Introduction
For government forms and enterprise forms in particular, having form controls for US Social Security Numbers (SSN) and US Employer Identification Numbers (EIN) is often a requirement.
While you could create your own field with custom validation before, with Orbeon Forms 2024.1.2, we are introducing built-in new form controls specifically for these use cases. They will just show up in the Form Builder toolbox, and you can drag and drop them into your forms.
US Social Security Number (SSN) Form Control
With the SSN form control, in particular, we made it easy to obscure the value, which is a common requirement for sensitive information. The SSN control also allows you to reveal the value when needed, using a checkbox when editing form data:
Or by showing only the last four digits in readonly modes such as the View and PDF modes:
The exact behavior of the SSN form control can be configured in Form Builder or using configuration properties, and it is possible to set the following options:
Security and GDPR
Because the SSN is a sensitive piece of information, we recommend that you handle this data in the following ways:
- Consider not requesting this information from users unless absolutely necessary.
- If you request it, consider making only transient use of it, such as calling a verification service, without storing it in your database.
- If you do store it, consider encrypting it in your database, and ensure that you comply with data protection regulations such as GDPR. Orbeon Forms supports encryption at rest, which satisfies this requirement.
US Employer Identification Number (EIN) Form Control
The US Employer Identification Number (EIN) form control is also available, which allows you to enter an EIN in the format 12-3456789. The EIN control does not have options for obscuring or revealing the value, as it is considered less sensitive than a Social Security Number.
Orbeon Forms component system
These components are implemented using the Orbeon Forms component system, which is a powerful way to create reusable form controls. We made some improvements to the component system to make it easier to create and use such components, so more components like those can be created in the future.
We have also prepared a brand-new form template which showcases these form controls, and we have updated existing templates which used SSN and/or EIN fields.
See also
For more information, see the documentation:
We hope you will like this new feature of Orbeon Forms 2024.1.2!