RFC: Introduce Forms System

[BuddyWinte]

Introduce Forms System

Important

This is a Draft RFC and is not ready for merge.

The purpose of this pull request is to discuss the architecture, API, database design, and user experience of a generic Forms system for Orbit before implementation begins.

Goal

The Forms system is intended to provide a reusable foundation for features such as:

• Applications
• Feedback Forms
• Bug reports
• Incident Records
• etc.

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Current Progress

Architecture

• RFC approved
• API design finalized
• Database schema finalized
• Permission model finalized
• Form lifecycle finalized (drafts, publishing, archiving)
• Response lifecycle finalized (pending, review, approved, denied)

Database

• Initial Form schema
• Pages schema
• Questions schema
• Responses schema
• Answers schema
• Reviews schema
• Database indexes reviewed
• Database migrations created

Backend API

• Forms CRUD endpoints
• Pages CRUD endpoints
• Questions CRUD endpoints
• Question reordering
• Form duplication
• Response submission endpoint
• Response listing endpoint
• Response viewing endpoint
• Response editing endpoint
• Review endpoints
• Response status management
• Form permissions API
• Form statistics API
• Response export API

Backend Logic

• Form validation system
• Question validation system
• Answer validation system
• Anonymous submission handling
• Multiple submission handling
• Permission checks
• Audit logging
• Rate limiting
• File upload handling

Frontend - Form Builder

• Form list page
• Create form UI
• Edit form UI
• Form settings UI
• Question builder
• Question type selector
• Question editor
• Question reordering
• Drag-and-drop support
• Page management
• Form preview mode
• Autosave
• Validation editor

Frontend - Submission

• Public form view
• Authenticated submission flow
• Anonymous submission flow
• Question rendering system
• Text input fields
• Choice fields
• User selector fields
• File upload fields
• Submission confirmation page
• Submission editing

Frontend - Review Interface

• Response list
• Response filtering
• Response search
• Response viewer
• Answer display
• Approve/deny actions
• Review comments
• Review history

Permissions

• Define form permissions
• Define submission permissions
• Define review permissions
• Define builder permissions
• Role integration
• Permission middleware

Documentation

• API documentation
• Database documentation
• Frontend component documentation
• Form developer guide
• Admin guide

Testing

• API tests
• Database tests
• Permission tests
• Form validation tests
• Submission tests
• Frontend tests
• End-to-end tests

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Request for Feedback

Please review and comment on anything

Contributing to this RFC

If your proposal requires code changes or is substantial, please open a Draft Pull Request against this branch and reference this RFC.

For smaller ideas, questions, or concerns, simply leave a review or request changes on this pull request so they can be discussed here.

Status

This RFC will remain open until there is general agreement on the architecture. Once the design is finalized, implementation will continue and this Draft PR will eventually be converted into a merge-ready pull request.

The main settings option in the Feature Flags has been disabled but is technically usable.

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[Boopup]

Few features I'd love to see (I did try to check before suggesting if these were already added)

• Roblox/Discord auth (users must login with Roblox/Discord using oauth to access the form)
• Paste detections (show when things were pasted, great for detecting AI on applications. it would show the exact stuff pasted.)
• Autosave locally (autosave answers locally)

These are just a few features that would be nice to have and I think everyone could probably find useful.

[BuddyWinte]

Few features I'd love to see (I did try to check before suggesting if these were already added)

* Roblox/Discord auth (users must login with Roblox/Discord using oauth to access the form)

* Paste detections (show when things were pasted, great for detecting AI on applications. it would show the exact stuff pasted.)

* Autosave locally (autosave answers locally)

These are just a few features that would be nice to have and I think everyone could probably find useful.

I do like the idea of Paste detection, that will be put on the to-do list, autosave locally is also a great idea.

The OAuth idea is good, but it can cause a few confusing issues with the current permissions system as we use a ❌ and ✔️ system for permissions where a role is given a default permission and each form can have overrides (including a public or private form). I will see if I could think of a way to get this into it and will discuss it