ProTip: Make Your Inspection Criteria Dynamic

Easily make digital inspection form criteria dynamic with Dynamic Field Properties

Teams often use the same form to complete different tasks. For example, an HVAC technician might use an inspection form to complete a checklist of equipment inspection tasks, while their supervisor would use the same form to review hazards noted by the technician and sign-off on the form. When relying on paper forms or inflexible PDF fillers, different users may face confusion regarding which tasks they need to complete, resulting in inaccurate data, data redundancies, and miscommunication.

digital inspection form being filled out on an iPhone X with an image being captured in front of a house

With digital forms, your team can easily make their inspection form criteria dynamic by using logic to highlight the fields they need to complete or even make them Required. This can be accomplished the following ways:

  • Make form fields Required, Visible, change their Font Color or change their Background Color, based on a user’s Group membership

  • Make form fields Required, Visible, change their Font Color, or change their Background Color, in response to a Drop Down selection or input data (e.g. a selected Checkbox or a completed field)

How to make your inspection criteria dynamic based on your organization’s needs

Below we have outlined the different approaches to making your digital inspection criteria dynamic, based on your team’s unique needs and use case. To get started, be sure to log in to your GoFormz account from a computer and open the Template of the inspection (or another document) you wish to make dynamic. 

Make your inspection criteria dynamic based on a user’s Group membership:
If you only want your inspection criteria to dynamically change based on a user’s Group membership, follow the instructions below: 

  1. Select the field you would like to make dynamically Required, Visible, change their Font Color, or change their Background Color, for a specific Group. For this example, we’ll select the ‘Inspection Signature’ field. 

  2. Navigate to the Properties panel (to the right of your Template) and locate the property you’d like to make dynamic. For this example, we’ll be using the Required property. Click the ellipses icon [...] to the right of the Required property and select ‘Use a custom calculation’. 

  3. Once the Calculation Builder modal has opened, enter the following calculation, =IsInGroup("GROUPID") and replace “GROUPID” with the appropriate Group ID number. You can find the Group ID by clicking into the Group and copying the ID number from the URL. For this example, we’ll be making this field Required for our Inspectors Group. If the Inspectors Group ID was ‘098f311e-a398-4c0e-9697-a1ea0135b204’, the calculation would look like =IsInGroup("098f311e-a398-4c0e-9697-a1ea0135b204"). 

  4. Save your changes. 

To learn how to dynamically change the Background Color or Visibility of a field based on Group membership, check out this blog post. 

Inspection form in GoFormz Template Editor with the signature field being made required in response to a checkbox selection

Make your inspection criteria dynamic based on input data:
If you only want your inspection criteria to dynamically change based on a Drop Down menu selection (e.g. certain field should only be made Required or Visible for specific departments) follow the instructions below: 

  1. Select the field you would like to make dynamically Required, Visible, change their Font Color, or change their Background Color, based on data input into another field. For this example, we’ll be making the ‘Inspector’s Signature’ field Required if a ‘Hazards Noted’ Checkbox is selected. 

  2. Navigate to the Properties panel (to the right of your Template) and locate the property you’d like to make dynamic. For this example, we’ll be using the Required property. Click the ellipses icon [...] to the right of the Required property and select ‘Use a custom calculation’. 

  3. Once the Calculation Builder modal has opened, enter the following calculation, =IF([FIELD NAME]="true","true","false"). Be sure to add your field name exactly as it appears when selected!

  4. Save your changes. 

Digital inspection form in GoFormz Template Editor, with Signature field being made dynamically required if a drop down item is selected

Make your inspection criteria dynamic based on a Drop Down menu selection:
If you only want your inspection criteria to dynamically change based on a Drop Down menu selection (e.g. certain field should only be made Required or Visible for specific departments) follow the instructions below: 

  1. Select the field you would like to make dynamically Required, Visible, change their Font Color, or change their Background Color, based on a Drop Down selection. For this example, we’ll be making the ‘Inspector’s Signature’ field Required if a specific item is selected from a Drop Down menu. 

  2. Navigate to the Properties panel (to the right of your Template) and locate the property you’d like to make dynamic. For this example, we’ll be using the Required property. Click the ellipses icon [...] to the right of the Required property and select ‘Use a custom calculation’. 

  3. Once the Calculation Builder modal has opened, enter the following calculation, =IF([DROP DOWN FIELD NAME]="DROP DOWN ITEM","true","false"). Be sure to add your field name exactly as it appears when selected!

  4. Save your changes. 

Remember: the Calculation Builder provides inline error validation (highlighting issues in red) and can be used to test your calculation directly within the modal. Learn more about the Calculation Builder here. 

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