How do you update a form template used in an assignment?

  • Article

There was some confusion around the expected behavior/how to update a form template being used in an assignment. This following describes the expected and current behavior related to this scenario.

  1. The 2 primary use cases for updating assignments to use a modified or different form template are listed below (no change from original design).
  2. Step 7 in the first use case below is not happening [in CTP1].
  3. Please make note of the note at the end of this email regarding including workbooks and the discard action as it pertains to this usage scenario.

 

Use Case 1 – User Overwrites Existing Form Template

 

User Context: Assignments are in progress that use a Form Template that has an issue (e.g. miss-spelled company name in title) and the modeler in charge of the assignments wants to change the form template as it is being used to correct the issue. All the assignments were generated from the same assignment definition.

 

User Goal: To update the form template and have end users be notified that a corrected template is available.

Modeler

  1. Modeler opens the original report that was published as a form template in Excel
  2. Modeler updates the report to remove the issue
  3. Modeler publishes the report as a form template with the same label as the form template being used by the affected assignments
  4. Modeler is prompted to confirm that this will affect in progress assignments that use this template

 

Contributor in Affected Assignment

  1. A contributor in one of the affected assignments has opened the assignment prior to the template being updated
  2. The contributor opens the assignment again
  3. The contributor is prompted that a newer template for the assignment is available and they are given the choice to update their assignment to download the new template or not

 

Note: If the contributor had not opened the assignment prior to the template being updated this would not have effected them.

 

Use Case 2 – User Creates New Form Template and Refreshes Existing Assignments to Use It

 

User Context: Assignments are in progress that use a Form Template that has an issue (e.g. miss-spelled company name in title) and the modeler in charge of the assignments wants to change the form template as it is being used to correct the issue. All the assignments were generated from the same assignment definition.

 

User Goal: To update the form template and have end users be notified that a corrected template is available.

Modeler

  1. Modeler opens the original report that was published as a form template in Excel
  2. Modeler updates the report to remove the issue
  3. Modeler publishes the report as a form template with a new label that is different from the form template being used by the affected assignments
  4. In Modeler, the modeler updates the assignment definition to use the new form template
  5. In Modeler, the modeler uses the “Refresh” action on the assignment definition to update all in progress assignments to use the new template

 

Contributor in Affected Assignment

  1. A contributor in one of the affected assignments has opened the assignment prior to the template being updated
  2. The contributor opens the assignment again
  3. The contributor is prompted that a newer template for the assignment is available and they are given the choice to update their assignment to download the new template or not

 

Note: If the contributor had not opened the assignment prior to the template being updated this would not have effected them.

 

NOTE ABOUT INCLUDED WORKBOOKS

 

If a contributor has included a workbook with their submission they will not be able to use the updated template until they use the “Discard” action to clear their included workbook.