18.3 Callouts & Forms for Attended Guidance

18.3 Callouts & Forms for Attended Guidance

Core Concept: A callout is a form bound to a UI element and displayed next to it. Callouts guide users inside the applications they already use: they point to the right field, validate input, pre-fill values, or start automations from a button. The exam description lists callouts among attended automation topics.

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What a Callout Is

• A callout is a .uiform file designed with the Form Builder, like any form.
• The Show Callout activity (Callout.Activities package) displays it next to an indicated UI element in an application, website, or form.
• Because callouts are uiform files, they can also be handled with the Form.Activities package, just like regular forms.

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Show Callout Essentials

Values set through Arguments fill the callout's components when it opens. Components such as buttons can raise events that a Form Event Trigger workflow handles.

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Common Callout Patterns

1. Guidance: point at a field the user often gets wrong, with a short explanation.
2. Validation: when the user leaves a field, a trigger workflow checks the value and shows a callout if it is invalid, for example "Policy number must have 10 digits".
3. Pre-filling: a callout offers a suggested value with a "Use this value" button that fills the field.
4. Starting automations: a callout button such as "Create refund" starts a trigger workflow that does the work in the background.
5. AI summaries: a callout shows a short summary produced by a GenAI activity next to a long record.

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Wiring a Callout into Trigger-Based Automation

A typical validation flow:

1. The main workflow runs Run Local Triggers.
2. A trigger workflow starts with an Application Event Trigger for the Focus lost event of the "Policy number" field, found with the Event Inspection Tool.
3. The workflow reads the field value and checks it.
4. If the value is invalid, Show Callout displays PolicyHint.uiform next to the field, passing the message through Arguments.
5. A Form Event Trigger on the callout's "Fix it" button formats the number and writes it back.

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Designing Good Callouts

• Keep them short. One message and at most one or two buttons.
• Attach to stable elements. Use reliable, strict selectors for the target, because a callout that appears in the wrong place confuses users.
• Use Instance Names when more than one callout or form can be visible.
• Close them deliberately. Close the callout when the user fixes the value or moves to another screen, so stale callouts do not pile up.
• Test in the real application. Screen scaling and window positions affect where the callout appears.

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Forms Recap for Attended Scenarios

Forms and callouts share the Form Builder and many activities:

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Worked Example: Refund Approval Hint

A service agent issues refunds in a web back office. The automation:

1. Watches the refund amount field with a trigger workflow.
2. When the amount exceeds the agent's approval limit, shows a callout next to the Submit button: "Amounts above your limit need supervisor approval".
3. The callout offers Request approval, which starts a workflow that creates an approval task and records its ID in the ticket.
4. The callout closes once the request is sent.

The agent stays in the back office the whole time, and the rule is enforced where the mistake would happen.

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Common Traps

• A callout is not a separate application window; it needs a target UI element.
• Callout events are handled by Form Event Trigger workflows, not by polling.
• Forgetting unique Instance Names makes it hard to update or close the right callout.
• Showing callouts from a workflow that does not run triggers; the callout's buttons then have no Form Event Trigger listening.