What this is, and who it is for
A form on its own collects nothing. It is bound to the visits at which it is collected: the vital signs form to Screening, Baseline and every follow-up; the consent form to Screening only. The set of bindings is the visit–form matrix: one row for each form, one column for each visit, one cell for each binding. The matrix decides which forms a participant's casebook offers at each visit and which forms a visit expects before it can be signed.
Where to find it
Study → Build → Visit–Form Mapping, in the Build workbench of a version in Build. (In a workspace the same matrix is shown read-only under Configuration.) You need form.design or study.write to change it and the version must be in Build; anyone who can read the design sees it.
What you can do
- Map a form to a visit: click the cell and choose a state, or Shift+click an empty cell to map it at once (Shift+click on a mapped cell unmaps it).
- Map in bulk: a column's menu has Map all visible forms and Clear column; a row's menu has Map to all visits.
- Copy a column from another visit (the menu offers the first six other visits).
- Search forms by code, name or category and filter by category to work on part of the matrix.
- Mark a form as needing the person in the room at a visit that can be held remotely.
- Open Rules to manage cross-form rules from the same screen (Rules reference).
Every option
A cell's state
Click a cell to open its popover (headed form ⇄ visit) and choose Set state:
| State (as shown) | What the designer is saying | What the system does |
|---|---|---|
| Add mapping (empty) | The form is not collected at this visit | Nothing |
| Mapped | The form is collected at this visit | The form appears in the casebook at this visit and can be filled in. If the mapping is required (marked by a red dot) the visit expects it |
| Conditional… | The form applies only to some participants, by a rule | A rule (attribute, operator, value; ALL or ANY), a description and a Required switch are saved with the mapping, and the cell shows the description. The system does not evaluate the rule: a conditional form appears at the visit for every participant, like a mapped one, and the visit does not count it as expected. The rule is recorded in the design and exported with it |
| Locked | The binding is fixed | The form appears; in the casebook the cell is shown as Locked whether or not it holds data. Prefer Mapped; this state is not the same as a record being signed and locked |
| Inactive | The form is switched off at this visit | The form is left out of the casebook and the visit expects nothing |
| Inherited | Carried over from a previous version | Shown for bindings an amendment inherited; behaves as Mapped |
| Remove mapping | Delete the binding | Back to Add mapping |
Required
A binding is required when its visit is required at the time it is made (a mapping created, copied or bulk-mapped takes the visit's setting), and a mapped, required cell shows a red dot. A visit expects the forms whose binding is required and Mapped or Locked, whose form is not archived, and that apply to the way the visit was held (below). The expectation is used when signing a visit (when the version asks for visit signatures): any expected form that has no complete record is listed as in the way (Sign records). Data entry is never blocked because another form is empty.
Remote visits
A visit can be set as one that can be held remotely. For such a visit each mapped cell has a switch, Needs the person in the room ("when it is held remotely, this form takes no data"), for forms like a physical examination or an ECG. The default is that the form applies remotely too. The setting is frozen with the design, and when a visit is recorded as remote, a form that needs presence is not collected and is not expected.
Versions
A binding is made to a particular version of a form and to a particular version of the study's design. A new version of a form starts with no bindings: they are not carried silently, so the designer decides each. Reopening a form for editing sets its bindings aside; making it active again restores them (Versions, reopening and publishing). A form can be mapped while it is still a Draft; Submit to UAT then makes the version's draft forms active, after checking each. Once a version is released, only an Active form can be mapped into it. A cell of a form that is frozen cannot be changed (the screen says the form is locked from edits).
What the system records
Every bind, update and unbind is a revision of the version's draft design, recorded in the same transaction (mapping.bound, mapping.updated, mapping.unbound). The matrix is part of the snapshot that goes to UAT, so the mapping tested and signed off is the mapping that goes Live.
What you cannot do, and why
- Map an archived form, or a Draft into a version that has already been released.
- Change the matrix after the version leaves Build. Frozen with the design; an amendment is a new version in Build.
- Make a form conditional on the participant and have the system apply it. The rule is stored but not evaluated. Do the same with a visibility condition on a field of the form, or a procedure at the site.
- Block data entry for a missing form. Expected forms inform signing and review; they do not stop entry.
Two entries in a form row's menu, Sync with template study and Remove from all visits, do nothing in this release.
Compliance Q&A
Yes. The matrix is part of the design snapshot that is frozen when the version goes to UAT, tested, signed off by three people and released; a change to a Live study is an amendment through the same gates, and each change is recorded as a revision.
Limits: a conditional mapping is documentation only, because the system does not apply the rule. Check in UAT that the forms offered are the forms intended.
Evidence: server/src/modules/study/mapping README (bindings are revisions of the version draft)versions (snapshot frozen at submit to UAT)
Related
Plan visits · Design forms · Rules reference · Versions, reopening and publishing · Use the casebook