Mobile Forms and Applications Blog

Today we rolled out new versions of our custom controls for capturing photos, ink, locations and device info. Have a look.

Formotus custom controls allow your mobile business forms to collect data using hardware such as the camera, touch screen, and GPS features on your mobile devices.

Instructions for installing Formotus custom controls into InfoPath Designer

Once the template parts are installed in your InfoPath Designer, you can simply drop these controls into any form you want. They don’t do anything in InfoPath, but when deployed to mobile devices through the Formotus service, that’s when the magic happens.

Camera control for capturing photos

The camera control lets you snap photos straight into your form. We’ve updated the default image and standardized the default size to 320 pixels wide.

Ink control for capturing signatures and diagrams

By default the ink control shows a signature line as a background image. We’ve replaced the word “Signature” with a simple X, and sized the background image larger to maximize the signing surface when the pencil button is tapped.

Note that this control is useful not only for signatures but also for diagrams. You can replace the background image with something specific to your field and mobile workers can then draw on top of the background diagram. Examples:

Annotation control: Camera + Ink

The annotation control lets you snap a photo into it and then mark on the photo with ink. We’ve simplified the default background image to a plain white canvas at 320 pixels wide.

The white canvas can be used for a freehand drawing, but most often you’ll probably snap a photo to replace it. Then you can draw on the photo with nice options such as multiple ink colors, line thickness control, and the ability to undo strokes.

Location control for capturing coordinates

The location control captures the best available location information on the device and inserts it into your form. We’ve updated the look and layout of the control and made it easy to remove the altitude and velocity fields if you don’t need them.

Notice the control includes its own time stamp and measurement of the accuracy of the location in meters. The left button refreshes the location info, and the right button pops up a map of the location.

Device info control for administrative clarity

You might have a need to identify the device that was used to submit a form. If so you can include the device info control in the form to collect whatever information is available:

• IMEI
• Model
• Platform
• OS Version
• Carrier
• Phone Number

Note that you can design your form so that this control is not visible to the mobile user.