ChronoForms 3.1 for Joomla! site Cookbook

ChronoForms 3.1 for Joomla! site Cookbook

By : Bob Janes

Buy this Book

ChronoForms 3.1 for Joomla! site Cookbook

By: Bob Janes

Buy this Book

Overview of this book

Joomla! is a fantastic way to create a dynamic CMS. Now you want to go to the next step and interact with your users. Forms are the way you ask questions and get replies. ChronoForms is the extension that lets you do that and this book tells you how. From building your first form to creating rich form based applications we will cover the features that ChronoForms offers you in a clear hands-on way. Drawing on three years daily experience using ChronoForms and supporting users there is valuable help for new users and experienced developers alike. We will take you through form development step by step: from creating your first form using ChronoForms’ built-in drag-and-drop tool; validating user input; emailing the results; saving data in the database, showing the form in your Joomla! site and much more.Each chapter addresses a topic like ‘validation’ or ‘email’ and the recipes in the chapter each address a different user question from the beginners’ question ‘How do I set up an email?’ through to more advanced questions like using some PHP to create a custom email Subject line.Over eight chapters and eighty recipes we cover all of the ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ that new users and developers have about using ChronoForms. The recipe structure allows you to pick and choose just the solution that you need.

ChronoForms 3.1 for Joomla! Site Cookbook

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewer

Preface

Free Chapter

Creating a Simple Form

Introduction

Downloading and installing ChronoForms

Creating a simple form with the Form Wizard

Sending the form results by e-mail

Showing a "Thank You" page

Editing your form with the Wizard Edit

Redirecting the user to another page

Backing up and restoring your forms

E-mailing Form Results

Introduction

Replying to e-mails

Getting your e-mails delivered safely

Sending a "Thank you" e-mail to the form submitter

Choosing e-mail addresses from a list

Attaching uploaded files to the e-mail

Attaching a "standard" file to the e-mail

Creating a "dynamic" subject line using info from the form

Styling your Form

Introduction

Using ChronoForms default style

Switching styles with "Transform Form"

Adding your own CSS styling

Putting several inputs in one line

Adding your own HTML

Saving Form Data in the Database

Introduction

Creating a table to save your results and linking your form to it

Viewing your saved form results

Updating and changing DB Connections

Exporting your results to Excel or a CSV file

Form Validation and Security

Introduction

Making "required" fields

Specifying the types of input that are allowed — text, numbers, dates, and so on

Customizing validation error messages

Adding extra security with "server-side" validation of submitted information

Getting the user to confirm their data before submission

Adding an ImageVerification captcha / anti-spam check

Adding a reCAPTCHA anti-spam check

Limiting form access to registered users

Showing your Form in your Site

Introduction

Including your form in an article using the ChronoForms plugin

Showing your form on selected pages using the ChronoForms module

Linking to your form from Joomla! menus

Using a form to create a Joomla! article

Redirecting users to other Joomla! pages after submission

Adding Features to your Form

Introduction

Adding a validated checkbox

Adding an "other" box to a drop-down

Sending an SMS message on submission

Signing up to a newsletter service

Adding a conversion tracking script

Showing a YouTube video

Adding a barcode to a form e-mail

Adding a character counter to a textarea

Creating a double drop-down

Uploading Files from your Forms

Introduction

Adding a file upload field to your form and setting the allowed types and sizes

Saving files to different folders

Renaming files

Linking files to e-mails

Resizing and copying image files

Displaying images in e-mails and articles

Troubleshooting problems with files

Writing Form HTML

Introduction

Moving an existing form to ChronoForms

Moving a form with JavaScript

Moving a form with CSS

Creating a form with Wufoo

Creating a form in Dreamweaver

Creating Common Forms

Introduction

Creating a simple newsletter signup

Creating a form to link to Acajoom

Creating a form to publish a Joomla! article

Creating a "Contact us" form

Creating an image or document upload form

Creating a multi-page form

Using Form Plug-ins

Introduction

Controlling form access by user group, day, and/or time with the Watchman plug-in

Creating multi-lingual forms with the Multi-Language plug-in

Showing and editing saved information with the Profile plug-in

Registering users with the Joomla! Registration plug-in

Creating a PayPal purchase form with the ReDirect plug-in

Adding Advanced Features

Introduction

Using PHP to create "select" dropdowns

Using Ajax to look up e-mail addresses

Getting information from a DB table to include in your form

Show a form in a light-box

Tracking site information

Controlling e-mails from form inputs

Building a complex multi-page form

Troubleshooting problems with forms

Customer Reviews

5 star

4 star

3 star

2 star

1 star

Backing up and restoring your forms

We're going to complete this first chapter with a little security recipe and back up the form on which we worked so hard.

ChronoForms stores the Form information in the Joomla! database so it will get backed up whenever your database is backed up, but it's still often useful to take a backup copy.

This is also the best way of transferring a form from one site to another or to send it to someone else for help in debugging problems.

Getting ready

Any ChronoForms form will do fine.

How to do it...

1. Open the ChronoForms Forms Manager in your browser. Notice that towards the right of the Toolbar there is a group of three icons labeled Backup Form, Backup Forms, and Restore.
2. Next to the name of each form in the Forms Manager list is a checkbox that we use to select forms for actions like Backup. Check the box by newsletter_signup, and then click the Backup Form icon in the toolbar.
3. The Save File dialogue from your browser will open and you can save the form backup file in a convenient local folder.
Note
ChronoForms backup files are named form_name.cfbak. They are plain text files and can be opened in Notepad or any text editor.
4. Now let's restore the form back into ChronoForms again. This will create a second form with the same name which is a potential problem, but we'll sort that out.
Click the Restore Form icon in the toolbar and you'll see a new screen:
5. Click the Browse... button, navigate to the newsletter_signup.cfbak file that you just saved, and click the submit file button to restore the form.
Note
Notice the Cancel icon to the top right just in case you don't want to be here.
6. When the form is restored you are returned to the Forms Manager; there is a System Message saying Restored Successfully and there is a new entry in the Forms list. However, the new entry is almost identical to the previous one.
ChronoForms can tell the difference between these two forms here because they have different Form IDs (here it is 1 and 3; yours may be 1 and 2). However, when the forms are in use on your site the names are used to distinguish them, not the IDs; so having two forms with the same name can be a real problem.
7. You can change the name by using Wizard Edit and resaving with a different name, or you can click the Form name link to open the Form Editor, change the name in the first box in the General tab, and resave the form.

Note

Use the icons at the top right to save the renamed form — Save will save and return you to the Form Manager; Apply will save and keep you in the Form Editor; Cancel will return you to the Form Manager without saving any changes (since the last Apply or Save).

There's more...

You'll remember that there's also a Backup Forms icon. You can use this to backup several forms (or all of your forms) at the same time. Just select the forms using the checkboxes by the Form names and then click the Backup Forms icon. All of your forms will be backed up into a single .cfxbak file. This can be restored in just the same way as a .cfbak file for a single form.

Using Backup and Restore is a complicated way to make a copy of a form. You can use the Copy Form icon in the toolbar instead. Again, you must change the name of one of the two forms before trying to use them.

Lastly, if you end up with copies that you don't need, the Delete icon in the toolbar will delete one or more forms. There is no confirmation request and no undelete; so use with care!

ChronoForms 3.1 for Joomla! site Cookbook

By : Bob Janes

ChronoForms 3.1 for Joomla! site Cookbook

By: Bob Janes

Overview of this book

Related Content you might be interested in

Current Title:

ChronoForms 3.1 for Joomla! site Cookbook

Backing up and restoring your forms

Getting ready

How to do it...

Note

Note

Note

There's more...