Show a module or form only when it applies

Most apps have a module or a form that only some people need, or that only makes sense for some cases. A display condition keeps that item out of the way until it applies, so the person using the app sees a short, relevant list instead of everything the app can do.

Every module and every form can carry one.

Add a condition

Open the item's settings and find When this module appears (or When this form appears on a form):

• For a module, open it and choose the settings gear. A bare case list keeps its settings on the Search / Results / Details strip.
• For a form, open the form and choose the settings gear.

Choose Add condition. Nova commits a starting condition and opens the full editor in the middle of the screen, where you build the rule out of plain clauses, a value, a comparison, and what to compare it with. Group clauses together with All conditions must match or Any condition can match, and nest as deeply as the rule needs.

The settings panel then shows a one-line summary of the rule, with Edit condition to reopen the editor and Always show to remove it.

Every condition has its own address, so you can link a teammate straight to it.

Read “Where this is checked” first

The editor opens with a short explanation of where the condition takes effect, because that decides what the condition can use. It is not the same for every item.

A module's condition is checked on the app's home screen, before anyone opens a module or picks a case. There is no case yet, so the condition can use fixed values and information about the person signed in, not case information.

A form's condition is checked wherever people choose that form, and that depends on the module it sits in:

• If every form in the module opens an existing case, people pick the case first. Nova checks the condition straight afterwards, for the case they picked, so the condition can read that case's own information. If the module holds only one form, picking a case normally opens it immediately, a case the condition does not match stops at the list instead.
• If any form in the module starts a new case (or collects a plain survey), people choose the form before they pick a case. Nova checks the condition on that form list, where there is no case yet, so it can use fixed values and information about the person signed in.

The editor only offers what the condition can actually use at that point, so you cannot build a rule that reads information CommCare will not have. On a form checked for an already-chosen case, that case's own information is available; information from connected cases, and counts of them, is not.

Watch it work

Turn on Preview from any condition screen and Nova runs the surface the condition governs, against your real case data:

• a module's condition runs the app's home screen, where the module either appears or does not;
• a form's condition runs that form, so you can work through it and step back to the list the condition gates.

Navigate the running app as a worker would; the condition decides what appears. Leaving Preview returns you to the condition you were editing.

Preview never simply hides things without saying so. A screen whose list is being narrowed shows Hidden items with a count; opening it lists the items that are hidden, each with the condition it is waiting on.

The authoring canvases are the opposite: they never hide a conditioned item, so your app's structure always stays visible and editable.

A condition is not a permission

A display condition decides what a screen offers, not who may see the data behind it. The app still carries the hidden item and everything it reads. Use conditions to keep the app focused on what someone needs right now, not to keep data away from people.

Removing a condition

Always show removes the condition and confirms what that changes before it does, from the settings row or from the condition screen. The item then appears every time. Like every other edit in the builder, you can undo it.