Formulas appear in many places in Orbeon Forms, including:

• for initial and calculated values
• for showing and hiding form controls
• for validating form controls
• and more!

Like in a spreadsheet, a formula often references other form control values. With Orbeon Forms, this is done with a “variable” notation using the symbol $. For example, if you have a field named price, you can reference its value in a formula with $price.

One issue is that it is not easy to remember all the field names. Form Builder shows an error if you reference a field that doesn’t exist, but it doesn’t help you with the field names themselves.

With Orbeon Forms 2024.1, we are improving this by adding completion of variable names everywhere a formula can appear. Simply type the $ character, and a completion menu appears. It shows not only the name of the field, but also its label.

As you type, the search narrows.

Finally, the value is inserted in the formula.

For more, see the Formulas documentation.

We hope that you will like this new feature of Orbeon Forms 2024.1!