Kuali Build: Best Practices for Form Building

Getting Started

Map out your form before you start by thinking about what questions you need to ask and the best way to ask them. Learn more about planning and designing forms.
Start by placing a “Section”. Gadgets outside of a section won’t format properly. Sections can also be turned into pages (more on that later).
Include a “Read-Only Text” gadget near the top of your page with a description of the form

TIP: Use the Form Builder Field Definitions to plan your build.

Managing Space & Length

If your form is long, use multiple sections to break up the form
Create separate pages for sections by selecting “Form Settings” in the top right, and selecting “Turn top-level sections into pages”
Use “Limit Visibility based on other gadgets” to control which questions appear depending on previous answers. Learn more about visibility rules.
Instead of having a long column of questions, drag questions next to each other by clicking the question box, selecting the 6 dots on the left side, and dragging to the location highlighted in blue. (Protip: If you are having a hard time getting the highlighted area to line up where you want it, go to the top-right edge of that zone on the form)

Utilizing Smart Gadgets

- Instead of having a “short text” field for a name, use a “User Typeahead” field by adding a Data Lookup (List) Smart Gadget, selecting “Kuali Data” as the Data Source, then select “Users”
- Instead of having a “short text” field for a subject, major, or minor, use an “External Data Dropdown” which provides those lists
  - You can access these dropdowns by adding a Data Lookup (List) or Data Lookup (Multiselect) Smart Gadget and selecting “External Data” as the Data Source. Note that some integrations require information for the lookup. This information can be fixed or pull from other form gadgets. Use smart gadgets to keep data consistent instead of having users enter information that is already provided. Example:
- Instead of using a “User Typeahead” for a department chair, use a “Group Typeahead” filtered to “Department Chair” (Data Lookup, either List or Multiselect → Kuali Data → Groups)

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