Add Form Task to a process automation - Add a Form Task to collect and process human input at a specific step in your process automation.

Automation 360

Add a Form Task to collect and process human input at a specific step in your process automation.

About this task

Forms used in process automation are containers for human input during run time of attended automation. When added to the process flow, these containers are available to receive and send data that other elements can use over the course of the end-to-end process flow.

If you need forms for unattended automation, where data is collected and consumed by bots without human input, use interactive forms instead. See the Interactive forms package.

Procedure

  1. Add the Form Task to the process automation by dragging it from the Element panel.
    Properties panel of the Form Task
    The Task: Form properties panel appears.
  2. In the Element ID field, enter a unique identifier for the task.
    This value is used only as an internal reference during design and must be unique within the process. It is not visible to end users at runtime. Example, Enter Form employee onboarding to identify this Form task as the employee onboarding step in the process.
  3. In the Task name (optional), enter a display name for the task.
    This name appears as a reference in the web interface during process execution. You can enter a static string or use a variable.
    • Example (static): Enter Employee Details Form to display a meaningful name to the task assignee.
    • Example (variable): Enter $TaskName$ to dynamically populate the task name from a process variable at runtime.
  4. Optional : Select the Hide this task after completion check box.
    After task completion, the Form Task is not displayed to the user in the web interface.

    Example: If this Form task collects an employee's personal details at the start of an onboarding process, select this check box so the completed form is no longer visible after the assignee submits it.

  5. In the Form mode section, select how users interact with this form. Choose one of the following options:
    OptionDescription
    Interactive The form accepts user input. This is the default selection. Example, use Interactive mode for a form that collects a new hire's department, manager, and start date.
    Configure the Action buttons that appear on the form.
    Note: By default, the form includes one Primary button labeled Submit. You can edit this button or add additional buttons. If you remove all primary buttons, a validation error prevents the process from saving. At least one primary button must be enabled before you can save.
    For each button, specify the following:
    • Type: Select Primary, Secondary, or Cancel.
    • Label: Enter the text to display on the button
    Use the arrow icons to reorder buttons on the form or select the delete icon to remove a button. Select Add button to add more buttons.
    Read-only The form displays data without accepting input and moves automatically to the next task. Example, use Read-only mode for a confirmation step that displays the submitted details to a reviewer without allowing edits.
  6. In the Task expiration time field, select the time limit for form submission.
    If the form is not submitted within the specified time, the task expires and no longer accepts submissions. The task returns an EXPIRED status. Select one of the following options: No expiration (default), 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 2 weeks, 30 days, or Custom.
    Note: If you select Custom, specify the duration in days, hours, and minutes. The maximum is 45 days and the minimum is 1 minute. If days and hours are both set to 0, the minute range is 1–59. Otherwise, the minute range is 0–59.
    Example: For a time-sensitive compliance form that must be submitted within a working day, select 1 day. If the assignee does not submit the form within 24 hours, the task expires and the process continues with an EXPIRED status.
  7. In the Task contributor field, specify by selecting from the drop-down list how the task is assigned to a contributor. Select one of the following options:
    • Manually assigned: A specific user is assigned to complete the task.
    • Random user from group: The task is randomly assigned to a member of the user group, useful for load balancing across a large team.
    • Request creator: The task is assigned to the user who initiated the request
    • Specific user: The task is assigned to a previous task participant. The system uses the UserID from either a manually entered string expression, or a process variable of type UserID based on the contributor ID of a previous task or the creator ID of the request.
    • The user who opens this Task: The task is assigned to whichever user opens it first.
    Note: The options available in the Task contributor drop-down list depend on the Task Assigned setting. Refer to the following table:
    Condition Available Option
    When Task Assigned = Request creator then … Only Request creator is available to select
    When Task Assigned = the assigned group of the request then … These additional options are available to select:
    • Random user from user group
    • Specific user
    When Task Assigned = specify user group then … These additional options are available to select:
    • Random user from user group
    • Specific user
  8. In the Task requester and assignment field, specify who requests and who is assigned to complete the task. Select one of the following options:
    Option Description
    Default The assigned group of the request is responsible for completing the task. By default, this task is shown only in the Assigned task list.

    To also show this task in the request creator’s Requested task list, select the Show this task in Requested task list for the request creator check box.

    Example (Default): For a standard task where the HR group handles all onboarding steps, select Default. The task appears in the HR group’s Assigned task list automatically.
    Custom
    Configure the Task requester and Task assignment to settings independently:
    • For Task requester, select one of the following:
      • Request creator
      • Assigned group: The user group responsible for the request.
      • Specific user group: Specify by Role, Team, or Variable.
    • For Task assignment , select one of the following:
      • Request creator
      • Assigned group: The user group responsible for the request.
      • Specific user group: Specify by Role, Team, or Variable.
    Example (Custom): For a purchase order approval step where any member of the Finance Approver role can complete the task, select Custom. Set Task requester to Request creator and Task assignment to Specific user group, then select Role and choose the Finance Approver role. This ensures the task is routed to all users with that role regardless of team or department.
  9. In the Form field, browse and select the form to use for this task. Select Choose to open the form picker and select the form you want to use. This is a required field.
    The following form elements support variable-driven options, allowing you to override predefined form options at the process level:
    • Dropdown: Supports List and String data types
    • Multi-select Dropdown: Supports List data type
    • Checkbox Group: Supports List and Dictionary data types
    • Radio Button Group: Supports List and String data types
  10. After selecting a form, the Input values section displays the form elements that support variable input. For the following elements: Checkbox Group, Multi-select Dropdown, Radio Button Group, and Dropdown, you can choose to use the predefined options configured in the form, or override them with custom values. For each element in the Input values section:
    1. Select the check box next to the element to enable custom input for that element.
    2. In the Available options (optional) field, choose either List or Variable and specify your custom options.
    3. In the Picked options field, enter the values you want preselected when the form opens.
    Note: For the following elements: Checkbox Group, Multi-select Dropdown, Radio Button Group, and Dropdown, if the Input variables check box is not selected, the predefined options from the form are used at runtime. If you select it, your custom values replace the form’s predefined options for this process.

    Example: You have a form with a Multi-select Dropdown element for meal preference, configured in the form with options: Vegetarian, Non-vegetarian, Baby meal.

    In the Input values section for this process, you want to provide airline-specific meal codes and preselect two options as defaults:

    Input values section

    • Choose the List option from the Available options optional) field and provide your options as follows:
      • Value at 0: Asian vegetarian
      • Value at 1: Non-vegetarian (Hindu meal)
      • Value at 2: Vegan
      • Value at 3: Diabetic
      • Value at 4: Allergen-free
    • Enter the following values for the Picked options field:
      • Value at 0: Diabetic
      • Value at 1: Allergen-free
    When the process runs, the Multi-select Dropdown shows the airline-specific options with Diabetic and Allergen-free preselected. If you have not set any custom options and values then the form’s original values will be used during runtime.
  11. In the Data privacy tag (optional) field, enter a text value or variable to generate a hidden custom output field used for data privacy searches. This field is used only as a hidden field that can be searched for data privacy purposes. Variables are populated at runtime.
  12. In the Task attributes (optional) section, add attributes that carry additional information about the process. Task attributes are used for backend processing and appear as filterable columns on user dashboards. Click Add attribute to add any previously available checked-in attributes to feed into the form. For each attribute, specify the following:
    1. Label: Select an attribute from the drop-down list (required). The ID field is auto-generated based on your selection.
    2. Visibility: Select Visible or Hidden
    3. Type: Select the data type for the attribute, such as String, Number, Boolean, or Datetime.
    4. Value : Enter a hard-coded value or select the (x) icon to provide a value using a variable.
    Click Add attribute to add any additional attributes.
  13. In the Annotation (optional) section, enter a plain text note to document the business purpose or logic of the Form task. For more details, see About annotations.
  14. Click Save.
    You have now configured the Form Task in your Process Composer process automation.