Increase and Configure Text Area Character Limits in New PEM Forms

Current Limitation

The Text Area field is intended for capturing larger amounts of information, such as descriptions, business justifications, comments, notes, explanations, and detailed user input.

However, in the new PEM experience, the Text Area field appears to be limited to 100 characters, whereas the equivalent Text Area control in the previous PEM supported up to 1,024 characters.

This represents a significant reduction in functionality and creates challenges for many business use cases that rely on capturing detailed information from users.

Business Impact

A 100-character limit is often insufficient for even basic business scenarios.

Examples include:

• Approval justifications
• Request descriptions
• Incident summaries
• Business case explanations
• Exception requests
• Change request details
• User feedback
• Investigation notes
• Risk assessments
• Additional comments and remarks

In many cases, users exceed 100 characters within a single sentence or short paragraph, making the current limitation impractical for real-world business processes.

Comparison with Previous PEM

The previous PEM implementation supported substantially larger text entries, allowing organizations to collect meaningful contextual information without imposing artificial constraints.

The reduction from 1,024 characters to 100 characters appears to be a regression in capability and may require customers to redesign existing forms or shorten information that is important for business processing, auditing, and decision-making.

Requested Enhancement

We request that the Text Area control be enhanced to support larger input sizes and provide greater flexibility.

Option 1: Restore Previous Capacity

Increase the maximum character limit to at least match the previous PEM capability of 1,024 characters.

Option 2: Configurable Character Limit

Allow form designers to configure the maximum character length.

Example:

• Minimum: 100
• Default: 1,024
• Maximum: System-defined limit

Form designers could define values such as:

• 500 characters
• 1,024 characters
• 2,000 characters
• 4,000 characters
• Custom limits based on business requirements

Option 3: Unlimited / Large Text Mode

Provide a "Long Text" option specifically designed for fields expected to contain extensive information, such as business justifications and detailed notes.