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Everything on a form is one of four things: an input bound to a schema field, an object group, a repeater, or a presentational element that asks for nothing.

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Inputs

A field’s schema type decides which controls it can wear. The editor offers only compatible ones, so you cannot accidentally put a date picker on a number. When a field is placed without a control being chosen, it gets the default for its type: text fields become a Text box, numbers a Number box, yes/no a Toggle, lists Chips, and objects a Key-value editor.

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What each one stores

A single string. Email looks like a text box but rejects anything that is not a valid address when the field has a value; leaving it empty is governed by required, not by the email check.
A choice from a fixed list. These need two things set up, and both live in the inspector: the allowed values on the field itself (under Validation), and the human-readable choices on the placed input (under Options, each an internal value plus the label people see).Set the allowed values and forget the choices and the control renders empty. Set the choices and forget the allowed values and nothing is checked. Set both with different value lists and every selection is rejected as must be one of the allowed values. Author them together, with identical values.
These are multi-valued controls, but on a text field they store their answers as one comma-separated string. The control expands it for editing and re-joins it on save.If you want a genuine list in the data — to count it, to check a minimum number of items, or to read it item by item — type the field as a list, not as text.
A number. Currency and Slider are presentation over the same value: currency adds the symbol and decimal handling, the slider adds a track with a minimum and maximum.
True or false.
A date, or a pair of dates. Minimum and maximum dates are set under Validation.
A country code, or several. The list can be narrowed to a chosen set, and shown with native names alongside English ones.
Chips collect short values as removable tags. List gives an add/remove list of plain values. Key-value edits an object as name/value pairs, for the cases where the shape is not known in advance.
Attaches files to the record. Its settings cover where files are stored, the upload button and dropzone wording, the maximum number of files, the maximum size of each, and which file types are allowed. The file count is checked on submit; going over it blocks the form.

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Settings on a placed input

The inspector splits an input’s settings into groups, and which groups appear depends on the control:
The presentation settings live on the field as placed on this form, not on the Record Set. The same field can carry a different label, a different placeholder and a different control on two different forms.
A minimum, a maximum or a maximum item count set on the control shapes what the control lets someone do — it does not police what a record may contain. A value written by the API or by Abbie bypasses the control entirely. If a limit genuinely matters, set it on the field’s schema too.

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Object groups

Place a field whose type is object and that has known properties, and the form draws a bordered group headed by the object’s title, with every one of its members rendered as its own input, recursively. That is one node on the canvas doing the work of many — quick to place, and it stays in step with the schema automatically when a member is added.
The members are not separate elements. They cannot be given their own control, their own label, or their own conditional rule; a rule placed on the group applies to the group as a whole. If any member needs its own treatment, place each member individually instead of placing the object.

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Repeaters

A Repeater collects a list of things, each with the same set of fields — line items on an equipment request, sites on a supplier record, people on a visit report. It binds to a field typed as a list of objects, and you lay out the fields of one item inside it; the person filling the form then adds as many items as they need. Its settings:
A repeater cannot contain another repeater. For a genuinely two-level list, hold the inner list on the item as a Chips or List field.
Fields inside a repeater belong to the item, not to the record — which matters when you write a conditional rule on one. See rules inside a repeater.

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Presentational elements

These render text and structure. They are never bound to a field and never store anything. Cards are containers: they hold rows laid out exactly like the top level of the form.

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What a rule can change on each

Presentational elements can be driven by form rules too — usually to make a warning appear, or to change what it says.
Neither card kind offers a Visible rule in the editor. To make a section conditional, put the rule on the row that contains the card. A card that carries one anyway — written by hand, or inherited from an older form — now behaves properly: hiding it clears the fields inside it and their required-ness with them. See what conditional visibility does and does not clear.

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Shared value sets

  • Size — Extra small, Small, Medium, Large, Extra large, Huge
  • Alignment — Left, Centre, Right
  • Alert type — Info, Success, Warning, Error, None
  • Card accent — None, Primary, Success, Warning, Error
  • Border — All sides, Top, Bottom, Top & bottom, Left