We use cookies to improve your experience. No personal information is gathered and we don't serve ads. Cookies Policy.

ExpressionEngine Logo ExpressionEngine
Features Pricing Support Find A Developer
Partners Upgrades
Blog Add-Ons Learn
Docs Forums University
Log In or Sign Up
Log In Sign Up
ExpressionEngine Logo
Features Pro new Support Find A Developer
Partners Upgrades
Blog Add-Ons Learn
Docs Forums University Blog
  • Home
  • Forums

Developing a Process for Content Managers to add Forms

Development and Programming

onepanman's avatar
onepanman
44 posts
16 years ago
onepanman's avatar onepanman

I have a site that content editors want to be able to create forms on the fly. My initial thought was to use FieldFrame with a FFMatrix so they can create a form, however, my experiment failed when I determined they would still need access to the admin tab to add/remove fields. I do not want them having to edit templates; so the goal was for them to use weblog entries (the template would have conditions setup).

What I was hoping for was that I could setup the custom fields using FF and then the content editor would be able to select the fields they want by way of the weblog publish/editor.

Right now, the site uses Freeform for the existing form submissions. Since the form will need to be dynamic (including the email to field), I don’t believe Freeform will be a correct fit here, and frankly not really sure if the need is there. All that will be needed is a way for the form to submit a custom field to phpmail (ie. no database records are needed for the individual submitted forms).

Is this possible and How?

Greater details follow:

Content Editor 1, say John, wants a form on the site to register for an upcoming event. The event will expire in two weeks (so the form is short term). He will login to EE (with backend publish permissions) and go to Publish to create a weblog. The weblog would then provide John the available fields that he will need for the form (ie. fname, lname, emailaddress, details, and finally a place John can enter the email address the form will be submitted to). The total number of fields he would have access to would be the total I have created from the admin tab (say there are 15 different fields he could choose from). He would then publish the weblog. That weblog would now be active since it is part of a template group. The template which I would need to develop would use conditions so that the fields John selected would be submitted in the form to the person John typed into the email to field.

The layout of the page idea could be controlled using TinyMCE in that entry but, I doubt that would be possible, so I guess the only other option would be to use tables within the template.

Two weeks from now, John would go and either change the status of that entry to close or just delete it completely, so no other forms are submitted.

Say, content editor 2, Susan, wants a form. She will go through the same process, select only the fields she needs (fname, lname, rsvp) and type in her email address.

So forth…

Hopefully I have provided enough information and that some EE guru can provide me with a solution. Thanks for any advise.

       
eyevariety's avatar
eyevariety
158 posts
16 years ago
eyevariety's avatar eyevariety

Hey man, I think this is what you are looking for:

Field Frame Matrix Freeform Builder

       
onepanman's avatar
onepanman
44 posts
16 years ago
onepanman's avatar onepanman

Super! Thanks man!

This is exactly what I was looking for. FieldFrame has really added a lot to Expression Engine. Now just got to figure out how to format the page. I was using a 2-column table with unordered list. So far, no luck getting the table to work right, but I am sure I’ll figure that part out.

       
James Smith's avatar
James Smith
259 posts
16 years ago
James Smith's avatar James Smith

It’s a great technique, but if you don’t need the submissions to be stored in the database it might be a bit overkill… Also the fields need to exist in Freeform before they can be chosen by an editor.

Maybe you could use the built-in EE contact form instead of Freeform, and have each form page dynamically created based on a handful of FF matrices - Use one matrix for each input type so that your editors can add as many fields in whatever format they like rather than having to choose from a fixed list… Include a matrix column for display-order so that the editor can fine-tune the front end display.

Just thinking aloud really…

       

Reply

Sign In To Reply

ExpressionEngine Home Features Pro Contact Version Support
Learn Docs University Forums
Resources Support Add-Ons Partners Blog
Privacy Terms Trademark Use License

Packet Tide owns and develops ExpressionEngine. © Packet Tide, All Rights Reserved.