| Form Blueprint | Schema Governance | The top-level administrative aggregate that represents a form concept (e.g., “Vendor Onboarding Form”), owning metadata, access permissions, and an ordered history of schema versions. |
| Form Schema Version | Schema Governance | An immutable, versioned definition of the form’s structural components, field types, validation rules, and layout at a specific point in time (e.g., Version 2.0). |
| Page / Step | Layout & Hierarchy | The highest-level structural division of a multi-step form, grouping sections and fields that are displayed together before progressive user navigation. |
| Layout Section | Layout & Hierarchy | A visual or logical grouping of fields within a page, optionally supporting collapsible containers, grid layouts, or repeatable card presentations. |
| Field Control (Component) | Component Hierarchy | An individual interactive element capable of capturing input (e.g., text box, date picker, file uploader) or rendering structural presentation (e.g., heading, callout, divider). |
Field Identifier (FieldKey) | Component Hierarchy | A unique, slug-style alphanumeric identifier (e.g., company_tax_id) assigned to a field within a schema version, used to store answers and evaluate conditional expressions. |
| Scalar Control | Component Hierarchy | A primitive data entry control capturing a single discrete value, such as a string, integer, decimal, boolean, or date/time stamp. |
| Choice / Select Control | Component Hierarchy | A field offering predefined options, rendered as radio buttons, dropdown selects, or multi-select checkbox groups with fixed or dynamically loaded option sets. |
| Matrix / Repeater Control | Component Hierarchy | A composite field control that allows respondents to add multiple sequential rows of structured sub-fields (e.g., listing multiple dependent family members or line items). |
| Computed / Formula Control | Component Hierarchy | A read-only field whose value is calculated dynamically at runtime by evaluating mathematical or string operations across other field answers in the form. |
| Validation Rule Descriptor | Validation Engine | A declarative specification defining valid inputs for a field (e.g., Required, MinLength: 8, RegexPattern: ^[A-Z0-9]+$, NumericRange: [0, 100]). |
| Conditional Visibility Rule | Logic & Rules | A declarative rule that determines whether a field, section, or page is visible and active based on the current answers of other preceding fields. |
| Skip Logic (Branching Rule) | Logic & Rules | A navigational directive evaluated at the completion of a page that dynamically redirects the user to a specific subsequent page, bypassing intervening steps. |
| Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) | Logic & Rules | A mathematical graph representation of all field dependencies (visibility, calculations, skip logic) where relationships are strictly unidirectional and free of closed loops. |
| Cycle Detection | Logic & Rules | The algorithmic verification executed during schema publishing to mathematically prove that no field depends circularly on its own output ($A \rightarrow B \rightarrow A$). |
| The Schema Freeze Law | Version Governance | The architectural invariant dictating that once a schema version is published and has received at least one submission, its structure is permanently sealed against modification. |
| Submission Draft Session | Response Lifecycle | A transient, state-tracked work session allowing a respondent to progressively complete and autosave form answers across multiple devices before final submission. |
| Answer Map | Response Lifecycle | A normalized key-value dictionary mapping FieldKey identifiers to validated response values captured from the user. |
| Form Submission | Response Lifecycle | The final, immutable aggregate representing a verified, completed response to a specific form schema version, signed and sealed with a cryptographic hash. |
| Authoritative Validation | Validation Engine | The mandatory server-side re-execution of all schema validation descriptors against incoming answers, completely independent of any client-side JavaScript checks. |
| Response Hash | Security & Forensic | A SHA-256 cryptographic digest generated over the normalized, sorted answer set, guaranteeing tamper evidence for legal and regulatory compliance. |
| Contextual Data Hydration | Integration | The process of pre-populating specific form fields with external enterprise data (e.g., customer account details or employee ID) prior to user presentation. |
| Tabular Projection | Data Architecture | A flattened, relational or columnar view generated from nested submission answer maps, enabling SQL reporting and CSV/Excel data exports. |
| Submission Quota | Access Governance | A hard constraint configured on a form blueprint specifying the maximum number of successful submissions permitted before the form automatically closes. |