Don’t build form capabilities inside your application

Don’t build forms into your application? Obviously, we want you to build forms in your application, but not the way you might think. We‘ve seen a massive rise in demand for form and document features inside modern applications. In fact, it’s expected. We’ve also see many attempts to build and deploy “forms”, but come to find out that there is much more to forms than product teams expect in their initial v1 roadmap. For example, the export engine, responsiveness, draft and published states, data querying, field/page duplication, validation, conditional logic, tooltips, change logs, just to name a few. Assuming you are making the wise choice to add form capabilities to your application, this article will talk through the steps needed to properly prepare for a forms project.

1. Define what type of forms you are actually building

1. eForms — eForms (or digital forms) can be freely built within a confined area and are used to collect, process, and store data online or in applications. They include various advanced input fields like tables, checkboxes, dropdowns, etc.

2. PDF forms — PDFs or documents are electronic versions of paper forms that follow the confinement of an 8/11 sheet of paper under the PDF ISO 32000 standard. This can include report styled documents that display data in with visually appealing graphs, charts, etc.

3. Form interfaces — Data collection interfaces are designed to accommodate flexible and varied workflows for gathering information. They can range from a single input field on a page to multiple fields distributed across different steps, sections, or pages.

These are just a few of many flavors of forms that exist.

2. Plan plan plan

We’ve all heard it before — if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. When developers plan to build a large feature, like forms and PDF features, within an existing application, planning is crucial for managing complexity and ensuring seamless integration with existing infrastructure. Frontend and backend are relevant and should have thorough thought. It allows for efficient resource allocation, consideration of scalability and performance, and the incorporation of security best practices. Planning also helps in designing a user-friendly experience and developing a robust testing strategy to maintain quality. Additionally, it ensures that the features are designed with future maintenance in mind and alignment with goals, scope, and timeline, reducing risks and ensuring the feature meets both technical and user requirements.

3. Decide what form libraries and tools you will use

There are several popular form libraries available for different frameworks, each offering various features to help developers create, manage, and integrate forms efficiently. The biggest challenge in the search for form libraries is committing to the one that will best serve the features you need now and the features you don’t know you need, but will need before your project is complete.

Conclusion

The harsh reality is that there is a lot that’s required to build and support form capabilities into your applications, especially if you are going the native route. There are no shortcuts to achieving such a task, however, there are easier methods and better long-term library options. We wrote a piece on breaking down the build vs. buy dilemma that I highly suggest you check out before embarking on this journey.