Snapshot Mapping

Owned by Brian Banet
Last updated: Jun 28, 2022
2 min read

Using a Snapshot, the output document closely resemble the output of a form that would be printed after the user entered data and hit Control+P in the browser.  While snapshots lack the ability to generate pixel perfect renditions of existing forms, customers that are flexible with their document output or don't have a preexisting form might wish to leverage this feature, available to GlobalCapture 2.3 and higher.

Snapshots do have some benefits over traditionally mapped PDFs:

  1. Visual changes to a form will automatically apply.  If for example a form includes a company logo, the logo image is generated directly from the form.  If the logo is ever updated, updating the form will ensure that all new submissions include the new logo.  With a PDF mapped form, the logo is generally part of the PDF, and would need to be updated separately (also requiring access to the server).

  2. For basic forms, setting up a snapshot is much faster than PDF mapping.

Using Snapshots

To create a Snapshot mapping, click the Snapshot Mapping button in the toolbar.

A blank designer canvas will display, and components can be dragged to the design surface in exactly the same manner as with PDF Mapping.  The are key differences between Snapshot and PDF mapping:

  1. With Snapshots, only the field that will be used as data points in the capture process need to be mapped.  These components will all have their Output Fields set.

  2. The layout and positioning of components on the design surface is not relevant to the output file.  You can layout and position elements as you see fit, but this is only a design time display.

Customers not using GlobalForms 10.3 or greater might need additional styling controls on Snapshot based forms to achieve proper layout. We recommend any customer upgrade to version 10.3 if you need this. Alternately, these changes are available for inclusion as external CSS from this link.

When using Snapshots, it can be helpful to leverage CSS to make visual styling easier.  To simplify, a resource form is available that can be used to inject the appropriate CSS classes into any form that will leverage Snapshots. We recommend any customer upgrade to version 10.3 if you need this. Alternately, these changes are available for inclusion as external CSS from this link.