Organize your forms into workspaces

This is an admin task

If you're on an Enterprise plan, your can use workspaces to group forms together. These let you organize forms in a way that reflects how your organization works.

When browsing the forms list, users can use the change workspace dropdown to browse forms grouped into workspaces. (For example, building application forms or parks & rec forms).

Admins can restrict permissions to particular workspaces, so only the staff that need particular forms or responses can access them. (For example, staff in a planning department might only have access to forms in that workspace).

Account owners always have full access to all workspaces.

Create and edit workspaces

To create a workspace:

1. From the main menu, go to Admin > Workspaces > Create Workspace

To edit a workspace:

1. From the main menu, go to Admin > Workspaces

2. From the ‘...’ menu for the workspace you want to edit, elect Edit

Either of these actions will take you to the Create/Edit workspace screen. 

From this screen, you can name (or rename) your workspace, and assign users. Editing a workspace has no effect or interruptions to forms in any status.

Assign users to a workspace

Each workspace can be assigned a list of administrators and a list of authors and reporters.

Only users that already have admin, author or reporter permissions in OpenForms can be assigned those roles in a workspace. See our help topic about managing users to learn more about assigning roles.

Account owners automatically have full access to every workspace.

Assign administrators

Administrators can assign users and forms to a workspace, and make changes to the workspace itself.

Workspace admins also have full author and reporter access to that workspace.

By default, when you create a workspace, all OpenForms users with the admin role at your organization will be able to administer that workspace.

To restrict access to a workspace to specific admins:

1. Select the Specific admins radio button from the 'Administrators' tab.

2. Type a name in the predictive search bar.

As you start typing, OpenForms will pre-fill the search bar with admins from your user database. When you see the name of a user you'd like to add, simply select them to add them as an administrator.

Remember to Save your changes. 

To remove an administrator, select Remove from the '...' menu for that admin.

Remember to Save your changes. 

If all of a workspace's administrators are removed (for example, if the sole admin of a workspace leaves your organization and their user account is deactivated), any OpenForms user with the admin role can edit that workspace and assign new administrators as needed.

Account owners can also edit a workspace at any time.

Assign authors and reporters

Authors and reporters can build forms and access response data within a workspace, respectively.

By default, when you create a workspace, all OpenForms users with the author or reporter role at your organization will be able to access that workspace as an author or reporter.

To restrict a workspace to specific authors and reporters:

1. Select the Specific authors and reporters radio button in the 'Authors & Reporters' tab.

2. Type a name in the predictive search bar.

As you start typing, OpenForms will pre-fill the search bar with authors, reporters and admins from your user database.
Users with the admin role can be assigned as authors and reporters to a workspace, unless they are already an admin for that workspace.When you see the name of a user you'd like to add, simply select them to add them as an author or reporter. 

Users are added to this list with the permissions they have associated with their account. (For example, a user with author permissions will be added with author permissions, but not reporter permissions). 

Remember to Save your changes. 

Set author and reporter permissions

If a user has both author and reporter permissions, but you'd like to limit them to one role, you can click the checkmark in the ‘Author’ or ‘Reporter’ column next to their name to toggle that permission within the workspace.

If a user doesn't have author or reporter permissions in their user account, that role will be grayed out to indicate that you can't assign it.

Remember to Save your changes. 

If you'd like to change that user's account permissions so they can be an author or reporter, you can do so by selecting the Edit option from the '...' menu next to their name, unless that user is managed through the Azure AD connector. 

Remove authors and reporters

To remove an author or reporter from a workspace entirely, select Remove from the '...' menu next to their name.

Remember to Save your changes. 

Assign Azure AD user groups to a workspace

If your organization is using the Azure AD connector to manage staff, you can add entire Azure AD user groups that have been assigned an appropriate role (such as admin, author or reporter) to workspaces, just like you would an individual user. 

Adding Azure AD user groups to workspaces can help streamline onboarding and managing your staff, as any staff member that is added to those user groups will be granted the group's workspace permissions.

To do this, search for an Azure AD user group just like you would an individual user, and add the group to a list of specific admins or specific authors and reporters in that group. 

Fine tune Azure AD user group permissions 

You can add an entire Azure AD user group and also specific users from that group to a workspace.

If you need to change workspace permissions for some users within an Azure AD group, you can add the individual user and update their roles so that they differ from the roles given to the user's group. Individual user permissions will take precedence over a group's permissions.

In the example above, Eddie Simpson and his Azure AD user group, OpenForms_Parks&Rec_Author, have been added to a group. 

A workspace administrator has given Eddie Simpson Author and Reporter permissions to the workspace, where Eddie's Azure AD user group only has author permissions. Eddie Simpson now has the Author and Reporter roles within the workspace, but other users within his Azure AD group only have the Author role.

Add forms to a workspace

Once you've created a workspace, you'll want to add forms to it. A workspace isn't much use if it doesn't group forms together!

Think of workspaces as folders. Each form can only live in one workspace. You can add forms to a workspace when you create them, copy them, or move them.

Add new forms to a workspace

Whenever you create a form via the Forms screen, you’ll be given the option to name your form and choose a workspace.

If you don’t have access to any workspaces, you’ll be asked to create one.

Copy forms to Workspaces

Just like making a new form, every time you create a copy of a form, you’ll be asked to name it and choose a workspace. 

There are two ways to copy forms.

2. In the Forms screen, you can copy a form by choosing Copy from a form's ‘...’ menu.
   
    

   
3. You can also create copies from old versions of forms, using the form History tab.
   
   

Move forms to Workspaces

To move a form to a new workspace, hover over it in the my forms screen, and select Move from the ‘...’ menu. You’ll be asked to choose the new workspace.

Fine tune workspaces with form permissions

Even within a workspace, you may want to make additional choices about which users can access particular forms or responses.

To make these sort of granular choices, use form permissions.

Delete a Workspace

Workspaces can't be deleted if they still contain forms.

Once you've removed all of the forms from a workspace, follow these steps to delete it:

1. From the main menu, go to Admin > Workspaces

2. Select Delete from the form's “…” menu. You'll be prompted to confirm your choice.