Custom Forms and Reporting for Repeating Sets of Data

[kshimata]

Aloha Workfront Community! I'm trying to build a custom form and report that will pull data entered by our users. (That's the easy part) The problem is we build campaigns for multiple segments (groups) and in our marketing briefs (custom forms) the team enters details for each segment. This results in the need for the same set of fields repeating, sometimes up to 10 times for the same project. I've tried to build 2 different solutions with no luck: 1. One custom form with custom fields for each segment (i.e. segment 1, segment 2, segment 3, etc in the title of each field). I am able to create a report from this form but each field is laid out across the report as columns and I'm not able to restructure the data using Matrix grouping, in a meaningful way. 2. Create a custom form for each segment and use the same fields on each form. The problem I ran into here is although I'm using separate forms for each segment, to be attached to each project, when I enter data into one field, it duplicates itself on each form because it's the same field on each form. I'm open to any suggestions from all of you, Workfront experts! Mahalo, Kevin Kevin Shimata Hawaiian Airlines

[William--]

Aloha Kevin, Your second solution will not work for the reason you described - a custom field can appear multiple times on a project's custom forms, but the value must the same on all forms on the same project. Can you describe how you are wanting your matrix report to be grouped/laid out? William English T-Mobile

[NRYNR]

Hi Kevin, I suggest creating a task or issue version of the custom form that you can use to attach to issues on a project. Each has their pros and cons, but both will give you the ability to log multiple tasks (one for each segment). Then, you're no longer attempting to add multiple fields to the form. I'd be really cautious about creating forms with replicated fields. As you've figured out, reporting is very limited or fails when taking this approach. It's either this or have a unique project for each campaign. Thanks, Narayan Narayan Raum Workfront Delivery Lead - SunTrust Bank https://wf-pro.com for Text Mode & Solutions

[kshimata]

Aloha William, I was hoping the matrix report would come out something similar to this: Project Name Fare Segment Number Fare Segment Name Fare Price Point OW/RT Fare Subjectline Fare Preheader 10/01/19 - HA Fare 1 HI $49 OW 2 MLD $249 OW 3 AU $499 RT 10/08/19 - HA Fare 1 HI $59 OW 2 MLD $299 OW 3 JP $499 RT 4 KR $499 RT 10/15/19 - HA Fare 1 HI $39 OW 2 JP $449 RT I know it'll probably be tough to get it looking exactly like this but anything close to it would be great. I'm open to building the form in a way that would help get the data to be close to this. Thanks, Kevin Kevin Shimata Hawaiian Airlines

[kshimata]

Hi Narayan, Could you explain a bit more about the task or issue version of the form? I'm looking to pull the data from the form in a bit more meaningful way rather than a long horizontal excel doc. The tasks to build each segment is not an issue for us at this time. It's just the data we need to inform our teams on what to build and how that shows up in the report that I'm struggling with. Thanks, Kevin Kevin Shimata Hawaiian Airlines

[NRYNR]

Hi Kevin, Let me give you a scenario and hopefully this will help. We had a group who wanted to use Workfront to capture impact responses from multiple groups. The project became the object that represents the change. On the project custom form, we have details about the overall change. Since we have multiple groups who need to respond with the same questions, we created an issue custom form and added the questions to it. Then, in the master project, we were able to create 50+ issues, each with the same custom form attached, allowing groups to provide input on just their issue. I'm thinking you just need to have one project form and one task form with your "Fare" fields on it. For each "fare" task in your project, attach that custom form and you'll then be able to enter values in the same form across multiple tasks. Then you can build a task report grouped by project. Hope this helps! Narayan Raum Workfront Delivery Lead - SunTrust Bank https://wf-pro.com for Text Mode & Solutions

[kshimata]

Hi Narayan, Thanks for the explanation. Now I understand what you were saying. That's a possible solution I'll play around with to see if it works. I appreciate your ideas! Thanks, Kevin Kevin Shimata Hawaiian Airlines

[William--]

Late to the game here, but I concur with Narayan's suggestion - capture the details in issues, then make this an issue report grouped by project. That will reduce the number of fields you have to create, and is going to enable some quality reporting down the road. Filtering on criteria like OW/RT or Fare Segment Name will be really easy, when that data exists only in one field each. If you had fields "Segment 1 OW/RT" and "Segment 2 OW/RT", all the way up to 10 (or more!) permutations, you'd be cursing Workfront when it comes time to report on this data. You could do this with task OR issue forms; but I find issues more flexible to work with. The exception would be if each segment needs to have its own set of sub-tasks, but that doesn't sound like the case here. Good luck! William English T-Mobile