to disable via the 'Off' option.  Below outlines the options when autocomplete is enabled on the field:

• On (Browser Default) - the default autocomplete logic set up in your browser settings will be used for possible suggestions.
• Off - the browser will not provide any autocomplete suggestions for the field.
• Name - will suggest the Name configured in your browser autocomplete settings.
• Phone number - will suggest the Phone configured in your browser autocomplete settings.
• Street Address - will suggest the Street Address configured in your browser autocomplete settings.
• Postal Code - will suggest the Postal or Zip code configured in your browser autocomplete settings.
• Custom - allows you to configure a custom autocomplete option via a html attribute.  More information in the link on how to set that up (requires a bit more technical knowledge).

More information can be found on this new setting in the Gadget Configuration Settings article.

Often when sharing app or product data with another form you want to filter the results available to the end users in the lookup - now you can!  

Now within the advanced Data Lookup (List) and Data Lookup (Multiselect) gadgets for Kuali data sets you'll have an Advanced Settings option. The Advanced Settings allows you to put additional lookup filtering to limit lookup values based on certain criteria from the available data (i.e. Workflow status, Multiple choice, Date picker, etc.).  For example, in the below example I'm setting the data lookup filter to only return documents in the app that have a Workflow Status of 'Complete':

Also, if versioning is enabled you'll have additional filtering options based on versions - more information can be found in the Document Versions article.

Often there are times you want to add a static image or logo to a form and now you can!  We've added the new 'Read-Only Image' gadget that allows you to add any type of image you desire to the form.  Whether that's a logo, QR code, form guidance/example, process flow, etc. you can drag in the 'Read-Only Image' gadget into your form:

You can then specify the Description/Alt Text for the image, Size, and Horizontal Alignment for the image within the gadget settings:

They say a picture is worth a thousand words 🌅!  You can read more about this new feature HERE.