Forms Feed back - Field Masks

What field masks do you use or would like to see?

many different types of identifiers, that have defined format/structure.

usually they are keys/references to other systems

Choice of options

is that meant at design or runtime?

I would prefer several possible format masks at runtime.

choice of option would then would mean extra click(s). the best would be if they're shown inside the control itself or somewhere near to control

list of possible/allowed format mask shouldn't be restricted to a static definition at design time, it should be able load it dynamically from a external source (list(view), webservice, SQL)

it could be possible to manage different set of format masks by kind of rules (if value of some control is X then one set of masks applies, if value is Y different set of masks applies)

Would you want it to automatically detect region settings? 

that could be one of options. sometimes it's needed that input is provided in user's locale, sometimes some specific locale has to be used (eg. latin characters even if client is in non-latin locale), sometimes farm/site locale, etc.

sometimes is important (especially for dates) to distinguish presentation locale/format and stored (background) locale, ie kind of conversion between different formats

Would you want to define your own? If so, how would you expect it to work?

definitely!

I would expect 3 configurable items for each format mask

- presentation mask (what user see and should input) (static definition or source definition where it could be get from)

- stored/backouground mask - how value is stored to list (conversion definition/rules)

- validation to ensure defined mask(s) (range, regex, custom function, web service call...)

Thanks Marian Hatala‌. Ive added some additional screenshots of how we have them working today - hopefully that is starting to align with what you are thinking?

Couple of questions:

• 'stored/backouground mask - how value is stored to list (conversion definition/rules)'.
  • Would you want to collect data from the user but then perform a transform on the data?
• 'validation to ensure defined mask(s) (range, regex, custom function, web service call...)'
  • Would you want the field mask from a web service? How would you want to define the syntax? e.g. (nnn) nn-nnn-nnnn

Thanks,
Euan

Would you want to collect data from the user but then perform a transform on the data?

yes, exactly.

if I take your example with phone numbers, it's better when users are guided by a 'human readable' format mask to input data correctly, as well as when they view data later on. but for further processing, interfacing with other systems, or even exporting it to excel and matching (vlookup) to other data source it might be better to have in pure-digits format.

very similar (and very often problematic) it's with dates. users work with locale format but in background it might be needed to base them to the same format (typically ISO) - see eg following problem https://community.nintex.com/message/54011-re-nintex-forms-2016-wrong-date-format-in-xml-of-repeating-section?commentID=… 

Would you want the field mask from a web service? How would you want to define the syntax? e.g. (nnn) nn-nnn-nnnn

yes, I would like to source format masks from webservice.

imagine eg. you want to make users to input data in the same format accross different sites and/or applications (even non sharepoint ones) so that data can be matched later on easily. so you create small and simple webservice that publishes acceptable formats for a given datattype or fieldtype.

my idea is it might work similarly to web service control - you define what web service to read it from and define some xpaths (or xslt?) to define what to pick from result

Hey Euan - 

Have you seen the field mask form control that TekDog has? That is pretty much what I'd like to see!

You just slop it on in there, and there's a huuuuuuuuuge list of different masks. Let's see if I can find a screenshot...

Mask Control for Nintex Forms 

Ah here there's a list on this page. Excellent.

I'd also like to be able to say "if X, then use this mask; if Y, then use this other mask" (thinking along the lines of different currency symbols, or date formats for region settings - which, is a cool idea, but I think you should turn on whether or not it automatically determines region settings.)

Yes, I'd also like to define my own. I would expect it to work like... add a new mask, give mask a name, set mask requirements - using # for numbers, a for alpha, maybe x for alphanumeric .. I'm not sure, a selection of symbols to mean and denote different things. 

For example, if I wanted to have a mask for a project document (not realistic since generally this isnt done manually, but just using as an example) it might be something like 123456-9000-ELE-LYD-004. So I'd want to define perhaps "######-####-aaa-aaa-###" ... maybe I'd want to go further somehow and say the second aaa is like ... [aaa] and have some kind of word mask on that (ie only be ELE or MEC or HVA or what have you.)

I am living in a dream world over here, though.

Cheers & thanks for continuing to work on this. I get this weird feeling of glee every time I see an update. And I was SUPER happy when I saw that "mask as input" in your screenshot above.

Nice job to you & the team.

Rhia