Making a waiver form for android.

Forums › Android › Making a waiver form for android.

rhyso

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#99276 15-Mar-2012 22:06

Hi there,

I have a skydiving company and we use paper waivers for the customers to release the liability.

I would like to buy a couple of inexpensive tablets and have a form made of separate pages in flash form for the customers to answer each question and accept the terms and conditions.

I would like to send information from certain fields to various locations for example the name, email address and nickname to the video editor (different location), the name, height, weight and camera option to the manifest computer (different location) and the complete form to a hard drive for storage (same locations)... etc This will improve our productivity and rid us of paper forms...

I am totally open to how this might work, and I am prepared to spend a little bit of money but I am not prepared to spend thousands of dollars on it.

Does anyone have some pointers? This website is very comprehensive and I did have a bit of a search but cold not find the information I need.

If anyone has experience with this type of thing, I would appreciate any advice. Simply going to a app developer with minimal knowledge is going to cost me a lot of money.

help?

Rhys

1 | 2

1395 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#595865 15-Mar-2012 22:19

http://polarbearfarm.com/airforms/index.html

I realise this is the android forum but this is the diy alternative for an ipad, from some chch guys.

/troll

jbard

1377 posts

Uber Geek

#595866 15-Mar-2012 22:22

Surely just creating a HTML page would be the cheapest option by far.

Then just have a bookmark on the tablet. Depending on how complex that is you could get it made for under $500.

Not sure how this whole idea works regarding signatures though? do you not need that to clear wavier?

rhyso

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#595871 15-Mar-2012 22:30

as far as I am aware ticking a box is as good as signing these days... I will do some more research on that. But I thought you can still sign on the tablet... like when a courier drops an item off?
The cheap tablets I got are resistive, is this still possible?

jbard

1377 posts

Uber Geek

#595873 15-Mar-2012 22:34

rhyso: as far as I am aware ticking a box is as good as signing these days... I will do some more research on that. But I thought you can still sign on the tablet... like when a courier drops an item off?
The cheap tablets I got are resistive, is this still possible?

Yeah i have no idea if clicking a box is a good as signing.

You can't really sign on a tablet. Certainly not on a resistive one.
Possibly on a good captive one with a stylus. I have never tried it, sounds a bit messy though.

It would be hard to have a signature field in an android app, I think your best bet for this would be a HTML 5 canvas.

Of course if ticking a box is fine then this is not a worry so that is the first thing i would check.

jbard

1377 posts

Uber Geek

#595875 15-Mar-2012 22:36

Actually just thinking about the courier machines, I have one here.

I am pretty sure it is just a captive screen, so i guess that would work. It takes a bit of a beating with the stylus though which i don't think a normal phone/tablet screen would hold upto.

Also the signature you get off it is pretty rubbish but i guess it is good enough if the couriers use it.

rhyso

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#595896 15-Mar-2012 23:12

Thanks for the replies guys.

Looking at the;

http://polarbearfarm.com/airforms/index.html

page, I think a HTML form like that would be really nice.

I'll do a little more research on the click box instead of signing... Of course we could still get them to sign the form if we print it after they fill it out and keep the paper form in the worst case.

The real issues I am trying to get around is terrible handwriting from foreigners that complain when they don't get the URL to their uploaded video, when they scribbled their weirdo name on their form LOL.

Also if the information they put on the form usually comes out with the customers after they have filled the form and been driven out to the airport... if the information was sent automatically to the airport as soon as the form was filled out. the aircraft loads could be manifested when the customers arrive rather than having to wait for the manifest to be organised after they arrive....

So as much as making the form electronic the information from certain fields would have to be directed to a folder and shared via dropbox or similar... I am not sure how difficult this would be...

jbard

1377 posts

Uber Geek

#595899 15-Mar-2012 23:19

rhyso: Thanks for the replies guys.

Looking at the;

http://polarbearfarm.com/airforms/index.html

page, I think a HTML form like that would be really nice.

I'll do a little more research on the click box instead of signing... Of course we could still get them to sign the form if we print it after they fill it out and keep the paper form in the worst case.

The real issues I am trying to get around is terrible handwriting from foreigners that complain when they don't get the URL to their uploaded video, when they scribbled their weirdo name on their form LOL.

Also if the information they put on the form usually comes out with the customers after they have filled the form and been driven out to the airport... if the information was sent automatically to the airport as soon as the form was filled out. the aircraft loads could be manifested when the customers arrive rather than having to wait for the manifest to be organised after they arrive....

So as much as making the form electronic the information from certain fields would have to be directed to a folder and shared via dropbox or similar... I am not sure how difficult this would be...

Yeah a HTML form is your best bet.

I totally understand were you are coming from with messy handwriting - drives me up the wall.

I would imagine the best way to handle this is to have the form submit to a database, then the airport could either be automatically sent an email with all the information or have a admin page they can login into to see the information - either solution is pretty easy to do.

I wouldn't share the information via dropbox or anything 3rd party when it is easy to keep it all in one solution.

If you want any more information on this feel free to PM me.

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

rhyso

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#595903 15-Mar-2012 23:38

I am still not entirely sure about electronic signatures, they are binding but how much I am not certain.

here is an informative website for anyone reading this that may be interested;

http://www.electronicsignature.com/electronic-signature-vs-digital-signature/

eXDee

4032 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#595911 16-Mar-2012 00:04

Grab a stylus, have people sign the screen of the tablet, does this make any difference?

lucky015

743 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#595917 16-Mar-2012 00:22

Galaxy Note seems to have pretty good Stylus with decent integration and Samsung seem to be working on a larger version of it too, Might be worth a look in future along with some other method however I would definitely take a closer look at the legalities.

itxtme

2102 posts

Uber Geek

#595920 16-Mar-2012 00:44

This is a fairly straight forward request, what you have to decide is how you want to store your data. You state a hard drive, the easiest way as discussed is with html forms on a webserver. The requirement with this would be that you have an internet connection avaliable at your location (be it wifi or 3G). The alternative would be an app created for your device choice that saves the data into either an email for your outbox (to be sent at a later date) or into a DB on the device (to be downloaded).

Personally I would go with an Android based tablet for cost benifit with such a simple task there is no benefit in spending lots on an ipad.

As a developer I suggest the use of a targeted framework to ensure you get a more functional system, I personally use the Javascript framework Jquerymobile. I couple this with a distribution package like phonegap if it is an app that is necessary or straight webserver hosting if no app. There are pleanty of experts out there that could do this easily, however I would rate the request as a 5/10 on the difficulty scale if you wanted to learn some HTML and do it yourself!

rhyso

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#595922 16-Mar-2012 00:58

Hi I have no intention of doing this myself, I have plenty of other things to do.

storing the waivers is a legal requirement so I may even just print them and store them that way as they could still be signed in ink.

The difficulty lies in multipule people (6-8+) signing in on 2 (or more) tablets in a group and this information being compiled and delivered so the manifest can make the plane loads most profitable.

we have broadband at both locations and we have PC's at both locations.

do you have an example of something remotely similar that you have developed?

My web guy can do a form I am sure now that is no worries but he insists that sending an individual email from each from is the best way (which tells me he is unsure how all this works?). It is obvious to me that it would be a pain to open an email from each or the customers form and have to open them, compile the info together so we could then determine what the best way would be to organise the loads...

if all the pertinent information from each group was complied together and then sent to the manifest that would be the most efficient. If that was automatic that would be great but we have staff at both locations so the compiled info could be sent off manually if it was impossible/too difficult to do it automatically...

lucky015

743 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#595924 16-Mar-2012 01:06

Perhaps editing from a template, Saving then using some form of drop-box? Be it public software or something manually setup on your server.

jbard

1377 posts

Uber Geek

#595926 16-Mar-2012 01:10

rhyso: Hi I have no intention of doing this myself, I have plenty of other things to do.

storing the waivers is a legal requirement so I may even just print them and store them that way as they could still be signed in ink.

The difficulty lies in multipule people (6-8+) signing in on 2 (or more) tablets in a group and this information being compiled and delivered so the manifest can make the plane loads most profitable.

we have broadband at both locations and we have PC's at both locations.

do you have an example of something remotely similar that you have developed?

My web guy can do a form I am sure now that is no worries but he insists that sending an individual email from each from is the best way (which tells me he is unsure how all this works?). It is obvious to me that it would be a pain to open an email from each or the customers form and have to open them, compile the info together so we could then determine what the best way would be to organise the loads...

if all the pertinent information from each group was complied together and then sent to the manifest that would be the most efficient. If that was automatic that would be great but we have staff at both locations so the compiled info could be sent off manually if it was impossible/too difficult to do it automatically...

I'm not 100% sure what you a trying to explain, is this what you mean:

You need the information sent in such a way that groups can easily be loaded onto the aircraft, without having to check each individuals information to see which group they are apart of?

If so this is easy enough to do. Lets take an example of what would happen.
You would start with the tablet and you would type in a name for the group, it may be their last name or anything that is unique to that group.

Then you would pass round the tablet to everyone in that group and they would fill out their own info.

You would then need an admin page that lists all the people in a group under a heading for that group, so you can easy see how many members are in each group - then with a single click head into each individuals information.

Not sure how well I have explained that, basically it is all about how you design the database.
Hope that helps.

rhyso

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#595930 16-Mar-2012 01:37

I need to explain the process we do more clearly so you guys can get a better understanding of what I need.

we have an office in town, the customers check in there then get driven out to the airfield (10 mins drive).

There will be 2 (or more ) tablets in the office in town. there is also a pc in town and 2 pc's at the airport, one for manifest and a high powered one for editing with solid state drive etc. broadband at both locations.

Customers can jump from varying heights and get varying forms of photography which requires (or not) another person to come up with them on the jump as well as their tandem instructor. we take up to 8 people out with us at once, sometimes only 2.

We can fit 9 jumpers in the plane so if nobody gets any camera options, then we can take 4 tandems, if everyone (or at least 2 on the load) gets a camera guy then we can only take 3 on the load for example. there are a few scenarios. but we need to know what everyone ios getting before we can manifest the loads.

At the moment we wait for the customers to come out with a paper waiver and we manifest while they wait and it wastes time >>>$$$. If we had better systems we could have the customers manifested when they arrive (without phone calls, compiling emails, or fax's etc) and would be able to turn more loads and be more profitable.

the editor of the videos also needs certain information, email and name simple stuff. the manifiest needs name, weight, height they are jumping from, camera option purchased (or not) and who is grouped together... so a bit more info...

What I really want is for the form to be filled by each individual on more than one tablet, ]that information to be compiled together and then sent to the airport... It could send the manifestors information to her computer and the editors information to his or It could sent the whole lot to the manifest and the editor can get it off her... or it could send all the complets formes together but it would be asier if all the information was in a list and on one page.

It seems making the form is the easy part. signing it and sending the relevant information to the correct place in the correct format is the difficult part.

I would be a very happy man if I could make this happen sooner than later.

I have purchased 2 x 10.2 inch Flytouch 3 android tablets, I understand they have average reviews and are cheapo tablets but for what we need I assume they will be ok.

If not, i will sell them on trade me and upgrade to a better model. they only cost US$150 each.

I am prepared to spend a little money on this system and it will save time and make us more money sooner. I hope that was easy enough to understand?

1 | 2