Reusable Components: Reuse Content Across Your Form Templates

 What are reusable components?

Reusable components allow you to create content once and use it across multiple form templates. Instead of manually copying the same questions, sections, or pages into different templates, you can create a reusable component and insert it wherever needed.

The biggest advantage is automatic synchronization. When you update a reusable component, the changes are reflected in every template that uses it.

This is especially useful for:

• Standardized inspections: Use the same safety or quality checks across different templates.
• Company-wide requirements: Keep important instructions, compliance questions, or policies consistent.
• Easier maintenance: Update content once instead of editing multiple templates individually.

Note: Reusable components are available as part of selected Enterprise packages or as an add-on. If you cannot access this feature, contact our Customer Success team at success@lumiformapp.com.

1. Understanding reusable components

Lumiform supports three types of reusable components:

Reusable vs. local components

Reusable components are connected across templates. When you update one, all templates using it receive the changes.

Local components belong to only one template. Changes to a local component do not affect other templates.

Reusable pages and sections are marked with a special icon in the Template Builder, making them easy to identify.

2. Creating reusable pages and sections

You can turn an existing page or section into a reusable component.

1. Open Templates in the Lumiform web app.
2. Select the template you want to edit and open the Template Builder.
3. Find the page or section you want to make reusable.
4. Click its three-dot menu.
5. Select the option to convert it into a reusable page or section.
6. Review the component's title and change it if needed.
7. Confirm your selection.

Your page or section is now reusable and can be inserted into other templates.

All content within the component, including questions, subsections, and their settings, is included.

Tip: Give reusable components clear, descriptive titles so other team members can easily find and identify them.

3. Adding reusable pages and sections to other templates

Once you've created a reusable component, you can add it to other templates without recreating its content.

1. Open the template where you want to use the component.
2. In the Template Builder, open the three-dot menu of the relevant page or section.
3. Select the option to insert a reusable page or section.
4. Browse the available reusable components.
5. Select the component you want to insert.

The selected component is inserted with its existing content and settings.

If the page or section you are replacing already contains content, Lumiform will ask you to confirm the replacement.

Important: The inserted component remains connected to the original reusable component. Any future changes to the shared component will also appear in this template.

4. Editing reusable components

You can edit reusable pages and sections just like regular template content.

However, there is one important difference: changes to a reusable component affect every template where it is used.

For example, imagine you have a reusable section called "Fire Safety Checks" that is used in 10 templates.

If you add a new question to this section, the question will automatically appear in all 10 templates.

This also applies when you modify or remove existing questions and change their settings.

Changes made to reusable components are recorded in the activity logs of the affected templates, so you can track updates to shared content.

Important: To edit a reusable page or section, you need editing permissions for all templates using that component. If you do not have access to all of them, you cannot modify the shared component.

5. Detaching a reusable page or section

Sometimes you might want to customize a reusable component for one specific template without affecting the others.

In this case, you can detach the component.

Detaching creates an independent local version of the reusable component.

To detach a component:

1. Open the template containing the reusable page or section.
2. Find the reusable component you want to customize.
3. Open its three-dot menu.
4. Select the option to detach it from the reusable component.
5. Confirm your selection.

Once detached:

• The page or section becomes a local component.
• You can edit it independently.
• Changes to the original reusable component will no longer affect it.
• Changes to your local copy will not affect other templates.

Important: Detaching cannot be undone directly. However, you can turn the detached component into a new reusable component later.

You must have the required editing permissions to detach a component.

Detaching vs. duplicating

Detaching and duplicating are slightly different:

• Detach: Converts the existing reusable component into a local version within the same template.
• Duplicate: Creates a separate local copy while keeping the original reusable component.

You cannot insert the same reusable page or section twice into a single template.

6. Creating and using reusable response sets

Response sets are collections of predefined answer options used in multiple-choice and dropdown questions.

For example, you might create a response set called "Equipment Condition" with these options:

• Good
• Needs Maintenance
• Defective
• Not Applicable

Instead of setting up these options for every question, you can create a response set and reuse it.

Creating a reusable response set

1. Open a template in the Template Builder.
2. Select a question with the Multiple Choice or Dropdown response type.
3. Open the response set configuration.
4. Create or edit the answer options.
5. Give your response set a descriptive name.
6. Enable the option to make the response set available across all templates.
7. Save your changes.

The response set is now available for use in other templates.

Using a reusable response set

1. Open the question where you want to use the response set.
2. Select Multiple Choice or Dropdown as the response type.
3. Find the existing response set in the available options.
4. Select it to apply its answer options.

Editing response sets independently

When working with a shared response set inside a reusable section, you can create a local copy of the response set.

This allows you to change the available answer options without modifying the shared response set used elsewhere.

Important: A shared response set cannot be deleted while another template is using it.

7. Removing or deleting reusable components

There is an important difference between removing a reusable component from one template and permanently deleting it.

Removing a reusable component from a template

When you remove a reusable page or section from a template, it is removed only from that template.

The reusable component remains available in other templates and can still be inserted elsewhere.

Permanently deleting a reusable component

To permanently delete a reusable component, use its deletion option in the component menu.

A reusable component cannot be permanently deleted while it is still being used in other templates.

You must first remove it from all templates where it is used.

8. Reusable components in Analytics

Reusable pages and sections also make it easier to analyze results across multiple templates.

When you filter Analytics by a reusable page or section, Lumiform combines the results from all templates using that component.

For example, if your reusable "Fire Safety Checks" section is used in 10 different templates, you can analyze its results across all 10 templates together.

If you only want to see results from a specific template, apply an additional template filter.

Note: Detached components are treated as independent content. Their results are no longer grouped together with those of the original reusable component.