Apex Forms is all about gathering and presenting information to support business processes. It provides some very powerful tools to manage data and help users visualize and preview their changes. Here we look into the "Information Tree" and some key concepts for managing that information.

Apex Forms manages information in a structure called the Information Tree. It is similar in concept to the file system on your computer. Directories can contain files.

As you are working in one of the manage pages for either a Form, Section or Field, you will notice there is an "Information Tree" section below the "Preview" section. While the preview section is helping you visualize how the content you are configuring will display when rendered to the user, the Information Tree below allows you to simultaneously validate the data that is being bound to the corresponding fields and passed along with your form. It presents this information in an easy to read structure.

At the root of your information tree is the taskData. Depending on your form structure, the Information Tree can contain individual fields, sections and nested sections. Below you can see the form has few individual fields on the form and three sections: contact details (that has a nested address section!), insurance details and patient details. Just looking at the tree you can easily understand your form structure.

Now notice the style difference in how the tree is displayed. Red indicates that the data on the form is not valid (or complete) and there are fields that needs user attention.

Another powerful feature comes into play when a user is trying to test his/her changes on the form. Say, the form is read-only and when you are configuring the form the Information Tree comes in handy, as you can edit the fields in real time and see the form preview refresh immediately. This helps the user to quickly test out the changes without having to wait on any deployment or build processes.

Super fast and simplified testing for even the most basic users.

Managing Lists

The information tree can contain lists too.  Let's extend our example to have a list. The form can have zero to n testing sites.  Each site has a name, and address information.  You can see the testing sites in the table on the form are shown in the Information Tree as well. You can even add or delete items in the list in the information tree!

Generally speaking, you don't really need to pay much attention to how the data is handled and stored, Apex Forms will handle it for you.