The CRUD functions in Webform are closely related. Suitably authorized administrators will ordinarily find the corresponding Webform modes (Read/Retrieve = View, Update = Edit, Delete) grouped together, either as links or as tabs towards the top of the page.
Selecting any one of our test submissions at random, let us click on the View link in the OPERATIONS column.
Webform makes use of the submission ID of the selected submission to retrieve all the related data from the database. Once all the data is to hand, Webform renders a facsimile of the form we designed. Typically the field names are rendered in bold text with the corresponding submitted data underneath in the normal theme font weight.
When working with submitted data in either View or Edit mode, the form layout is preceded by the submission metadata in the box entitled Submission information.
Following in the very sound design and engineering tradition of POLA (the Policy/Principle Of Least Astonishment—meaning, in this case, that every effort is made to have users see what they expect to see), Webform renders the submitted data view based on the form design and component sequence. We notice, for example, that even our grouped field sets are defined by a neat box.
Because we are currently in the View mode, the data is not editable.
Another manner in which Webform adheres to the traditions of POLA (meaning, in this case, presenting users with a consistent interface) is that similar functions are available while in either View or Edit mode.
We have the facility to page through our form submissions one at a time. Paging back and forth is achieved by clicking on the Previous submission and Next submission links we see at the top right and bottom right of the form display above. When these links are clicked, Webform will display the next submission in the specified direction.
There will come a time when we need to resend the automatic e-mails we configured for our form. For example, the user may have accidentally deleted their e-mail and has requested a new copy, or some data was changed and we wish to send confirmation of this to the form user.
We can achieve the resending of e-mails on a per-submission basis by clicking on the Resend e-mails link at the top left of the page. We use plural for e-mails because, if you recall from the e-mail configuration exercise in Chapter 2, Trying Out Webform, we may set up more than one e-mail in our form configuration.
In the case where we have multiple e-mails configured, Webform gives us the ability to specify which e-mails we wish to resend.
There is yet another option for viewing the submitted data, one which can be more useful than the submissions overview page when the majority of our submissions are from anonymous users. Identifying a specific anonymous submission is almost impossible from the data available to us on the submissions overview page.
Unless we know the exact date and time of the submission, or know for certain the unique IP address that the submission came from, we would have to page sequentially through all of the submissions until we locate the one we are looking for.
Thankfully, however, Webform also offers us a spreadsheet view of the submitted data, which enables a faster data browsing experience. While on the submissions metadata overview page, we can click on the Table tab to see a listing of our submissions as well as the data that was submitted.
