Administrator Guide 2017
Item Type - Date
From Add Item in Template Maintenance select the Date button shown here.

From Add Item in Template Maintenance select the Date button shown here.

The Date item uses the device's selected date entry mode and can be set to a relative default value (e.g. today).

How your Date prompt might look on a device.

How your Date prompt might look on a device.

Main

Main screen for creating/amending a Date prompt
Main screen for creating/amending a Date prompt

Main screen for creating/amending a Date prompt

*Question This is the text “label” that is specifying the information that needs to be entered or the question to be answered. Although this is not necessarily a question in all cases, Question is used as the general term to cover the text shown next to an input field. The text should be as short as possible whilst still being self-explanatory. Over-long questions take up a lot of space on PDA screens with their restricted size, so try and make them concise. This text should be an aid to help guide the user through the screen. Any more explanatory text can be made available as “Auditor’s notes” or “Full question text”.
Mandatory

Tick this box if the question is mandatory and leave it blank if it is optional.  This will depend on whether the answer to this question is critical to the data that is being collected, such as signature to confirm customer acceptance.

Default value

Enter a value that will be inserted without the user doing anything e.g. '0' (zero) for quantity in a supplies list so that only significant entries need to be entered.

Sometimes it is appropriate to use values entered by administrators when setting up a job.  In this case, use the syntax:

$$[unique name used in job definition]
Max. number of days to accept in the past You may restrict the entry of dates to those within, say, the past 30 days by entering a value in this field. If no value is entered then no past date would be acceptable.
Max. number of days to accept in the future You may restrict the entry of dates to those within, say, the next 30 days by entering a value in this field. If no value is entered then no future dates are allowed.

Advanced

Advanced features of a Date prompt.
Advanced features of a Date prompt.

Advanced features of a Date prompt.

Auditor's notes

If you wish to offer the end-user guidance and direction on how to answer a question then use the Auditor’s notes field. This allows you to input any necessary text expanding on the basic question. For the end-user, the auditor’s notes are available via the “right click” option on the device – tap and hold the stylus on the question text.

Full question (for report)

The question text mentioned above should be framed in such a way as to indicate to the user the information that needs to be input. However, when this information is output on a report via the web site or a PDF additional wording may well be required. Use this field to phrase the original question in a way suitable for the report.

Cross reference

This field is output on reports to cross-reference the information with any relevant legislation etc.

Don't keep previous result when part of a document lifecycle

Tick this box if you DO NOT wish data to be collected in this template item to be copied to any jobs created directly from the original form.  This is useful for a repeated task (such as booking in/out a rental item or repeated delivery) where the data remains the same but a sign-off is required so this box may be ticked for Date, Surname and Signature.  Please note that if a $$transformation$$ option is applied to the newly created job, this setting may be over-ruled.

Show all choices on report
Allow multiple results for this field?

If you wish to have the capability of entering more than one “answer” to a question then you can use this field. If it is checked/ticked then a button will be displayed allowing further responses to be input. The text shown on this button can be specified (see below).
If the number of possible responses is unpredictable then this option is useful. However, it is often simpler to create, say, 3 pre-set items in which the user can enter their data.

Text on button for adding additional results

This option is used in conjunction with “Allow multiple results for this field” and specifies the text shown on the button (for example, “Add response” or “Another value").

Item flag

Template item flags are used to apply display classes to $$template item$$ in a consistent and efficient way.  They are set up in a system list called Template item flags and might be given names such as Danger so the text appears in red, Disclaimer for smaller text, Long answer to give extra space to the answer.  This means that changing the display class can be done in one place rather than on all template items.

*Unique name

A unique name must exist for everything in a magic5 template.  It is so important that magic5 pre-fills the prompt with a non-meaningful name which it will use by default.  This does not need to be changed.

However, if the data associated with the unique name is to be used elsewhere (for example as part of a calculation, imported or exported, or carried over to a new job), it is helpful to use a meaningful name (such as RefNo, QuantityOrdered, ItemTotal, ContactName, ReasonForReferral) and this meaningful name must be entered before the template is used with real data.

If the unique name is changed at a later date, existing data will not be lost but it may no longer be accessible by magic5, in which case it cannot be displayed, used in calculations or exported.  It is therefore recommended that this is done only as a last resort and that the original template is duplicated before changes are made - this means that existing data can still be retrieved if necessary.  If in any doubt, please contact magic5 support for the best way to deal with this.

Display conditions (advanced)

Display conditions for a template item.
Display conditions that can be applied to a template item.

Display conditions that can be applied to a template item.

Only show when the following condition is true (1)-(4) Enter a conditional statement that affects whether the input item is displayed on the device such as whether a previous answer has been yes or no.
For more help on using Display Conditions view the how-to guide.
Record results when section isn't displayed Tick this box if you wish results to be recorded when section isn't displayed.