Why SyteLine form changes disappear: Site, Group and User versions explained

The four versions of a form

All of these live in the forms database, which is why one form can exist in several versions at once.

The rule to remember: the most specific version wins. User beats Group, Group beats Site, Site beats Vendor.

Reason 1: you saved at the wrong scope

When you go into Design Mode for the first time in a session, you can choose the Scope: Site Default, Group or User. For Group or User, you also enter the group or user name. Whatever you pick stays in force until you log off or change it.

That's the trap. Open Design Mode once in the morning at User scope to try something, then later make a "real" change for everyone, and it's saved to your User version. It works perfectly for you and nobody else sees it.

Habits that prevent it:

1. Choose the scope consciously every time, before touching anything.
2. Use Site for company-wide changes and Group for one department.
3. Use User only for experiments you don't intend to share.
4. Log off and back on between experimental and real work, so the scope prompt comes up again.

Reason 2: the user has their own version

You've made the change at Site scope, correctly, and most people see it. One person doesn't. Usually they have a User version of that form, which supersedes your Site version for them.

Small layout tweaks don't count

Not every personal change creates this problem. Infor treats runtime changes as basic changes: form dimensions, splitter positions, grid column order, column widths and which columns are visible. Any user can make these without editing permissions, and they don't need a full User-scope version. Depending on User Preferences, SyteLine either asks whether to save them when the form closes, or saves them silently.

The cases that hide your Site change are the ones where someone with editing permission has saved their own User version of the form.

Administrators can stop runtime changes being saved altogether with the Allow saving form runtime changes process default.

Check which version they're loading

SyteLine can show which version of a form is loaded: vendor, site, group or user version. Infor documents this under identifying the version of a form. In Design Mode, the version also appears in the property grid and the dialog caption. Check it on the affected user's session. If it says user version while everyone else gets site version, you've found the cause.

Reverting a form

Infor's procedure:

1. Open the form in Design Mode.
2. Choose Edit > Revert Form Definition and confirm with OK.
3. Close the form, then choose Form > Definition > Unload All Global Form Objects.
4. Reopen the form and check it.

Two cautions:

• Infor describes this as reverting the form to the vendor default for changes made in Design Mode. Check your editing scope before you do it. Reverting while your scope is Site is how a company-wide customisation gets wiped by accident. To remove one user's version, set the scope to that user first.
• Unload All Global Form Objects matters. Without it you may still be looking at the old definition held in memory, and conclude the revert didn't work.

Before reverting anything at Site or Group scope, write down what the customisation does, or export it. Once it's gone, it's gone.

Reason 3: the upgrade removed it (FormSync)

When SyteLine is upgraded, FormSync reconciles your customised versions with Infor's new vendor versions. By default:

• Basic customisations, such as captions, default values, sizes, show/hide and grid settings, are merged automatically into the new vendor version without asking.
• Major customisations, which can change how the form works, prompt you to either keep the customisation or remove it and take the new vendor version.

Customisations are most often lost when someone answers those prompts quickly, without knowing what each form's customisation was for. Infor's FormSync documentation also covers how Site and Group versions are synchronised. Read it for your version before the upgrade, not during.

Good habits

• Keep a register of customised forms: form name, scope, what was changed, why, and who asked. It makes FormSync prompts easy to answer and upgrades far less risky.
• Limit editing permissions. Users who only need their own column layout don't need Full User editing rights. Runtime basic changes cover that.
• Make changes in a test environment first and move them across deliberately, rather than designing directly in production.
• After any form change, check it as an ordinary user in the group it's meant for, not just as yourself.

FAQ

Why can only I see my SyteLine form changes?

They were most likely saved at User scope. In Design Mode, set the scope to Site, or to the right Group, and make the change again.

Why does one user still see the old form after a Site change?

They probably have their own User version of the form, which overrides Site. Check which version they're loading, and remove their User version if it's no longer needed.

Does resizing grid columns create a User version in SyteLine?

No. Column widths, order, visibility, splitters and form dimensions are runtime basic changes that any user can save without creating a full User-scope version.

Will SyteLine form customisations survive an upgrade?

Basic customisations are merged automatically by FormSync. For major customisations, FormSync asks whether to keep or remove them, so decide in advance using a register of what each customisation does.