ChronoForms 3.1 for Joomla! site Cookbook. 80 recipes for building attractive and interactive Joomla! forms Oświęcim

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. Spis treści: ChronoForms 3.1 for Joomla! Site Cookbook Table of Contents ChronoForms 3.1 for Joomla! Site Cookbook Credits About the Author About the Reviewer Preface What this book covers What you need for this book Who this book is for Conventions Reader feedback Customer support Errata Piracy Questions 1. Creating a Simple Form Introduction Downloading and installing ChronoForms Getting ready How to do it... Theres more... See also Creating a simple form with the Form Wizard Getting ready How to do it... How it works... Sending the form results by e-mail Getting ready How to do it... How it works... See also Showing a "Thank You" page Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... Editing your form with the Wizard Edit Getting ready How to do it... How it works... Redirecting the user to another page Getting ready How to do it... There's more... See also Backing up and restoring your forms Getting ready How to do it... There's more... 2. E-mailing Form Results Introduction Replying to e-mails Getting ready How to do it... See also Getting your e-mails delivered safely How to do it... How it works... Sending a "Thank you" e-mail to the form submitter How to do it... Choosing e-mail addresses from a list Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... See also Attaching uploaded files to the e-mail Getting ready How to do it... See also Attaching a "standard" file to the e-mail Getting ready How to do it... How it works... Creating a "dynamic" subject line using info from the form Getting ready How to do it... How it works... 3. Styling your Form Introduction Using ChronoForms default style Getting ready How to do it... See also Switching styles with "Transform Form" Getting ready How to do it... How it works... See also Adding your own CSS styling Getting ready How to do it... There's more... Browser sniffing Conditional CSS Putting several inputs in one line Getting ready How to do it... Adding your own HTML Getting ready How to do it... See also 4. Saving Form Data in the Database Introduction Creating a table to save your results and linking your form to it Getting ready How to do it... How it works... Using the options in Create Table Checkbox groups and multi-select drop-downs See also Viewing your saved form results Getting ready How to do it... See also Updating and changing DB Connections Getting ready How to do it... There's more... Removing an input Reordering columns Updating the e-mail template Exporting your results to Excel or a CSV file Getting ready How to do it... How it works... 5. Form Validation and Security Introduction Making "required" fields Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... See also Specifying the types of input that are allowed text, numbers, dates, and so on Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... See also Customizing validation error messages Getting ready How to do it... How it works... Adding extra security with "server-side" validation of submitted information Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... Adding several validations Combining error messages Styling error messages Checking the database in a validation Filtering form data See also Getting the user to confirm their data before submission Getting ready How to do it... How it works... See also Adding an ImageVerification captcha / anti-spam check Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... Debugging when the Captcha image won't display Debugging when you see a server error Changing the layout of the ImageVerification element Adding a "refresh" link to the Image Verification element See also Adding a reCAPTCHA anti-spam check Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... Configuring the reCAPTCHA plug-in reCAPTCHA keys reCAPTCHA setup options Problems with reCAPTCHA See also Limiting form access to registered users Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... Redirecting the user Redirecting the user with a message See also 6. Showing your Form in your Site Introduction Including your form in an article using the ChronoForms plugin Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... Debugging the ChronoForms plugin See also Showing your form on selected pages using the ChronoForms module Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... Controlling the display of a module See also Linking to your form from Joomla! menus Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more . . . Passing extra parameters Creating administrator menu items Using a form to create a Joomla! article Getting ready How to do it... How it works... See also Redirecting users to other Joomla! pages after submission Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... Showing a message after redirection Showing a message before redirection Redirecting conditionally See also 7. Adding Features to your Form Introduction Adding a validated checkbox Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... Validating the checkbox server-side Locking the Submit button until the box is checked See also Adding an "other" box to a drop-down Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... Hiding the whole input See also Sending an SMS message on submission Getting ready How to do it... How it works... Signing up to a newsletter service Getting ready How to do it... How it works... See also Adding a conversion tracking script Getting ready How to do it... Showing a YouTube video Getting ready How to do it... How it works... Adding a barcode to a form e-mail Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... Adding a character counter to a textarea Getting ready How to do it... How it works... Creating a double drop-down Getting ready How to do it... There's more... See also 8. Uploading Files from your Forms Introduction Adding a file upload field to your form and setting the allowed types and sizes Getting ready How to do it... How it works... See also Saving files to different folders Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... Renaming files Getting ready How to do it... How it works... Linking files to e-mails Getting ready How to do it... How it works... Resizing and copying image files Getting ready How to do it... How it works... See also Displaying images in e-mails and articles Getting ready How to do it... There's more... Adding an image to an article See also Troubleshooting problems with files Getting ready How to do it... See also 9. Writing Form HTML Introduction Moving an existing form to ChronoForms Getting ready How to do it . . . How it works... Moving a form with JavaScript Getting ready How to do it... There's more... Changing the form name in ChronoForms Fixing conflicts with scripts using jQuery Loading snippets into the page head Moving a form with CSS Getting ready How to do it... There's more... Loading snippets into the page head Loading browser-specific CSS files into the page head Creating a form with Wufoo Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... Changing the Wufoo theme template Using a form from the Wufoo gallery Adding validation to a Wufoo Form Creating a form in Dreamweaver Getting ready How to do it... 10. Creating Common Forms Introduction Creating a simple newsletter signup Getting ready How to do it... See also Creating a form to link to Acajoom Getting ready How to do it... There's more... Creating a form to publish a Joomla! article Getting ready How to do it... See also Creating a "Contact us" form Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... Creating an image or document upload form Getting ready How to do it... There's more... Adding a file upload to an existing form See also Creating a multi-page form Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... See also 11. Using Form Plug-ins Introduction Controlling form access by user group, day, and/or time with the Watchman plug-in Getting ready How to do it... How it works... See also Creating multi-lingual forms with the Multi-Language plug-in Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... Translating form error messages Translating form images Translating more complicated code Including HTML Including files Including variables Translating e-mail templates and thank you pages Showing and editing saved information with the Profile plug-in Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... See also Registering users with the Joomla! Registration plug-in Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... Sending custom e-mails Displaying custom messages Creating a "silent" registration Creating a "Name" from other field inputs Creating a Username from other fields Allowing secret registration Logging in new members automatically Saving extra data Changing user parameters Creating a PayPal purchase form with the ReDirect plug-in Getting ready How to do it... See also 12. Adding Advanced Features Introduction Using PHP to create "select" dropdowns Getting ready How to do it . . . How it works... There's more... Creating numeric options lists Creating a drop-down from an array Using Ajax to look up e-mail addresses Getting ready How to do it . . . How it works... Getting information from a DB table to include in your form Getting ready How to do it... How it works... See also Show a form in a light-box Getting ready How to do it... How it works... There's more... Keeping our options open Adding PHP to the page Tracking site information Getting ready How to do it... Controlling e-mails from form inputs Getting ready How to do it... There's more... Disabling e-mails Changing the attached files See also Building a complex multi-page form Getting ready How to do it... See also Troubleshooting problems with forms How to do it... See also Index O autorze: Bob Janes has been involved in IT of one form or another throughout his working career. In the last decade he’s worked mainly on CMS support and development, first with E-Xoops, more recently with Joomla! and WordPress. He’s been the principal support person for ChronoForms for the last three years and has made more than 12,000 posts answering user questions. Bob has an extensive knowledge of Joomla! and WordPress and he enjoys solving the problems involved in building interactive sites on these CMSs.