FacileForms for Mambo and Joomla! - Is Facile Forms the right choise for me?

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Is Facile Forms the right choise for me?

Written by Peter Koch

Thursday, 17 November 2005

Question

There are several different form solutions available for Joomla! and Mambo. How does FacileForms fit into this collection, and when should I use it?

Answer

Most Form add-ons are exactly what that name implies: A way to more or less easy create forms with more or less features. FacileForms also started that way, but meanwhile it has evolved in a way that it would be better described as a "sophisticated development tool to create full featured interactive Joomla! and Mambo applications". Development of facile forms packages is much easier, faster and more stable than developing components and modules the traditional way. Some samples of such applications are XTDRatings, the Scout Events Package or the Release Notes Manager.

That said, it is however still possible to make simple forms without any knowledge of scripting, and that is exactly what the majority of users are doing. You may take a look into the First Form Movie to get an idea how FacileForms works for simple forms. However be warned: Once you got your first simple forms working you might develop ideas how to enhance it in several ways, and want to do cool things with customized mailings and database stuff that require some scripting knowledge. Exactly that way FacileForms has helped many people learn to create theire own interactive applications.

So when is FacileForms not suited for you? Difficult to say, but at least I would just say don't expect to create super duper applications with FacileForms only by a few mouseclicks. It definitely needs a learn process to explore the full potential, but then there are nearly no limits about what can be done. In case you nead a full featured application but dont have time or will to learn, you better try to find another solution or hire somebody to develop it for you.

Comments

dgdeleon

2006-01-28 17:58:54

jjara

2006-03-24 23:31:32

Simply SUPER EXTRAORDINARIO, Amazing, Thank You.

tricky

2007-07-30 07:23:32

One question that I would think might benefit uptake of this flexible product would be (I'm not a database designer, and don't know how possible it is) would be to know whether or not it is possible to have create a form, and use the data captured to merge with the master site database BUT ONLY ONCE APPROVED BY THE SITE ADMIN.

One example of how this could be used would be to create a form of interesting 'events'. If a user fills in a form populating the fields correctly, you may wish their information to be merged with a master database of 'events'. You would only wish this to happen once you were happy with the content of the submission (which would be nice if you could alter/tailor if necessary), and then this information could be displayed along side the other information on 'event' articles.

Knowing if this is possible would perhaps ensure that people did not waste time with the product if not suitable, but did make better use of it, and understand its limitations, as well as enhance the site capabilities.

Would you agree? Can we make it clearer what the features/benefits are?

Reason = I run a simply Joomla website, and want to make it easy for people to add information to the website, and merge it with my own, but wish to approve all entries to stop inappropriate content.

isc

2007-12-20 17:26:23

I would like to know if i can use facileforms to enable my visitors to submit content to my web, without registering and choosing the categories that i have to submit the item ( publishing after my approval)

thank you!

jbgimenez

2008-10-03 16:42:23