Custom PDF Field No Longer Displaying Data
Reported Issue
A partner institution updated a question on their Application Fee Waiver form. Data from that question was pulled into a merge query and rendered on a Custom PDF viewable in the Workflow Reader. After the edit, a submitted response that should have populated the PDF field showed as blank, even though the audit trail confirmed the student had answered the question.
What We Found
When they updated the application fee waiver form, they inactivated the original field and created a new one. The field was not system mapped so it effectively became a new field despite their giving it the same export even though they used the same form export on the field, it was new field so it was not in the merge public query for displaying on the custom PDF.
The ReSolution
We updated the merge query to point the export at the new field, which immediately restored the missing responses on the PDF.
Other Considerations
The larger risk in a case like this is not the PDF itself, but everywhere else in Slate that value might be referenced. Before assuming a field swap is complete, check queries, rules, and merge fields across the instance for the old export key. Anything still resolving by GUID against a field that is now inactive will quietly stop returning data the same way this one did, without necessarily surfacing an error to point you to the cause.
Whether updating the original field in place or inactivating it and building a new one is the safer move depends on how the form's PDF renders. On an Auto PDF, the field's label is pulled and rendered directly, so the two approaches carry different risk. On a Custom PDF, where the layout and labels are controlled separately, either approach works equally well as far as the PDF is concerned. If only changing the question wording on the form field and there is no need to save the original question wording on the field (e.g. can be retreived in a snapshot), consider keeping the existing field and just updating the label. That would avoid this issue entirely. However, there are needs that could require inactivating and creating a new field such as if moving from a Yes/No bit type to selection list type with 3+ more prompt value options.
Recommended Readings
Form Settings - Field Configurations
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