Dynamic Answers & Calculations (Dynamic Values)

Created by Anthony Young, Modified on Mon, 20 Jun, 2022 at 11:36 AM by Anthony Young

ften you may need to display some text or calculate a value in a dynamic fashion.

For example, you may want to show different text in a field based on what the user has previously answered.

Or maybe you have a product order Form that should calculate the total amount to pay.

This is where the Dynamic Value property found on most form fields comes in handy.

Dynamic Value allows you to create a formula that generates or calculates a result that is assigned as the given field's answer.

So for example, imagine you have the following Form fields:

1. Add a new Hidden field to your Form, and set the Data Name to be "totalIncludingTax"

2. On this new field, find the Dynamic Value property.
Its found near the bottom of the properties list, in the Advanced section.

3. Enter the following formula into the Dynamic Value:

{{productCost}} * {{numberItems}} * 1.10

What we've done so far is add a hidden field (a field the app user will never see) which will store the result of the formula calculation.

The formula is applying a 10% tax rate to the product cost amount.

This is the first example of how you can use the Dynamic Value property to calculate results.

Now we're going to use Dynamic Value again to display a message to the app user.

We want to summarise their order details using a readonly Text field.

4. Add a new Text field to your Form, set the Data Name to be "orderSummary".

5. Find the Read Only property and tick the box.
This will make the field readonly, so the user cannot change the displayed answer text.

6. Find the Dynamic Value property and enter the following formula:

concat('You ordered ', {{numberItems}}, ' of ', {{productName}}, '. Total (including tax) is: ', {{totalIncludingTax}})

What we're doing with the above formula is building up dynamic text, by concatenating together pieces of text.

The concat() function is used to build up the final text, and we are using the values from the various fields (the {{dataName}} bits).

See the Creating a Formula page, to learn more about how a formula works.

That's it, you now know how to create dynamic values and calculations!

If you would like to try the above example out for yourself, download the attached CSV file.

Then create a new Form and in the Form designer, use the "Import Fields" button to upload the CSV.

This will give you the fully working example from above to try out and learn from :)

CSV

(791 Bytes)