Question about deleting a Required Field from a custom form

[MatthewLi1]

I've built a new custom form that I would like to use on some of my request queues. The new form includes two required fields that will replace two of the required fields that another custom form on the form is currently using.

I don't want to have the field in the request queue twice. If I remove the two required fields from the current custom form on the request queue will those required fields be deleted from previous issues or projects that used that custom form when they were initially requested? Or will they keep the information that was on the custom form from when it was created?

Basically, I'm wondering if changing a custom form changes how it shows up across the system in past projects/issues or if it keeps that information and only changes how the form is used for new requests.

[Madalyn_Destafney · Accepted solution]

Are the two required fields in question that same exact fields you're currently using in your existing custom form? If they're the same fields, regardless of what form they live in, and you keep those fields, then data entered for them previously will stay bc the field is still going to be present, just in a different form. If the two fields are brand new and you delete the other form, then yes, your data filled in previously would be removed. What I've done in the past as a workaround:
- Add the new form in an admin-only section to the existing objects you'd need to update. Doing this in an admin only section will help prevent any confusion so users aren't seeing/filling in the new form while you're handling this migration.
- Create a report pulling the objects you want to update so you have the current field data in one column, and the respective new field in another column, which will show blank at this point. You'll want to determine how far back you need to update data for, if you only want to capture YTD, for example.
- Fill in the answer in the new field's column, hopefully this is something you can do in bulk for many at a time, not sure of your situation. 
- Then you can safely remove the original custom form from the queue topic/queue details.

Of course, the most failsafe way to go about any of this is to test in preview before doing this in prod to be 100% sure!

[MatthewLi1]

Hi Madalyn,

I created a new form that uses required drop-down options to replace what was a free text field. The workaround you suggested seems possible but very time intensive as it would require me entering in the values in the new field and add the new custom form to hundreds of projects.

Do you know if another possible workaround would be to just change the required values on the original custom form to not be required anymore and then hide the fields? Or would hiding the fields also hide them everywhere that the original custom form was used?

[Madalyn_Destafney]

Kudos from going from text field to drop-down options, definitely provides cleaner and reportable data. Yes it took time, that’s why I suggested you determine how far back you really need to update, if at all. If you don’t need to maintain the data on those fields from the past, then sure you could just remove the form and add new form. I had done the same thing, going from a text field to drop-down field, and went back a few months worth of data. When you add the column for the new field in a report, adding the answer automatically adds the new form, assuming the new field doesn’t live anywhere else. I was able to select multiple projects at a time to put in new drop-down answer in bulk, so it wasn’t having to do this one by one. Sorting by the existing field answer column can help. 

If someone has a better way for retiring fields without losing data on the objects you want to keep, let’s hear it! If you have Fusion you could possibly do this data transfer more easily but I can’t speak to that.

[MatthewLi1]

That makes sense, thanks Madalyn. I think you are right about using the report here to determine what needs to be updated. I think that's the key I was missing.