Installation
From FacileWiki
Summary : How to install and test drive Facile Forms Author : Peter Koch Created : 2006-04-30 Revisions : Based on : Facile Forms 1.4.4, Joomla 1.0.8 Applies to: Facile Forms 1.0.0 ... 1.4.4, Joomla 1.0.0 ... 1.0.8, Mambo 4.5.1 ... 4.5.3
In case you have allready installed an older release of Facile Forms and want to upgrade, please read the Upgrading guide instead of this installation guide.
Contents |
Download the software
You can download Facile Forms from many Joomla and Mambo repositories. Not all repositories are allways up-to-date however, so if you are unsure you can allways find the very latest release on the Facile Forms site at http://www.facileforms.biz . In case you need a distinct release, all previously published versions are also archived on the facile forms site.
The installer files for release 1.4.4 which is used in this howto are:
- com_facileforms_144.zip : The component is the base application (required)
- mod_facileforms_144.zip : The module allows forms to run in module positions (optional)
- bot_facileforms_144.zip : The mambot allows forms to be embedded within content (optional)
Component, module and mambot must allways match in release number, do not mix releases otherwise the results may be unpredictable. Just download the installer files on to your local harddisk, but do not unzip them; the zip files will be processed as is by the Joomla and Mambo installers.
Installing the component
Installation of Facile Forms is done in 2 parts: The first part is uploading and installing the component software and is identical with installation of most other components. The second part of the installation creates or upgrades the database tables, installs libraries and samples and does the basic configuration.
This two part installation process was designed since Mambo and Joomla do not yet have a mechanism for upgrading components. With this two phase installation we can overcome that limitation and allow a clean upgrade path without loosing all work done in previously installed releases of Facile Forms.
Installing the software
Like any with other component, you need to install Facile Forms from backend. Login to the backend with a admin or superadmin account:
Go to the component installer. In Joomla 1.0.x this is done by clicking the menu Installers and Components:
Go to the Upload Package File section. You can manually enter the full path of the component zip-file, or use the Browse... button immediately at the right side to browse to it. After the path is in the entryfield, click on the Upload File & Install button to continue installation:
After successful upload, click Continue... to finish the first part of the installation:
Scroll down to the list of installed components and veryfy that Facile Forms is listed there now:
Database setup and basic configuration
After the software was installed sucessfully it is time to run the second stage where the database tables are created, libraries and samples get installed and basic configuration is done. The second stage starts automaticly as soon as you access the component menue of Facile Forms the first time after software installation. In Joomla 1.0.8 use the menue and click Components - Facile Forms - Configuration. (In fact you could as well click on any of the other Facile Forms menuitems instead of Configuration):
The window Installation Step 2 opens up with selectors for the database initialization mode and optional samples and libraries. Facile Forms does it's best to detect any previous installation and suggest the proper database table initialization, however make sure it really matches your setup.
For a plain new installation you should have New install selected and Sample forms checked. It is highly recommended to install the sample forms unless you are very familiar allready with Facile Forms (but then you would probably also not be reading this manual). Check Library for backward compatibility if you plan to install and use older packages. Other than a little space usage in the database there is now drawback by installing the backward compatibility lib. You can still remove or install it later if required (same as the samples).
Click Continue to continue with the setup:
When everything works smooth you get the window Installation Complete with the status No messages generated.
Click Continue to continue with the setup:
In the configuration window, enter your email address and then click on Save to save the settings.
You can allways return to the configuration window later by using the menue and clicking Components - Facile Forms - Configuration:
After saving the configuration, installation and setup of Facile Forms is complete and the form manager is displayed.
Verify component installation
Now that installation and setup is complete, you should verify that it basicly works as expected. We don't go into the details too much here, there are other tutorials about form development and such topics, we just do some very basic things here.
A small backend tour
You should still be the form manager now. If not just open it again by clicking Components - Facile Forms - Manage Forms.
Select the samples package from the drop-down list right to Package:.
The list should be populated by the sample forms now. Explanation: Unlike some other components showing everything if no selection is made, the form manager shows so called unpackaged forms only when no package is selected. Since there are no unpackaged forms after a fresh installation the list was empty first.
We dont go into more details about the form manager here. Next we check if the sample forms work in backend.
Together with the samples there was a backend menue installed for two sample forms. They are not typical backend forms which would be for administrative tasks normally, but just to show how it works.
Open the pizza shop menue by clicking Components - Facile Forms Sample Menue - Pizza shop:
The pizza shop is a multipage form. Multipage forms are a special feature of Facile Forms, dont mix them up with chained forms as some other components offer (and which you can also make with Facile Forms of cause). Multipage forms allow switching between different pages of a form without doing a submit inbetween (pretty close to what is called AJAX these days). Try it and click on the Create my own pizza button to see it in action: No matter how slow your server connection may be, the page will swich immediately:
Enter a number of pizzas to order in one of the fields for regular or large size and press the enter button. The total amount will be updated immediately. Then check extras to customize the pizza and again you will immediately see the amount being updated. Click on Order Now when you are satisfied with your pizza design:
Enter your name, address and phone into the entry fields and click on Submit order to submit all data gathered on the previous and the current page to the server. A notice will appear about the data being submitted, and short time later you will see what is called a Thank You page:
The thank you page is the last page displayed by this form. Of cause there could be again buttons on such a page to restart with the next order or show the home page for example. The bottom line is that this form uses two sorts of page switching: one to switch without submission, and one with submit where data is exchanged with server inbetween. There are other tutorials explaining how to use these features in your own forms. Just let me say that examining the samples is one of the best methods for learning Facile Forms:
The pizza sample stores submission data as standard records in the database. This storage method is very easy to implement in a form, however it needs some sql knowledge for further processing. (Submitted data can also be stored within form specific database tables, which is often more convenient for larger form applications). There is however a built in record manager to view, export and some degree process the standard records. To view the records call the record manager by clicking the menu Components - Facile Forms - Manage Records:
In the upper area of the record manager you see some selection elements where one can define which records shall be displayed. There are also funktions available to export or delete records for example. The record created by using the pizza form is displayed in the list in the lower area. By clicking on the submission data you can view the details:
The standard records are made up by a header record which is displayed in the upper three tables, and an arbitrary number of detail records, one row per value, displayed in the lower table:
Frontend quickie
We now also want to do a quick check to run a form in the frontend, since that is the most common way forms are used. They can be run in the main area of the frontend (refered as component space), embedded within content (with the mambot) or in module positions. We assume the module and mambot are not (yet) installed, so we will run the form in the component space.
To run a form in the frontend main area, a menuitem must be created. In this example we use the main menu, however you may use any menu for your cases. Click on Menu - mainmenu to open the main menu list.
Click the New button to start creating a new menuitem:
Click on the component link to create the new menuitem as component:
Enter Pizza Ordering in the name field, and select Facile Forms in the list of components. Then click on the Apply button to make the component parameters appear:
Enter SamplePizzaShop in the form name field. The name must match exactly including upper/lowercase otherwise the form will not be found when the menuitem is later clicked in the frontend. Then click the Save button to save the parameters and close the menuitem:
Check that the new menuitem is present in the list. You may move it to another place of cause if you dont want it at the end of the main menu:
Go to the frontend of your site and refresh. The new pizza ordering item should now be present.
Click the Pizza Ordering menu item to test it:
The form now appears also in the frontend. This concludes our brief test of the component installation:
Installing translation files (optional)
English and german translation files for the messages used by Facile Forms are included in the software. Additionally there may user contributed translation files for other languages available for download on the Facile Forms site at http://www.facileforms.biz, such as:
- facileforms_14x_fr.zip : French
- facileforms_14x_hu.zip : Hungarian
- facileforms_14x_it.zip : Italian
- facileforms_14x_ru.zip : Russian
- facileforms_14x_es.zip : Spanish
The 14x part indicate that these translations files match the facile forms version 1.4.0 and up. Non-matching language file versions may also work with other releases of Facile Forms, however be prepared that they might need a bit tweaking in this case.
To install the translation files all you need to do is unzip the files and upload the translation files to your server:
- language.php goes into directory components/com_facileforms/languages/
- admin.language.php goes into directory administrator/components/com_facileforms/languages/
Installing the module (optional)
To be created.
Installing the mambot (optional)
To be created.