Organizational Settings - Custom Forms

Customizing Forms

Concepts

In order to customize forms in HoudiniESQ the concepts regarding Record, Types, Sub-types, Status codes and Attributes must be examined.

Every primary record in HoudiniESQ must have a Type defined. The Type field on the Matter, Event, Contact, etc forms is a required field. Sub-types, Status codes and Attributes are children of the Type selected. For example, a Matter with a Type 'Bankruptcy' can have a Sub-type called 'Chapter 7', a Status of 'Filed' and any number of Attributes assigned. Sub-type, Status and Attributes are children of the record's Type. This is a important fact to remember when customizing forms in HoudiniESQ because when you add a custom field to a form you do so by stating what Type you want the field to appear under. Further, you can specify that you would like to have a field appear when any of the following combinations are selected by the end user, Type, Type and Sub-type, Type and Status, and Type and Attribute.  The following image shows the relationship between Type, Sub-type, Status and Attributes.

Customizing Forms

In Houdini one or more fields can be added to a Matter, Event, Contact or Custom Form. There is no limit to the number of fields that can be added to a form. These custom fields can be hidden until needed or can all appear onscreen at once.

Fields are added to forms under the Settings Ribbon : Customization : Fields & Forms.

 

Adding Custom Fields

Click Fields & Forms under Customization to reveal the Organization Settings with the Customization : Customize Forms tab selected as illustrated below.

When adding fields to a form you must specify when the field is to appear by assigning it to a Type. In HoudiniESQ all records must have a Type. For example a Matter can be of Type Bankruptcy, Personal Injury, Tort, etc. but can never be blank. 

When you create a custom field you must select the Record the field will be attached to and a Type. For example, to add a field to the Matter form called 'Filed Date' whenever a user creates or edits a Matter of type Bankruptcy you would assign the Type Bankruptcy to the field by selecting Matter as the record and Bankruptcy as the Type.

Click the New Field button to add a field to the Matter record. Provide a Label and select an Entry Type. When you are done, click the Save button. You may continue to add as many fields as you like.

Now when a user creates a Matter record of type Bankruptcy your field 'Filed Date' will appear. 

Granulizing

Additionally you can add fields to a form by Sub-type, Status and Attribute. This is called granulizing. For example, suppose you don't want the field to show up on all Bankruptcy Matters because the field only makes sense for Chapter 13 Bankruptcies e.g. 'Reorg Plan'. A Reorganization Plan is only used with Chapter 13 Bankruptcies. In this case you would granulize by Sub-type and select the Sub-type Chapter 13 as illustrated below. 

Now when a user creates or edits a Matter of Type Bankruptcy and a Sub-type of Chapter 13 the 'Reorg Plan' field will appear. If they simply select Bankruptcy, or Bankruptcy Chapter 7, the field will not be shown.

When you assign a Sub-type to a custom field, you are essentially telling Houdini to show the field only when the Type and Sub-type combinations are selected.

The concept of granulation has two benefits. 

1. You have unlimited possibilities because you can create any number of Types, Sub-types, Status Codes and Attributes in Houdini. 

2. Your forms aren't cluttered with many fields. Only the fields that pertain to the particular record Type, Sub-type, Status or Attribute combination are displayed.

Granulizing on Status Codes

Granulizing gets interesting when you granulize by Status and by Attributes. As we all know, Matters/Cases go through phases; Filed, Pending Review, etc. A case may be labeled Bankruptcy Chapter 13, but let’s say you would like to show fields on screen when the user changes the Status of the Matter from no Status to 'Case Review'.

In this case, you would select to granulize by Status and select Case Review as illustrated below.

In this case, when a staff member changes the Status of the Case/Matter from no Status to 'Case Review', the user will be confronted with a 'Reason' field. It is important to note that when the user changes the Status of a Matter/Case, the fields that do not pertain to the newly selected Status will not be shown. The data isn't lost, however; HoudiniESQ is non-destructive when it comes to customized fields. The user could switch back to the previous Status and view the fields and the data they contained prior to changing the Matter's Status. This is a wonderful way to get unnecessary data and clutter off the screen if it is no longer needed, but still have the comfort of knowing that all the data collected in custom fields is always available and just a click away.

Granulizing on Attributes

Granulizing on Attributes is very similar to granulizing on Sub-type or Status, except that when you define Attributes in Houdini the forms automatically create a checkbox in the Attributes draw of the form, as illustrated below (Hold attribute). 

This is the default behavior of Attributes. These checkboxes are not created in the same way you would create a custom field. Houdini simply places the attribute as a checkbox when the Attribute is defined under the Classifications tab of Organization Settings. 

When you granulize by Attribute you are essentially telling Houdini to show fields only if the Attribute is selected as illustrated below (Hold checked, Date of Hold field shown). The Sub-type Chapter 13 and Status Case Filed have been selected to show all custom fields.

In the above examples we only used a single custom field, but you are not limited to the number of fields that can be added based on any combination of Type, Sub-type, Status and Attributes. The key thing to remember is that every Field must be assigned to at least a Type.

You can view a video on customizing HoudiniESQ here.

Custom Field Groups

Custom Field Groups are a new feature in HoudiniESQ which allow you to quickly and easily categorize your custom fields. They are also used to perform actions on a particular group of fields, and can be used in conjunction with Triggers. You can access Custom Field Groups within the Customize Forms tab in the Organization Manager.

To add your custom field to a Field Group, check the box next to the group you want to add membership to. To create a new Field Group, type the name in the box and click the Add (+) icon. You can also use Custom Field Groups as a part of a Trigger; for more information, refer to the Triggers section