Forms

Forms are a way to collect data into a Synapse Table. Forms are currently available only under the alpha configuration as they are not yet ready for full release; please use Forms only with this caveat in mind. This document will evolve as additional functionality is added.

With Forms, you can:

• Create surveys to collect feedback
• Crowdsource data collection
• Allow others to contribute data through a user-friendly UI

Creating a Table

In order to use Forms, you’ll need to first create a Table. Read more about creating tables here: Tables

Activating and Deactivating ‘Alpha’ Mode

In the Synapse footer, on the right side, is a little “@” symbol. Clicking this symbol will bring you a pop-up that asks if you want to enter into “alpha mode”. Doing so enables a small number of new, under development features related to new “widgets” in our Wiki pages, all available under under the “Insert” menu when you are editing a wiki page. Once alpha mode has been activated, you’ll see a little bit of text in the Synapse header that says “Alpha features on / off” with “ON” in bold.

You can also deactivate alpha mode at any time; the deactivation button is the word “off” the Synapse header and clicking it turns it off and removes the text from the header.

Creating a Form

Once alpha mode has been activated, visit the wiki page where you’d like to insert the Form. Click on “Edit Project Wiki” and select the “@ Insert” menu. Select “Synapse Form” from the menu. The widget will insert (currently; this may change in the future) a line of markdown that says:

${synapseForm?tableId=syn123&successMessage=Your response has been recorded}

You will need to insert the proper Synapse ID for the Table you created above, and optionally, you can customize the “Success” message for users. When a Form is submitted, it will create a new row in a Synapse Table.

• The question UI is built from the Synapse Table column schema.
• Column names are used as question prompts.
• The possible values for an enum column type, for example, will be a represented by a multiple choice question.

The form is also responsive, so it will render on both large and small screens.

Allowing Others to Contribute

Entering data into a Form is equivalent to editing the data in a Table, so users who wish to add data using the form will need to have “Edit” permissions on the Table. See Sharing Settings for more information on controlling who can edit your Table.

See Also

Tables, Wikis, Sharing Settings

Need More Help?

Try posting a question to our Forum.

Let us know what was unclear or what has not been covered. Reader feedback is key to making the documentation better, so please let us know or open an issue in our Github repository (Sage-Bionetworks/synapseDocs).