Sitecore Forms NOT visible in Form Builder - Strange but True!!!

Hello Sitecore Developers, in this blog we will be touching upon a strange Sitecore scenario i.e. Sitecore Forms are NOT visible in Form Builder even after creating a Form. 

Note: If you are new to Sitecore Forms and are intrigued to learn about creating a Sitecore Form, go through my blog on how to Create a New Sitecore Form

Let's begin with the most common resolution for this issue i.e. 

Rebuild the Sitecore Master Index

Rebuilding the master index will most likely solve this issue.

But guess what, when it's not your day, this issue will persist even after the index rebuild. Refer to the below resolutions if this does not solve your problem.

From Sitecore Launchpad, go to Control Panel > Indexing Manager and rebuild the Sitecore Master Index.

Verify Form Folder Item ID

To verify if this ID is correct. Go to the Core Database

How to switch to the Core Database? 

Ignore this part if you are already familiar to switch to the Core Database

1. Go to Sitecore Launchpad
2. From the Sitecore Launchpad, choose the Desktop icon as shown in the above image.
3. On the bottom right of the window, you will have an option to switch the Database. Select the Core Database.

Once you have switched to the Core Database,go to the following items:

1. SearchConfig: {60F35FD9-88CB-4DF5-8E78-1E9BF5FE181C}
2. AllFormsSearchConfig: {A7C51A03-028A-4414-98DF-116DFAEAE5A6}

Verify the Form Folder ID, if you find any difference in the Form Folder ID present in the Content Editor of Master Database and above items in the Core Database, make sure you create a package from some other Sitecore instance and install the Forms Folder item of Master Database to this instance.

Note: It is not recommended to change the Form Folder ID in the SearchConfig and AllFormsSearchConfig to fix the issue.

Verify if the indexAllField is TRUE

How to check if indexAllField is True?

• In your root folder (website) > App_Config > Sitecore > Content Search > Verify the Default Configuration file of Solr
• To check the indexAllField in runtime: 
• https://{your-domain}/sitecore/admin/showconfig.aspx

These are some of the steps that will help you to see the indexAllField value.

Generally, in lower environments such as in our Local, UAT the indexAllField is set to true, hence in these environments, it is less likely to have this issue. 

But in the Production Environment to avoid having a larger index size, the indexAllField might be set to false.

Since Sitecore Form requires its field items to be indexed, the Forms will  not be visible here. To make this work, there is an amazing article published by the Sitecore Support Team. Refer to the article and add the patch file as mentioned there. Link to the Sitecore Support Blog

Note: When the indexAllFields is set to false, there might be a chance that system Fields isTemplate and Hidden are NOT indexed. In such a case, the Sitecore Forms will not be visible.

Will adding the fields in the indexes solve the issue?

Yes, but to reflect the newly added field in the indexes you will have to rebuild the indexes. Once the rebuild is successful your Forms will be visible in the Form Builder.

If you are using Azure Search Service

I tried all the above steps mentioned in this blog and still didn't get success. The below procedure finally helped me resolve the issue and now my forms were visible in the Form Builder.

In Azure Portal, go to the Azure Search Service > Overview Tab > Indexes. This will give you the list of all the indexes. 

Verify if there is only one Sitecore Master Index - Sometimes there are two Sitecore Master Indexes created. In this case, when you try to rebuild the master index, it won't index properly thus impacting the visibility of forms.

I deleted both the Sitecore Master indexes present and again performed an index rebuild. Once the index rebuild was successful, only a single master index was created. This resolved the issue and my Sitecore Forms were back.

Hope this blog was helpful. 

See you in my next blog. Till then Keep Learning and Keep Growing!! 😊