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Form preview (Workbench)

Open and test forms from the active bundle using the embedded formplayer — the same rendering engine used inside Formulus.

Open Workbench → Form preview (#/workbench/form-preview).

Prerequisites

Authenticate on Profiles so observation reads and writes use the profile database.

Select a form

  1. Choose a form type from the dropdown (loaded from bundles/active/forms/ or bundles/dev-local/forms/ when developer mode is on).
  2. Optionally edit initialization JSON — parameters passed to the form session (for example prefill values).
  3. Optionally edit saved data JSON — existing observation payload when simulating an edit.
  4. Click Open preview to load the form in the embedded formplayer.

Edit an existing observation

From Observations, open an observation in Form preview. ODE Desktop navigates here with the observation ID and data pre-loaded. Saving through the form flow updates the local observation on Finalize.

Nested sub-observations

Forms that call openFormplayer for sub-observations (for example repeat groups implemented as linked forms) open a stacked preview session. Each child session validates its own schema. See Custom Extensions — nested sessions.

Limitations

In ODE Desktop form preview, device APIs are stubbed:

  • Camera, GPS, QR scanning, audio, and video do not call real hardware
  • Observations and attachment URIs use the profile SQLite store and Tauri file APIs where applicable

Behavior should match Formulus for the same bundle, except for native device features.

Developer mode

When developer mode is on, form specs load from the mirrored bundles/dev-local/forms/ tree. After editing forms locally, use Refresh app on Bundles before re-opening preview.