Form design notes - naming conventions

Imagine opening a form developed by someone in which no fields have been re-named, and all you have to work with are random field names from field_1 to field_300.

Naming every field, folder and control is essential when developing forms. In your solution, it is best to assign every field, control or section a unique name that does not start with Field.

Leaving fields with default names--for example, in InfoPath you may have fields with names like ‘field10’, ‘field24’ etc -- makes it harder and more time consuming for everyone involved to work with, develop, and (when necessary) troubleshoot the form.

Fields generated from Designer should already be named as described in the Script Design Notes for this section.

Other fields, however, will need to be renamed to something more intuitive and in accordance with whatever naming convention you ultimately decide upon.

In addition, when you name custom controls you can apply some rules to help you name them too.

For example:

  • The WorkflowParticipant control could be renamed so it begins with WSWP_ (for Winshuttle Workflow Participant).
  • WS.WebService controls could be named to begin with WSWS_ or SAP_Button_.
  • In your solution, you can also create a subfolder of myFields and name it Basic or General, and then place fields within it that don't fit into other categories. This makes it easier to find fields, controls and sections when you are developing your solution.

 

Named fields

Naming every field, folder and control is essential when developing forms.