CPS WebTips: Winshuttle Form and Workflow Developer Don’ts

For years CPS has been providing WebTips videos containing best practices and things you SHOULD do as a Winshuttle form and workflow developer. Today we’re going to talk about the things we SHOULD NOT do as developers. The “Don’ts”, if you will. 

The Top 5 Don’ts that developers should avoid to make solution maintenance easier:

1. Don’t put JavaScript code in form rules. Use the JavaScript console to create a function and call the function with your rules.

• If you call the code from more than one place, you can maintain the code in one spot, instead of having to update it in many spots.

• The where used functionality doesn’t pick up form fields that are specified in JavaScript Loops, so finding where those fields are used can be much more difficult.

2. Don’t leave your rules with the name “New Rule”. It’s hard to find the rule when you do this.

• Maintaining rules can be more difficult if it’s unclear what that rule should be doing. The description can clarify what the rule purpose is supposed to be.

3. Don’t leave groups with default names and don’t be vague when naming groups.

• Creating show/hide rules for a group will be much harder if the group can’t be identified/recognized in the dropdown list as the rule is being created.
• It’s also a good idea to use prefixes in front of various form elements when naming them. For example, start group names with “grp” or button names with “bt”.

4. Don’t leave Form Name controls, current user controls, buttons, etc. on the Process Status and Process Completed views.

• These should be read-only views and shouldn’t allow for any updating of the form.
• In Foundation, if a form submit or approve button is available to a user on the Process Completed view, the process could be inadvertently relaunched if the button is clicked. Evolve has built in functionality to prevent this, but Foundation does not.

5. Don’t build spider webs. Build workflows.

• It’s a best practice to avoid crossing condition lines and it’s a good idea to use condition labels to shorten long condition functions.
• Use a tool such as Visio to plan out complex workflows before building them in Composer.

Watch the entire WebTips session focusing on Winshuttle Form & Workflow Development Don’ts:

Visit our entire Winshuttle WebTips library on our YouTube Channel.

Still have questions regarding this topic or any other Winshuttle features? Contact the CPS experts.

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