Elements of a Form
Forms are used to enter and/or review data in PBCS. In UCD we access forms via links on the navigation cards and clusters. In the screenshot below, forms are presented horizontally as sub-forms on a card.
An image of a sample form is shown with comments on the standard elements below.
| Element | Comment |
| Form Name | In the example, the form name is 04 UBud Input - by CC |
| Instructions | The i symbol after the form name provides a link to instructions. Usually in UCD the instructions contain brief information plus a link to the relevant section of the website. |
| Point Of View | The selections for which data is displayed in form are referred to as the Point Of View. In the example the School is School of Education, the Scenario is Submission and the Version is Working. Each of School, Scenario and Version is a Dimension on PBCS. Clicking on a value in the Point of View will let you select a different value (where permitted) and the set of options available depend on the design of the form and on your access rights. In the screenshot the Scenario is fixed (Submission) and may not be changed by the user. Often User Variables are used in the Point Of View to enable the user to 'hold' selections between forms, for example to stick with a particular school when moving to a different form. User variables are discussed further here. In the screenshot the variables FMInputVersion and School are used. |
| Dimensions | Dimensions are displayed in rows or columns to the left and/or above the data in the grid. When you save data, you are saving it against the relevant dimensions. In the screenshot, 2 entities and multiple accounts are displayed for the rows, and the column dimensions are Period (Comment, YearTotal and P13) and Years (22/23 to 26/27). In a different plan (e.g. Staff Plan), different dimensions may be used to store data against. Some dimensions such as Entity (or School) are relevant for all types of plan but Major is only relevant for the Student and Fee Income plan. |
| Find | A search maybe performed using the icon at the top right of the form. |
| Actions | Various actions may be performed from the Actions menu. Export to Spreadsheet is available here. If there are rules to be run, a UCD menu is available from the Actions menu. |
| Save | Data may be saved using the Save button. If any rules are set to run automatically when data is saved, clicking on Save will trigger the rule(s). |
| Refresh | This button will refresh data from the database. If data has been modified but not saved, you will be earned before refreshing. |