Forms, Fields, and Views
The Groove Forms tool is a simple form designer. Sometimes it looks complex, but really the structure is quite straightforward. Let's begin at the beginning.
A Groove workspace contains tools, and members. You create a workspace, you're the only member. Then you invite another person; when they accept your invitation, a copy of the workspace is delivered to their PC, and they become a member too. If they're given appropriate permissions, the can also invite other people. So it grows. Everyone has a copy of the workspace and all its contents.
Most workspaces have several tools; tools can be added (and removed) by any member who has the appropriate permissions. There are several tools "in the box": files, calendar, sketchpad, discussion, and so on. (The most flexible of these is the Forms tool). Every Groove tool is "groovey": any action performed by any member of the workspace is automagically synchronized with all the other workspace members. (This isn't the time and place to explain how that happens. Another time).
The Files tool contains files. The sketchpad tool contains sketches. The forms tool contains, well... fields, forms, views, and records -- and these are user-defined; in other words, you can build your own forms, and make them behave the way you want, and create structured data the way you want to work with it.
When working in a forms tool, the display usually has two parts: at the top, a view (a list of records, displaying a selection of fields in columns); and below, a preview of the current record, which is displaying those and other fields on a form. (This terminology is Notes-like rather than InfoPath-like; that's the way it is, for now, and I hope there's no confusion). There are always multiple fields; there can be one or many forms; and there can be one or many views, each maybe selecting a different subset of the data records. The same field can be used on more than one form, if you want; there can't be two fields with the same fieldname.
To build a forms tool from scratch, you usually start with a blank form, and add fields onto it right away. (It's possible to have fields which aren't used on any form. I don't know a good reason you would want to do that). Then you create at least one view. Then you save, and all the members of your workspace can fill out your form to create records, which will be disseminated to everyone in the space.
Let's walk through building the skeleton of our contact-list tool, so you can see these pieces fit together. Pressing that "start here" button opens the Groove Forms Designer. (At this point, the faint-hearted will pass out. Don't be dismayed; it's easier than it looks). Now, I already know some of the fields I want to add to my contacts form: FirstName, LastName, FullName, JobTitle, CompanyName. So change the form name to "Contact", then click "Create New Field..." in the left-hand tree.
Next up: what the field types are, and we'll create those fields.
