Form Editor

Form Editor is a Map IT tool used to build custom forms for the guided insertion of data while surveying a campaign. Each time a new feature in a project theme is added, a grid created expressly for the theme appears and the data collection form immediately displays the information that must be captured. This tool offers a great advantage in speeding up the data processing of a campaign, while maintaining data uniformity among different operators, therefore creating a greater facility in the automated information exchange.

You may insert form controls, such as labels, text fields, frames, check boxes, option buttons, combo boxes, and list boxes into a form.
Each form control has the typical properties of the control. The common properties are, for example, text (the text displayed in the control), font (the character format of the text which appears in the control), backcolor (the background color of the control), and left, top, width, height (the size and position of the control). Attribute properties allow you to set which attribute of the feature should be associated with an object. You may set a default selection for any controls. In this way, the data collector defines the feature attributes, updating the database table records of all attributes associated with the feature. This results in a simpler and faster system: it is like using a template in MS Access to fill a database table. The IsNeeded property specifies whether the compilation of the control is required (required input). When the property is set to “true”, the data collector will not close the form and continue the campaign until the field is filled. The combo box and list box controls may be pre-filled via the Items property, from which it is possible to set the list choices both as text or as an associated value.

Window of Form Editor in upper part of the ﬁgure. In this example a form to collect bedding measurements is customized. Any ﬁeld of form is connected to database and it can be easily created and edited. In lower part of this ﬁgure exempliﬁcative layer (theme) of ‘‘BEDDING’’ is shown. When a point in this layer is inserted (by hand or GPS), ‘‘bedding" form’ is opened to be ﬁlled. Once the data are entered, chosen symbol, labelled with dip value, appears in surveyed point with rotation depending on dip direction.