Ever need to give graphical instructions to your field crews?
Now you can do that in XForms. In the XForms Designer, there is now a new Picture control that lets you insert a PNG or JPG image into a form template. At the current time, it only lets you insert a hosted image via a URL. A future release will let you upload an image directly from your hard drive.
To access the Picture control, when in the Designer editing a form template, click on the “+ Add Field” button, select the Picture control, and add the URL where the image is located. Here’s an example:
What it looks like in the mobile app
Whatever image/picture/drawing/illustration you add to the form template in the Designer will appear on the mobile app in read-only mode. Here’s an example below.
Use case for this feature
I’ve seen a lot of very technical forms that include a drawing of a device with arrows and captions describing certain things. These are typically used to instruct the field tech collecting the data on certain aspects of the work being conducted/data collected. For example, a lockout/tagout form like this one, which includes an explanatory drawing about arc flashing:
Future enhancements
A future release sometime in 2023 will include the following improvements to this Picture control:
- Ability to upload a png or jpg image from your laptop/desktop hard drive
- In runtime on the mobile app, you will be able to tap on the image to view it in fullscreen mode
- Offline mode support
Want to learn more about XForms, and how it can replace your paper forms?
Click/tap the button below.