When designing your form and setting the name of a field becomes an important first step because it potential determines how your field will be accessed later. Therefore, setting a field name that makes sense initially will reduce ambiguity and more work later. Here are some form design tips when field naming:
1. Name by field "groups" or "areas"
As you look at a form, most fields can be categorized into groups, usually based on where they are located in proximity to each other. For instance, a form
For instance, an area of your form might need to look like this:
In this case, the fields under "Buyer" should be grouped as the "Buyer" group; and fields under "Seller" should be grouped as the "Seller" group.
When naming fields for these groups, we recommend the following format:
BuyerLabel | SellerLabel |
BuyerName | SellerName |
BuyerAddress | SellerAddress |
BuyerPhone | SellerPhone |
Note that the left-most text in the field name is the group and the right-most text is the field. You could continue to keep this formatting rule to identify field names such as the following if the above example required more detail:
BuyerLabel | SellerLabel |
BuyerNameFirst | SellerNameFirst |
BuyerNameLast | SellerNameLast |
BuyerAddressStreet | SellerAddressStreet |
BuyerAddressCity | SellerAddressCity |
BuyerAddressZip | SellerAddressZip |
BuyerPhone | SellerPhone |
...
Naming fields in this format makes it very easy to identify what the field is referring to.
2. Handling sequential fields (such as checklists)
In some scenarios, a list of questions or checklists may need to be added, such as the following:
Note the hierarchy of groups and subgroups apparent on the form layout. Based upon this, following field naming might be ideal:
StEngLabel | |
StEngActiveEngLabel | StEngStTalkLabel |
StEngActiveEngQ_1 | StEngStTalkQ_1 |
StEngActiveEngQ_2 | StEngStTalkQ_2 |
StEngActiveEngQ_3 | StEngStTalkQ_3 |
StEngActiveEngQ_4 | StEngStTalkQ_4 |
StEngActiveEngQ_5 | |
StEngActiveEngQ_6 | |
StEngActiveEngQ_7 | |
StEngActiveEngQ_8 |
In regards to aiding scripting and handling potential field calculations, consider reviewing the following article as well:
https://support.mi-corporation.com/solution/articles/1000268477-form-naming-to-aid-scripting
Naming fields in a logical, patterned method will help yourself and others later when exporting data and when maintaining your form for the future.
Happy form building!