Issuetrak Webforms are a great way to let users submit issues without needing to log in. They simplify the process and don't require any training for the end user. However, like any tool, Webforms have some limitations. Here are the most significant ones.
Issue Submission Limitations
Webforms can only create individual new issues. They cannot:
- Update Existing Issues
- Submit Issues with Notes (although the Subject and Description fields can be included)
- Create Multiple Issues at Once
- Allow Backdating of Submission Dates
- Include Tasks (these must be manually added after issue submission)
- Include Billing line items (these must be manually added after issue submission)
User Creation
- Users can only be created in a single default organization that is pre-set when the Webform is configured per your requirements during the Webform build process.
- The Simple Users created by Webforms can be used for tracking and login purposes, but some functionality available in Issuetrak is not supported in Webforms. Examples of unsupported functionality includes multi-org assignment, user time zone selection, User Defined Fields for Users, and user permissions setting.
- If the submitting user is an existing user in the Issuetrak site, the webform will attempt to match the submitter via both the UserID and the email address fields.
User Permissions
- Users created by the Webforms will not have any permissions upon creation (including via template or group). However, permissions can be added to user accounts after creation. The most straightforward approach is to create a group with the desired permissions and then manually add users to that group as needed.
- Users cannot log in to the site without being manually granted permission after their account has been created by the Webform.
- Users who are created with an email address will receive email notifications if the site is configured to automatically send email notifications to the Submitter for the Submit event.
Hosting
- Webforms are available to premises and cloud customers.
- By default, the embedding of Webforms in another site is not permitted. However, upon request, Issuetrak can permit Webforms to be embedded in iframes.
- Only Issuetrak can host the Webform for your site.
Attachments
Issuetrak Webforms can directly attach files to an issue. Additional methods of adding attachments include the following options:
- Adding instructions on the Webform for submitters to send files via email after submitting the issue.
- Edit the Custom Message for the Caller event in Issuetrak to instruct submitters to reply to the submission email notification with any necessary attachments.
Form and Field Configuration
Form Layout
The layout of the webform fields and their interactive elements are static. Changes to these fields and the interactive elements will require time-sensitive manual changes to your Issuetrak instance to support the changes to the webform. Depending on the use case, these could include edits, deletions, and additions.
Available Fields
Webforms can be configured to utilize various fields in Issuetrak, including:
- Assets
- Assigned To
- Class
- Custom Record Table (These fields can be populated when creating the issue, but the data won't be added to the backend table. The values can be easily added to the backend table after the issue is submitted.)
- Responsible Department
- Issue Types and Subtypes
- Location
- Next Action
- Priority
- Project
- Organization
- Required By Date
- Severity
- Substatus
- Target Date
- User Defined Fields (UDFs) (Except for Issue Association UDFs)
Field Labels and Effects of Value Changes
- The label for each field on the Webform is set during the creation of the Webform. Each Webform field populates an issue field in the Issuetrak site, and if the label for a field is changed in one location, it does not affect the data processing. For example, if a custom label for Locations is set to "Sites," but the label on the Webform is "Buildings," the LocationID will still be correctly assigned, regardless of the labels used.
- If values for any of the above fields are removed, and a Webform is configured to use the removed value, then this will cause problems with submitting issues via Webforms. For example, if a Webform is configured to submit issues with a Substatus of "Pending" and then the "Pending" substatus is subsequently removed from Issuetrak, then this will cause problems with submitting issues via Webforms.
