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Standard-to-Helium Form Conversion Issue Summary

Important Information:

This is our report/analysis of an issue that resulted in Data Loss and Usability Issues with Form Types converted from Standard to Helium.

The issues mentioned herein have been resolved with the release of 3.58.04. The report contains an explanation of the measures taken to resolve the issues.

Current Version: 1/24/2025

We notified clients in early November 2024 of data loss risk and usability issues that can result from acting on form transactions for Form Types converted from Standard to Helium. You are not affected by this issue if any of the following are true:

  1. You are on a 2.9 or 3.3 version of GT eForms
  2. All your Form Types started in production with Helium Performance enabled
  3. All your Form Types do not have Helium Performance enabled.
NOTE

When you do convert Form Types from Standard to Helium Performance, we recommend you upgrade to the 3.58.04 version of GT eForms first as it contains processes that reliably convert form transactions from Standard (XML) to Helium (JSON).

On November 25th we shared the following results of our investigation:

Data Loss Risk​

The data loss occurs when taking the following actions on a Standard form transaction after the Form Type had been converted to Helium:

Action3.50.003.50.013.58.003.58.013.58.023.58.03
Resubmitting with the Admin ToolYesYesYesYesYesYes
Taking any action with the Form UIYesYesNoNoNoNo

We also determined no other actions in the Form UI, Admin Tool, and other GT eForms tools resulted in data loss.

Action Item History​

The primary risk of data loss is with the Action Item history for a Helium converted form transaction. Action Items are checkboxes or comment boxes that can be configured with text on a form to require the user's acknowledgment. The log of these action item acknowledgments is lost when using the Admin Tool to resubmit a Standard form transaction after a Form Type has been converted to Helium. Resubmitting in the Admin Tool converts the form data from XML (Standard) to JSON (Helium) but does not include the Action Item history.

To assess the impact on clients, we requested queries be run in production environments and then analyzed the results to determine if any converted form transactions lost Action Item history data. We also provided this overview so clients can self-assess whether they are impacted:

  1. You have a Form Type in production that was initially created with a version of GT eForms prior to 3.5x
  2. You have upgraded to GT eForms 3.5x, and did not immediately upgrade to 3.58.04.
  3. You have converted that Form Type to Helium by checking the Helium Performance checkbox A screenshot of the 'Use Helium Performance' checkbox in the Form Setup page
  4. After converting, you have taken action on a Standard form transaction that was created before converting to Helium (see “Terms and Definitions”)

Custom Segment Data​

We identified another potential risk of data loss with solution Custom Segment data but the development pattern for this is advanced and unlikely. We provided clients with a query to identify the use of this pattern but no one to date has used it. We provided this overview to self-assess impact from this issue:

  1. You built and moved a Standard Form Type to Production that uses a solution Custom Segment. A Custom Segment is an advanced technical pattern that can only be built and coded by a developer using Application Designer. Custom Segments are used for custom field layouts or complex data structures (e.g. level 2 or 3 data) to extend beyond what a configurable column or grid segment supports.
  2. The solution Custom Segment driver has code written to only save its data to the form XML and not to the table records being used in the Custom Segment.
  3. You have converted this Form Type to Helium.
  4. You have used the Admin Tool or Form UI to act on a Standard form transaction after converting the Form Type to Helium.

Usability Issues​

Acting on a Standard Form Transaction after the Form Type has been converted to Helium can also result in the following usability issues:

  1. File attachments don’t show on the form after using the Admin Tool to Resubmit a Standard form transaction
  2. Highlighting doesn’t show on the form after using the Form UI or the Admin Tool to act on a Standard form transaction
  3. Query records aren’t generated correctly for Standard form transactions

Resolution​

The 3.58.04 service pack includes the following fixes:

  1. Fixes for the data loss and usability issues
  2. A System Maintenance Process that fixes form transactions that have been affected by the usability issues mentioned
    • Clients can run this process independently to resolve issues, but we are available to assist as needed.
    • The system maintenance process may need to run in the process scheduler to complete. Applying 3.58.04 will provide this capability. If you are unable to upgrade to 3.58.04 and require the ability to run this process in the Process Scheduler, or if you have questions or concerns about anything here, please reach out to us.
  3. A Standard Form Data Converter tool that can be used to convert all Standard/XML form transactions to Helium/JSON for a Form Type converted to Helium.

Impact Assessment​

If you suspect you may have been affected and are interested in assessing your level of risk, please contact support@gideontaylor.com for guidance. We can provide you with five queries to run in your production environments, along with a secure upload link to upload the results of those queries. We will then analyze the data and inform you of the impact.

Interim Action Required​

If you have converted a Form Type to Helium and have not yet applied 3.58.04 and converted the form transactions, please avoid doing the following on Standard form transactions until 3.58.04 has been applied:

  • All versions: Do not Resubmit any Standard form transactions using the Admin Tool
  • 3.50.00 or 3.50.01: Do not act (Resubmit, Withdraw, Deny, Recycle, Approve, Save, Hold) on any Standard form transactions using the Form UI.

While other actions in the Form UI, Admin Tool, and other GT eForms tools are not risks for data loss, we recommend using the Standard Form Data Converter tool before acting on Standard form transactions to avoid the mentioned conversion issues.

Contact Us​

If you need to act on Standard form transactions after converting the Form Type to Helium in production and you have not applied the necessary fixes, please contact support@gideontaylor.com to get the conversion tool to convert the Standard transactions to Helium before acting on them.

Terms and Definitions​

Taking Action: Taking any action on a form transaction that saves the form data. In the Form UI, these actions are Resubmit, Withdraw, Deny, Recycle, Approve. The Admin Tool adds additional actions of Authorize, Authorize Without IB, Execute, Save XML to eForm.

3.5x: Any version of the GT eForms Framework between 3.50.00 and the latest version (which is currently 3.58.03). An ‘x’ after a version number is a placeholder that indicates subsequent releases within that main version. For example, 3.5x includes 3.50.00, 3.50.01, 3.58.00, etc.

Helium Form Engine​: A form engine introduced in the 3.50.00 release of GT eForms. Used by Helium Form Types to process Helium Form Transactions. Introduces significantly improved capabilities and performance compared to the Standard Form Engine.

Standard Form Engine​: The original GT eForms form engine used in all versions prior to 3.50.00. This is the form engine used by any Form Types that do not use Helium Performance to process Form Transactions.

Helium Performance​: This refers to the improved capabilities and performance made possible by the introduction of the Helium form engine in the 3.50.00 release of GT eForms. A Form Type uses Helium Performance if the “Use Helium Performance” checkbox is checked in the Form Setup of a Form Type.

Helium Form Type​: A Form Type that uses the Helium form engine and stores transactions in JSON format. Helium Form Types have the “Use Helium Performance” checkbox checked on the “General” tab of Form Setup.

Helium Form Transaction​: A single eForm submission with a unique Form ID that belonged to a Form Type using Helium Performance at the time of submission. Form data for this transaction is stored in JSON format.

Standard Form Type​: A Form Type that uses the Standard form engine and stores transactions in XML format. Standard Form Types have the “Use Helium Performance” checkbox unchecked on the “General” tab of Form Setup.

Standard Form Transaction​: A single eForm submission with a unique Form ID that belonged to a Form Type using Standard Performance at the time of submission. Form data for this transaction is stored in XML format.