Messaging and Flow Trigger forms

As of the Joust release, you'll now see two types of forms in xMatters: Messaging forms and Flow Trigger forms. In this article, we'll take a closer look at the difference between these forms and highlight some important nuances for setting up and enabling them in xMatters.

Messaging forms

We've renamed what were previously known as "Forms" to Messaging forms to better describe that they're used to create an event in xMatters and send notifications to targeted recipients and any subscribers. These forms let you design the message content and configure response options to take action in xMatters. Message senders can access and submit these forms from the Messaging menu and Messaging Link dashboard widget.

Messaging form = Flow Designer canvas

For each Messaging form, xMatters automatically adds a Flow Designer canvas to the Flow Designer tab, named after the form it's associated with. This is currently the only way you can create a canvas, so if you want to use Flow Designer to build automated workflows or initiate incidents, then you'll need to create a Messaging form – even if your flow won't be used to send messages.

You can always rename the canvas to better reflect the flows you build. You'll still be able to tell which Messaging form your flow is associated with because we list it under the canvas name:

Flow Trigger forms

Flow Trigger forms are a new type of form used to trigger a flow in Flow Designer without automatically sending notifications or creating an event. They're used in conjunction with a Form trigger on a flow canvas. When you configure the Form trigger, you select which form triggers the connected flow when that form is submitted:

For their initial implementation, Flow Trigger forms only support flows that include an Initiate Incident step. Once you've added an Initiate Incident step to the flow connected to your form trigger, you'll be able to submit your Flow Trigger form via the Initiate Incident button on the Incidents list or the Initiate Incident widget on your dashboard (your form won't be available from the Messaging menu):

Deploying Flow Trigger forms

While there's no change to how you deploy Messaging forms, you'll notice the options to enable a Flow Trigger form are disabled on the Forms tab. This is because you need to first configure a Form trigger to use the form before you can enable it in the web user interface (and you can't currently enable a Flow Trigger form for the mobile app):

Configure a Form trigger on one of the canvases in your workflow and select your Flow Trigger form. You'll see we've added options to enable the trigger in the Web UI and Mobile App to the trigger's Settings tab:

You can use these toggles to enable your trigger (and form) – and, once you've connected steps to your trigger, you'll also be able to enable your form (and trigger) from the Forms tab. Changing these settings in either location will update it in both places.

Why can't I enable my Flow Trigger form for the Mobile app?

For the initial release of xMatters Incident Management, the xMatters mobile app only supports the default Incident Management workflow.

Find out more

• For more information about setting up and managing forms in xMatters, see Designing Forms.
• For a jump start on building your own incident management workflow, see our Incident Resolution workflow template.