How to Assign Default Values – TrackVia

Assigning Default Values on Custom Forms

Default values are a great way to save time when entering data using forms. They are assigned on a form-by-form basis to maximize time efficiency for your workflow. Although default values can be set on a form to edit a record, they are typically used when creating records. For example, you can manually insert a value into a single line field, pre-select an option for a Drop Down List, and choose future dates to populate date fields. Values can also be assigned to relational fields so that records can be linked to the same parent record each time the form is used.

Default values can be assigned to any non-calculated field on your form. Date and date/time fields have additional settings described below. Specifically, default values can be used on all fields except:

Auto Counter
Location
Calculated Fields
Triggered Fields
Any field marked "Field is unique" in the table builder

To set a default value, go to the form editor, add the field, and then edit the field setting by selecting the pencil. Below we have a Project Overview form where we are setting the default status to "Planning" for any new project.

First, select the pencil to edit the field settings:

The default value setting is at the bottom of the Settings tab.
step 2 default value setting and options.png

For this drop down, we can select any value from the list. Here we'll select Planning to assign that status to every new project:
step 3 planning selected as default value.png

Once the setting and form are saved, you will see the label "DV" in the field with the default value.

DV indicating the field has a default value set.png

Now that the Status field's default value has been set to "Planning", when new records are created using this form the "Status" field automatically has the option "Planning" selected.
when creating a new record the default value of planning is automatically populated in the status field.png

Date and Date/Time Fields

Default values on date and date/time fields can be marked for "Now" (when the form is opened) or "Future." The future date is calculated from the date (and time) the form is opened.
date field default value options.png

To set a future date, enter a number plus a unit of time. The available units for a date field are days, weeks, or months. The units for a date/time field are minutes, hours, days, weeks, months.

In our example below, we assign a default value of six weeks into the future.

When looking at the form, we can see that the default value is now set to be six weeks from today - May 16, 2024 - on June 27, 2024.
new record start date field default value automatically set to 6 weeks from the date the record is created.png

IMPORTANT NOTE: If a form that contains a field with a default value is used to edit a record, and the corresponding field on that record is blank, you will see the field populated with the default value and the "DV" icon. If this causes issues, we recommend using default values only on forms assigned to create records.

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