You may have noticed we recently released some new features and gave the app builder side bar some organization and colors. This post outlines each of the new features and goes a little into some upcoming releases that are currently in development and testing.
Sticky Defaults
Within the field settings for most field types you will find a new checkbox: “Default to previous value?”. When checked, it allows mobile users to auto-populate fields quickly with the value previously entered by that mobile user. It does not save this data for all mobile users – it is user specific on what it remembers. This feature will provide several benefits to users, easier for users filling out forms, it will speed up form completion by mobile users and help keep data consistent. Many data collection tasks have repetitive elements, and sticky defaults will streamline the process and reduce manual entry. Read more in our documentation about how sticky default values work.
Default to Today’s Date
Often times users want the current date to fill a date field. There is now a checkbox available in the settings of the Date field. You will also find “Default to the current time?” option in the Time field. This features will work the same on Web, iOS, and Android.
GIF Preview for videos
Through our API, we now provide an animated GIF preview for all videos collected. To use this feature it requires API access. We provide a small and medium preview gif.
If you use the video field in your app and want to use the gif features, you can view an example by using this link and parameters.
https://web.fulcrumapp.com/api/v2/videos/VIDEO_ID.json?token=APITOKEN
Upcoming Features
We’d also like to briefly mention a couple of upcoming features we’ve got in the works, both exciting new capabilities for enhanced workflow customization, data reporting, and analysis.
Data Events
Data Events will allow users to script actions on the mobile device when specific events are triggered. Some of the automated actions include custom alerts and validation messages, setting field values, choices, labels, descriptions, requirement & visibility settings, HTTP requests and more. Event triggers include:
- Record loading
- Editing
- Validating
- Saving
- Value changing, and more
This will enable listening for record changes, programmatically changing values (including status, project, and geometry), as well as building dynamic hyperlinks, and much more! The idea behind this framework is to give managers additional capabilities for customizing the entire mobile workflow around very specific collection requirements.
Query API
The new Query API will give you the ability to access any data in your account (records, repeatables, choice lists, media, members, etc.) through an SQL API, without having to export the entire dataset. This will enable real-time data analytics and better integration between Fulcrum and a variety of business intelligence services and other platforms, as well as better scripting of data exports. This will be an exciting foundation of other things to come in Fulcrum for back-office data management and reporting.
As you can see, these new releases include some of our most advanced features to date. We’re excited to bring these features soon. We are working hard to continually improve the platform for our incredible user community. Stay tuned to our Releases page for more information on all the updates as they come available. Documentation for both Data Events and the Query API will be made available in our Development Documentation.