Export and Import Form Templates

Export writes a collection, a template or a single version to a Zegeba form file, a .zff, and import reads such a file into a collection on the same server or another one. It is how you copy a template, move designs from a test server to production, and share a form with another company that runs Zegeba. Only the designs travel: entries never do.

Before You Start

Exporting and importing needs the Admin or Form Manager role. See Role Matrix.
Have the target collection ready, since an import always goes into a collection. See Create Collection.
If the forms show pictures, videos or files from Resources, read the section on multimedia below before importing on another server.

Steps

Export a collection

Open Templates > Form Templates.
Open the collection's ⋮ menu, or right-click it, and select Export Collection.
Choose which versions to include: Published version, Latest Version or All Versions. All Versions is preselected.
Select Export. The .zff file lands in your browser's downloads.

The export dialog with the choice between all versions, the latest version and the published version

Export a template or a single version

For one template, open the ⋮ menu on its row in the table and select Export Form. The same version choice applies.
For one version, open the template, then open the ⋮ menu on the version in the Versions list and select Export Version.

Import

Open the ⋮ menu on the collection that should receive the forms and select Import Forms.
In the Import Form dialog select Zegeba file .zff and pick the file. The other choice, MS Word file .docx, builds a form from a Word document, see Import a Form from a Word Document.
Check the destination collection, preselected to the one you started from, and choose which versions to import: Published version, Latest Version or All Versions.
Select Import. The template appears in the collection, listed in the table with its versions.
Open the imported template and check its Versions list. A version that was published when it was exported arrives published and keeps its version number, so the form can be in use at once. A version that was archived arrives archived, from Zegeba 4.13.

The Import Form dialog with the destination collection and the Published version, Latest Version and All Versions choices

Duplicate a template

There is no duplicate action on a template, so a copy is an export followed by an import:

Export Form on the template, choosing the versions you want in the copy.
Import Forms on the collection where the copy should live, which can be the template's own collection.
Edit Form on the new template to give it its own name.

To reuse parts of a design rather than a whole template, copy elements between forms with the Designer's File menu. See FAQ: How Do I Copy a Form Design?.

Multimedia and dynamic lists on another server

A .zff carries the design, not the files it points to. When a form shows pictures, videos or documents stored in Resources, and you import it on another server, the files must exist there too:

Upload the files to Resources on the target server, in folders with the same names as on the source. Multimedia elements added in Zegeba 4.8 or later then find them without any change to the form.
Files placed in other folders, or added before 4.8, must be linked again in the Designer.
The server name in a dynamic list's reference field has to be changed by hand.

See Resources and Managing Dynamic Lists.

FAQs

Are the entries included when I export a form?
No. A .zff holds form designs only. To export captured data, select the version on the template page and use Export Data, see Entries in a Form Template.

Can I import a file back onto the same server?
Yes. That is how a template is duplicated. The imported template is a separate template with its own Form ID, so rename it with Edit Form to tell the two apart.

Does an imported template arrive published?
Yes, when the file holds a published version: it arrives published, keeps its version number, and people with access to the collection can fill it in at once. Check the Versions list after an import and unpublish the version if the form is not meant for use yet.

Which file types does Import Forms accept?
Zegeba form files, .zff, and Word documents, .docx. Forms in PDF or Excel are converted to Word first, see Import a Form from a Word Document.

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