TouchPoints | Feature Limitations

The TouchPoint feature is a versatile system to collect and report on many different types of data.

When designing a TouchPoint for the first time or adding elements to an existing TouchPoint, it is important to take the following into consideration:

• Users with slower Internet connections and/or computers may be affected by the size and complexity of a TouchPoint (number of elements/calculations/conditions).

• A single TouchPoint’s size (the number of elements) is limited. The maximum number of elements possible will depend on the types and frequency of the elements used.

• Each TouchPoint has a maximum of 1,000 storage blocks, and many elements require at least two storage blocks:

  • One storage block: Text, Numeric, Date, Time Spent, Phone Number, National ID, Email, Signature, File Attachment, Entity Cross Reference, Entity Cross Reference Attribute, Participant Cross Reference, Demographic/Program Information, and Element Cross Reference.

  • Two storage blocks: Yes/No, List, Start/End Time, Attendance

  • Three storage blocks: Electronic Signature, Response Cross Reference

  • Varies (1-8 blocks depending on configuration): Address

• The use of the Grid element should be limited as it introduces complexity which can make loading and submitting a TouchPoint slower. When possible, utilize the Primary and Sub-form TouchPoints functionality to allow for the collection of related data elements.

• Grid/Table TouchPoint elements do not work with ETO Connect. Connect forms cannot render or process Grid questions, so any TouchPoint containing a Grid cannot be sent through Connect.

• When adding a List to the Grid/Table element, the Likert Scale answer format will not work.

• For choice-type elements, the recommended maximum number of choices is 200. Supplying more than 200 choices could impact the user experience when loading or managing the TouchPoint.

Best Practices

To avoid encountering some of these limitations:

• Break large forms into multiple TouchPoints

• Consider leveraging Primary and Sub-form functionality

• Build normalized TouchPoints (read below)

TouchPoint Normalization

A normalized TouchPoint is one where data is collected in a way that reduces or eliminates redundancies and anomalies; where the same question is not asked multiple times in the same form. This is best practice for architectural reasons which essentially all boil down to having the best reporting experience.

Examples:

• Instead of having one TouchPoint where multiple goals are entered, build one TouchPoint that contains information about one goal and record that TouchPoint for each goal.

• Instead of recording all medications in one TouchPoint, build one TouchPoint to collect information for one medication/prescription and record the TouchPoint for each medication.

• Instead of collecting all employment history in one TouchPoint, build a TouchPoint to collect history for one job at a time and record the TouchPoint for each job.

TouchPoint Main Page