Retiring a form no longer needed

Keep your form environments clean by retiring old forms.

On this page:

• Forms you should consider retiring
• Checking its publication status
  • Was it ever published?
  • Is there a form page?
• Deleting forms never published
• Retiring published or released forms
  • Preparing your form page for retirement
  • Notifying us that it can be retired
  • We'll take it from there

Forms you should consider retiring

Over time you'll build a collection of forms that:

• Were never published to QA
• Were published to QA but never released to PROD
• Were released to PROD but are no longer used

These may include things like:

• Practice and experiments in the form builder
• New forms that were not approved for release
• Remnants from A/B tests or similar major revisions evisions
• Short-life forms, such as ones created to support pandemic challenges

You should consider retiring any forms no longer needed.

Checking its publication status

The steps for retiring a given form depend on whether:

• It was published to QA
• There's a form page for it

Since there are a few databases involved, we'll need to know in which databases the form was copied to.

Was it ever published?

Some forms may only exist in the Form Builder database.

To check if a form has ever been published:

1. Open the form in the Form Editor
2. Click the Publish button
3. Check the Version numbers offered
4. Click Cancel

If Orbeon only offers the option of publishing the form with version 1, then it's never been published and can be safely deleted.

• If this is a newer form, double-check that it isn't a minor revision in progress

For additional information see:

• How publishing works in CMS Forms (Version numbers)

Is there a form page?

If a form has been published, you'll need to:

• Prepare the form page for retirement
• Provide us the link to that page

Can't find a form page?

It's possible that you won't find a form page for a specific form.

• One may have never been created for it
• It may be have been moved
• The page may have been deleted

To check if a form page exists:

First, try searching for one using the CMS Lite Home page.

• Page Type: Form is very useful for this
• Delete the user name to capture forms within your security group

If this doesn't work, then:

1. Open any other form page
2. Click on the Form Template selection box
3. Look for the form in the list
4. Leave the form page without saving any changes

If you check the Form Template selection box and:​

• Find it with a GUID, there's a form page
  • Try your search again
  • Check with your client for the location
• Find it without a GUID, no form page currently exists
  • A form page may not have been created
  • The form page may have been deleted
• Don't find it at all, it may have been hidden by us
  • This was only done for a couple of forms
  • This was last done during the pandemic

For additional information see:

• How publishing works in CMS Forms
• Creating a CMS Lite form page

Deleting forms never published

If you've confirmed that your form was never published, you can safely delete it.

To delete a form:

1. Locate the form in the Form Summary
2. Activate the checkbox to the left of the form entry
3. Click Delete. The Confirm Deletion dialogue is displayed
4. Click Yes

Retiring published or released forms

If your form was published or released, it'll need to be removed from the appropriate databases.

1. You'll prepare your form page for retirement
2. You'll notify us that the form can be retired
3. We'll remove the form from the databases
4. We'll delete your form page, if there is one

Preparing your form page for retirement

The first step is preparing your form page for retirement.

• You may be able to do this completely on your own
• You may need client content assistance with links to the form

To prepare your form page for retirement:

1. Verify that there are no links to the form in QA or PROD
   • Check for links in the Usage tab
   • Coordinate link removal with the client, if needed
2. Change the Nav Title to "RETIRE"
   • Do this after all links have been removed
   • This makes the form page easy for us to find
   • This helps prevent creating new links to the form
3. Unpublish the page, if needed
   • It may have been previously unpublished
   • It may have never been published

When you're ready, notify us.

Notifying us that it can be retired

To notify us of a form to retire:

1. Create a ticket
2. Provide us with the following information:
   • The Application name of the form
   • The Form Name
   • A link to the QA URL for the form page, if it exists

Let us know if:

• There isn't an active form page for the form
• You can see the form was published in Form Builder, but doesn't appear in CMS Lite
• You can see the form in CMS Lite, but can't find it in the Form Builder

We'll take it from there

Based on the information you provide, we'll:

• Remove the form from the QA and PROD databases
• Delete your form page
• Remove the form from the Form Builder database
• Close the ticket and notify you

We're still figuring out the best and fastest way to retire forms and need assistance from database analysts, so it may be a while before your form fully disappears. We appreciate your patience.