Forms may change over time. For example, the U.S. government publishes updated versions of I-9 periodically. When tasks are created in Onboarded, they are tied to the latest form version. When a form later receives updates, existing tasks do not upgrade to the new version automatically. This is because form changes may have compliance impact and can change the structure of collected data. Changing the associated form content while a candidate is working on it can also lead to data loss and confusing candidate experience. Therefore, form changes by default are only received by new tasks created after the changes are deployed.
While this default behavior makes it safe to introduce form changes, many form changes involve urgent updates to fix typos or update form logic. It may be important for those changes to roll out to as many existing tasks as possible to immediately improve candidate experience.
When deploying a new form verison, customers can choose from three upgrade options (as shown below):
- No task upgrade. Use this option when the new form version should only be used for tasks created hereafter.
- Upgrade unstarted tasks. Use this option to upgrade only the tasks that can be upgraded without data loss. Since upgrading a task will cause any data collected from candidates to be discarded, tasks that have already been opened or started by candidates will not be upgraded. This is generally a safe and recommended option.
- Upgrade all incomplete tasks. Use this option with caution. Any half-completed tasks will be reset and lose their submission data. Tasks that are scheduled to be upgraded under this option cannot be attempted by candidates - instead of the task pages, they are shown a placeholder informing them that the task is being upgraded and they should return to it later - nor can their fields be updated via API. Furthermore, if a candidate is working on such a task when it gets scheduled to be upgraded, they may encounter unexpected error messages and page redirect.
When a new form version is deployed, associated tasks are processed incrementally for upgrade in the background. Manage form details view shows the number of remaining tasks scheduled for upgrade.
- Only incomplete tasks can be upgraded. Once a task has been completed, it can no longer be upgraded. To make new form changes available for candidates who have already completed their tasks, please delete the tasks and recreate them.
- If a task has a due time or expiration time from its associated form, the respective value will be reset based on the updated form setting. If the values are set directly by customers (either via dashboard or API), they will not be changed during the upgrade.