Case Study:
Yados Form Server

Customer

YADOS GmbH is a company specializing in energy generation, heat transfer and distribution, as well as intelligent control and communication technology. With a holistic approach, YADOS offers its clients solutions ranging from consultation and development to production and commissioning, placing long-term business relationships and sustainability at the forefront. The company highly values collaborative partnerships and the satisfaction of everyone involved in its projects. YADOS products are currently used not only throughout Germany but also in many other European countries.

Project

YADOS GmbH faced the challenge of making the commissioning process for installations more efficient. Previously, service partners had to fill out paper protocols and send them as PDFs or DOC files via email. This method was not only cumbersome but also offered little flexibility for updates and specific adjustments.

The central aim of the project was to develop a web-based form system to digitize and optimize this process.

Individual forms, generated from the SAP ERP system, were needed to allow service partners to digitally document the commissioning of installations. The system had to operate without a direct connection to the ERP system in order to eliminate potential security risks. Instead of using individual authentication, access should be managed through unique URLs.

Data should flow back both by email and via batch import into the ERP system. The forms needed to be available in multiple languages and allow digital signature capture.

Implementation

CosmoCode developed a web-based form system for YADOS GmbH with a PHP-based application that dynamically generates HTML forms from YAML descriptions.

The YAML markup language controls the entire logic and functionality of a form. The YAML configuration allows you to define form elements, metadata, email options, file exports, and translations. Forms can contain both static content and dynamic fields. In addition, CSS styles, tooltips, and validation rules for user input can be specified.

Beyond the standard HTML form elements like text fields, dropdowns, and checkboxes, the system also provides special elements such as signature fields, allowing digital signatures to be captured directly in the browser.

At YADOS, the form YAML files are automatically generated from order data in SAP by the CPQE software speedmaxx. This ensures that service partners receive precisely the forms required for commissioning each specific installation.

CosmoCode has continually maintained and extended the form system to meet YADOS’s evolving needs and support increasingly complex forms. The system has now become an integral part of the commissioning process at YADOS GmbH.

At the client’s request, the finished software was released under an open source license, enabling use beyond the original implementation.

The system has since been replaced at YADOS by the YADOS Form Server v2, which further develops the original concepts and adds a modern, component-based frontend architecture.