Business Process Automation Forms
Business Process Automation forms (added in Velocity 2.1.29) are a way to augment your current WMS workflows without making changes to the WMS. The forms can be created for tasks that may happen frequently but aren't currently managed by the WMS, such as handling damaged goods or performing a checklist at the start of a shift.
Forms are created in the Velocity Console and then published as an HTML page to an Ivanti Neurons for IIoT server. When the Velocity client is configured with the address for the Ivanti Neurons for IIoT server, the forms that have been published show in the Shortcuts menu. A user can launch a form in Velocity, complete the form and tap Submit to submit the data to the Ivanti Neurons for IIoT server. An administrator can automate what to do with the data from there.
In order to use forms, the device must have the Velocity client installed and it must have a license for Velocity. In addition, the device must have a license for Ivanti Neurons for IIoT. These licenses are distributed when the Velocity client attempts to retrieve a form from the Ivanti Neurons for IIoT server.
A form project in the Velocity Console has two pages: the Form Details page and the Form Builder page. The Form Details page has all the data about the form and the connection information for the Ivanti Neurons for IIoT server. The Form Builder page allows you to build the HTML page with the pre-built elements.
Form Details
The Form Details page has the name of the form, the customer the form is associated with, other data about the form you may want to capture, and the connection details to the Ivanti Neurons for IIoT server.
Form Builder
On the Form Builder page, there is a list of elements on the that right side that can be added to the form. These include headings and paragraphs, text fields, radio buttons, check boxes, and dropdown lists. Click or drag-and-drop an element to add it to the page.
After an element has been added to the form, click the Edit button to configure the element, such as providing the text in a paragraph element, or a label for the element.
The options available with each element depend on the purpose of the element. The following sections describe some of the options available.
Multi-value elements
Select elements and radio group elements allow you to set the labels and values for each option.
The left column is the label that is displayed to the device user. The right column is the value that is sent to the Ivanti Neurons for IIoT server. Generally, you should keep the label and the value the same. Examples where you may choose to have different labels and values are situations where the value sent to the server need to be in a specific format (such as no spaces or special characters), or when what is sent to the server is in a different language than what is shown to the user.
Component IDs
Most elements have a Component ID. When a user submits a form, the answer for each field is associated with the Component ID. (For those familiar with HTML, the Component ID populates both the name and the ID attributes for the form element.)
If you plan to use the form data in a scenario in Ivanti Neurons for IIoT, you need to know the Component ID. The Component ID is populated with a default value, but you can customize the Component ID to make it easier to remember and use. Two elements on the same form cannot have the same Component ID.
Autofill
The Autofill field allows you to populate the field with data from the host session when the form is opened. This is most useful when you anticipate that the form will be opened when the user is on a specific page, and you want data from that page to be submitted as part of the form.
The method for identifying the data to use depends on if the host is a TE host or a Web host.
•For a web host: Provide a CSS selector to identify an element on the page in the host session. The text contents of that element are copied into the field when the form loads. If there is more than one match on the page, it uses the first match.
Examples:
•p.PartNumber
•#Order
•For a TE host: Provide the row, column, and length of text on the page in the host session. The row and column numbers are zero-based, so the first line on the screen is line 0. For example, if you specify 1,3,8 then the field will be populated with whatever is on the TE page in the second row, starting in the fourth column, and capturing 8 characters.
Alternatively, provide a label that comes either before or directly above the text you want to populate the field. Use a: to specify text that comes after the label on the same line, or b: to specify text that is on the line below the label. For example, if you specify a:Part no: then the field will be populated with whatever text comes after Part no: on the same line. If the text does not exist on the page when the form loads, the field remains empty.
The text is copied into the field when the form loads.
Examples:
•1,3,8
•a:Part no:
•b:Order#
To create and edit a form
1.Launch the Velocity Console application.
2.Click the Create New button in the top-right corner of the screen and select Form.
3.Enter a Project Name and a Company Name.
4.Click Create.
The project opens and you can edit the form.
To publish a form
1.Make sure the form project is open and the Ivanti Neurons for IIoT server details are configured. The default port for sending forms is 5000. Provide the protocol and the domain name in the address. For example, if I log in to the Ivanti Neurons for IIoT server on this page:
https://neurons-iiot.ivanti.com:4000/
Then the publishing address I provide in the Velocity Console is:
https://neurons-iiot.ivanti.com
Make sure that the user is not logged in to Ivanti Neurons for IIoT.
2.Click Publish in the top-right corner of the screen.
3.As long as the Console can connect to the server, the form is published to the server. If the server has a self-signed certificate, you are prompted to view the certificate details and accept the certificate in order to publish the form.
To see a published form on the Ivanti Neurons for IIoT server, navigate to Forms > Forms. By default, the forms are visible to all users.
After a form is published, it becomes available to Velocity clients that are also configured with the server details. For information on configuring a client with the server details, see Ivanti Neurons Settings.
To access a published form with the Velocity client
1.Make sure the profile that you plan to use forms with includes the Ivanti Neurons for IIoT server details. For information on configuring a client with the server details, see Ivanti Neurons Settings.
2.In the Velocity client, connect to the host.
3.In the Shortcuts menu, tap the name of the form.
4.Fill out the form details and click the button at the bottom of the form to submit it.
The form data is submitted to the Ivanti Neurons for IIoT server, and the client displays the host screen that it was on before the form was launched.
To use form data submitted from the Velocity client
The form data is published to the Ivanti Neurons for IIoT server. Forms can be viewed on the Forms page (Forms > Forms). By default, the forms are visible to all users.
You can access the submitted data by clicking Actions > View submissions for a form in the list. The form submissions are also stored in a directory named after the form in the Files > All files > My files directory for the user that published the form.
To automate processing the form data, on in the Scenario management page, use the Detectors > Form or Detectors > File blocks. Depending on which detector block you pick, the scenario runs when new form data is detected, or when a new file is added to the My Files directory.
To export a form
•From the project list, click More > Export at the top right corner of the project you want to export. Select where you want the file stored and provide a name for the zip file.
-Or-
•When a project is open, click the Export button. Select where you want the file stored and provide a name for the zip file.
To import a form
•Open the Velocity Console and navigate to the list of projects. Drag an exported project zip file from the File Explorer onto the Console.
-Or-
•To import a form into an existing form, open the from and click Import. Select the project zip file and click Open. The imported form details overwrite any existing details in the form.