Create custom forms - what is the best extension?

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Building custom forms - whats the best extension? Why Joomla? The mission of this blog is to make using joomla simple.
Select LanguageEnglishArabicBulgarianChinese (Simplified)Chinese (Traditional)CroatianCzechDanishDutchFinnishFrenchGermanGreekHindiItalianJapaneseKoreanNorwegianPolishPortugueseRomanianRussianSpanishSwedishCatalanFilipinoHebrewIndonesianLatvianLithuanianSerbianSlovakSlovenianUkrainianVietnameseAlbanianEstonianGalicianHungarianMalteseThaiTurkishBlogAbout this siteContact usBuilding custom forms - whats the best extension?Posted by: administratoron Monday, 04 January 2010 94 1 2 3 4 5 (1 vote, average: 4.00 out of 5)

For some reason Joomla core has never natively been able to create custom forms - I'm not sure if this is due to it originally (pre-1.5 releases) allowing non-article content types to sit in the usual database tables that comprise your site, or something else... However, for years there have been multiple extensions floating around that could let you create forms out of basic elements, like text, email and file fields.

The most basic use of such extensions would be to get rid of Joomla's too-simple contact form system.  To do just that it seems that today there are a good 4 or 5 extensions sitting in the extensions directory that could help you out, though the more digging you do the more you'll find discrepancies between them.  Choosing the right form extension should be done with a balance of features to look for, such as:

A highly active and focused extension developer, A multitude of fields already supported, A large user base, Development of the extension with long-term focus; if the extension has been created to allow the developer to just create 1 or 2 forms on his/her website, it may not be able to do more in the future (given that their initial need for it was satisfied).

Back in 2007 I mentioned the release of a new extension called Fabrik - after spending some time comparing notes between a bunch of form components just now I am back in love with it!  You see, Fabrik takes the approach of forms being essential things for application-building - meaning that with Fabrik, you can create forms to not only email somewhere but store in your database which in turn can be displayed as lists through your site - you you can, for example, use it to build things like a custom library listing of books.

Fabrik was around before last year's CCK-in-joomla copycating began and is interesting in not replacing Joomla's core article content-type but side-stepping it with a flexible system for handling custom content that supports custom theming and additional plug-in support (yes, you can make your own field types).

Already available fields for forms created with Fabrik include; user details, captcha (with recaptcha!), text areas/fields, file uploads, images, database joins and more (including text displays to annotate fields - for 'help' purpose)...

I highly recommend popping over to http://fabrikar.com and checking Fabrik out... Be sure to also pour through their forums to answer any queries you may have before installing/getting started.  If you think there's a simpler, more powerful, or otherwise better form extension out there drop a comment below!

Comments Add NewSearchRSS custom forms posted by munyah on 2010-01-08 I agree that Fabrikar is head and shoulders above most of custom form components, though too complex for most.

For smaller forms, like enhanced contact forms, I prefer ChronoForms.

But cool post... Quote posted by Jim on 2010-01-13 Great Post! I am definitely going to check out Fabrik!
I have used Breezing Forms by Crosstec formerly known as Facile Forms and it has great functionality.
What do you think about it? Quote Learning curve... posted by designguru on 2010-01-15 @munyah - I think you're right, there may be some easier-to-learn extensions which handle forms, but last I checked, the forums on Fabrik's site were fairly active, so it shouldn't be too hard for newbies to get the knowledge they need. (http://fabrikar.com/forums/)

@Jim - I remember Facile Forms from way back but haven't used it in a long time... Will look into Breezing and post back with a review soon!

q./ Quote RSForm Pro! posted by Ian on 2010-01-31 I did some extensive research for myself over a year a go now and though I didn't evaluate Fabrik I found other than simple forms all the extensions were very limited.
RSForm Pro!is a delight - you can format the forms to do almost anything and the form formating is not that difficult - indeed it is very flexible. I don't know java script but can copy and paste and I've been able to get forms is do some amazing things. RDFom Pro! is a paid for extension but the helpdesk is amazingly good and responsive. Quote jseblod cck? posted by Shola on 2010-02-17 Hey there! Have you tried jseblod cck? Or perhaps sobi2? I'm currently searching for a CCK and it's between fabrik and the 2 I just mentioned. Quote posted by Eugen Radulov on 2010-02-18 I'm searching for CCK, to. any info? Quote posted by iLLeT on 2010-02-21 There are 3 top CCK out. K2,Jseblod, and FLEXIcontent. For a blog or magazine style K2 wins right now. K2 works out of the box. For anything else I perfer FLEXIcontent for right now, but it still in beta, and does have some bugs. Jseblod is amazing, but has things built in that I don't need, and the back-end takes time to learn, and does not look to pretty (organized). I also needed a filterf field parameter which Jseblod did not have at the time. Maybe it has it now. FLEXIcontent has multiple field filter which I love. Quote www.thefactory.ro posted by Victor on 2010-02-22 yeah, I like FLEXIcontent, but hate using beta programs Quote posted by Aaron on 2010-02-27 I don't remember seeing Fabrik on the Joomla extensions page. I'll have to give it a try. I tried ChronoForms but couldn't get it to work at all. Hopefully Fabrik will do the trick for me. Quote jSeblod CCK, really crazy posted by dustie on 2010-02-28 To say you that the stable version of jSeblod CCK is out. With incredible list and search features.
I know all Joomla CCK and it's the most powerfull because it's alone to be integrated to Joomla interface, alone to be compatible with a lot of extensions, alone to allow you to design administration like your client want, alone to have search module generator so powerfull, alone...
Yes, you must learn how to use it, but then you do what you want.

I used before K2, but it's not flexible, like "flexi"content which is not compatible with a lot of Joomla extension and it's not integrated to Content Administration Interface of Joomla. Your client must learn again a new extension.

When you manage your content with jSeblod CCK, the user go on Joomla article manager and select not only to build a Joomla article but what you want... Quote www.cms-informer.com posted by Steven Narrow on 2010-03-09 it is good that the extension's development is long focused, it means we can expect updates. Quote digital templates posted by Norbert on 2010-07-02 I used K2, but it is not as flexible as I need. Quote Write comment Name: Email:   Website: Title: UBBCode:         -color-aquablackbluefuchsiagraygreenlimemaroonnavyolivepurpleredsilvertealwhiteyellow -size-tinysmallmediumlargehuge Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image. Powered by !JoomlaComment 4.0 beta2 Blog CategoriesAestheticsCool Joomla SitesHacksScalabilitySite Promotion & SEOThe Joomla CommunityExtensionsSocial NetworkingFurther InformationLatest comments 2010-10-05 04:47:20 ...
Anytime you don't have pandora online...2010-10-04 13:56:48 ...
link:www.cms-4free.tk is the website...2010-10-04 13:53:03 ...
link:www.cms-4free.tk is a cool webs...2010-09-30 03:24:34 ...
C’est cool ! Votre article est cool !...2010-09-23 09:03:04 ...
Hi friend. My partner and i seriously... Friends and collaboratorsAbout the author

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Home Blog Extensions Building custom forms - whats the best extension?  This site uses Seedling's distribution of Joomla.
Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL License.

© 2009 Design Guru. Some rights reserved under license.

 

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Seedling: Commercially supported Joomla!

Posted by: administrator on Thursday, 19 March 2009 86 (2 votes, average: 3.50 of 5)

Seedling distribution of Joomla is fully supported.

Our distribution of Joomla comes suite of excellent extensions and custom design; pre-configured with one its a complete website in a box comes with peace of mind, we offer 2 support options!

Full hybrid package DownloadCommunity support forum AccessNo helpdesk AccessNo emergency support

«Buy / download now»

Our basic package is best for individuals or organizations who are familiar with Joomla and/or Don ' t mind rely exclusively on our community forums for support.

Full hybrid package DownloadCommunity support forum access1 year Helpdesk access with support tickets by email and Web support TicketsEmergency between Office hours

«Buy / download now»

Implement Joomla with confidence; our professional package includes Helpdesk support tickets, so can world-class support from our staff for a whole year.

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The best comment solution for Joomla

Posted by: Qasim Virjee on Monday, 14 January 2009 91 (2 votes, average: 5.00 of 5)

I have advocated the benefits of control which own data for some time to keep - with Proliferance 3rd party hosted services on the Internet in recent years but I had to rethink, therefore it is important not to use hosting content or parts of your site.

The coolest new features I have seen hosted solutions have in recent few years on the net which encourage me rather than local, 3rd party providers in comment are now possible, a service to have as Disqus or IntenseDebate makes the entire System.Seine comment those feature for a site about a JavaScript call to your service!

This is really exciting for many reasons - including:

Not to worry about the version of your Joomla local comment on extension update must, you can comment on optionally included wherever you want on your site because its business of this service provider to your system as make kick-ass as possible, you know that you get all the latest features, when it comes out, you are free.

Recently, the good people @ Rockettheme published a great extension brings the simple or Disqus and IntenseDebate (which belongs to the WordPress people of automatic-) makes to use Joomla and I recommend it installing on your Joomla site today.

We were doing the conversion on like Rokcomment with IntenseDebate here whyjoomla.com this week (we use @ plantseedling.com have done), but are holding to see how a new version of iJoomlacomment looks if Akismet is working correctly and implemented reCAPTCHA...

Honestly if you are rolls out a new Web site who do not have old comments then its a no-brainer; Rokcomment to grab and breathe easy knowing you probably never have, log on to delete your site of spammy comments, that your site users find it easy, your thoughts on your article post.

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WordPress vs Joomla, part 1

Posted by: administrator on Wednesday, 11 March 2009 83 (12 votes, average: 3,67 of 5)

Note:Instead of posting an exhaustive comparison of the two, this will be the first post in a series to look at, what distinguishes them apart, and why you would be better off, either in certain situations.

Both Joomla and WordPress are industry-leading open source publishing platforms for people without knowledge of HTML to blogs to create and publish a page on your site make fast and easy.

But are public, each for different core - built its expanding feature set about blogging is primarily a blogging tool, WordPress requires the use of FTP and custom code - so it is best suited for individuals and small organizations that's not to say that it cannot be used, an ongoing relationship with a Web Developer, providing problems.this upgrade and feature developments you create Web sites with creative aesthetics; very usefull but only that do this takes more elbow grease than with, say, Joomla.

Out-of-the-box, Joomla shows allows you to integrate a powerful menu system to create dynamic Web pages dynamic content - not only for blogs, but other lists or tables of content elements, with just a few clicks a button allows. Innately, Joomla sites can be grown by uploading subroutines (E.g. an e-commerce package or discussion forum) directly via the admin interface in a browser-no need for ftp or using any code; Joomla offers more powerful yet simple scalability than WordPress.

Another important function that sets apart the two, is the ability to edit posts from the front; Manage a site with Joomla because only Admins can much more quickly and visually understandable / a dashboard/admin page of the site, use see anyone with content must submit / edit permissions can just in the front end of a website login, see Edit button [or send new content] and make changes live on the site.

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Joomla! Developer Conference NYC 2009 wrap-up notes

Posted by: Qasim Virjee on Tuesday, 08 December 2009 90 (0 votes, average: 0 of 5)

Its kind of long and a little boring, but if you have time and are interested in figuring the Joomla people want to be what check out of follow-up provides developers, participating in the 2009 Joomla developers Conference in New York recently released:

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Jom social vs Community Builder (round 1)

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Jom Social vs Community Builder (round 1) Why Joomla? The mission of this blog is to make using joomla simple.
Select LanguageEnglishArabicBulgarianChinese (Simplified)Chinese (Traditional)CroatianCzechDanishDutchFinnishFrenchGermanGreekHindiItalianJapaneseKoreanNorwegianPolishPortugueseRomanianRussianSpanishSwedishCatalanFilipinoHebrewIndonesianLatvianLithuanianSerbianSlovakSlovenianUkrainianVietnameseAlbanianEstonianGalicianHungarianMalteseThaiTurkishBlogAbout this siteContact usJom Social vs Community Builder (round 1)Posted by: administratoron Thursday, 02 April 2009 89 1 2 3 4 5 (18 votes, average: 4.22 out of 5)

For those new to these extensions, Community Builder is one of the oldest (and possibly most used) Joomla extensions.  It has a plugin system and lets you quickly develop user profiles for logged in members; with custom fields and member lists.  Because its Open Source and how long its been around, there are a ton of plugins to give you google maps of your members, on-going/live (facebook wall-type) listings of member activity on their profiles and more.

Jom Social isn't Open Source.  Its a commercial release from the Malaysian web development firm Azrul Studio.  They're well known for simple blogging and commenting extensions and have recently released Jom Social - which pretty much gives you the same functionality as Community Builder for $100+ but doesn't require must setup/configuration once installed.

There's been discussion in the Joomla forums about this topic before and I think people are most concerned about the lock-in factor of using commercial software plus the question of how integrated JomSocial is to Joomla itself.

Before I jump into a comprehensive review next week, I wanted to ask for your thoughts on Community Builder vs Jom Social. (Post comments! :) )

Comments Add NewSearchRSS Still didn't try them posted by Federico Capoano on 2009-04-02 Unluckly i have still to try the new version of CB and also JomSocial.

Of course would be better to support the development of CB.. would be a lot worther paying 10 € to CB and let the joomlapolis team work on it full time and having as result a robust and stable open source component than paying 100 € for Jom Social, what happen if the next year the developers stop supporting it? Quote I Switched to JomSocial posted by Jerry on 2009-04-02 I switched to JomSocial due to its functionality out of the box and that Community Builder seemed to move at a snails pace for updates. Quote Precisation posted by Federico Capoano on 2009-04-02 Of course if Jom Social would be released as open source it would be a lot better for the Joomla community. Quote posted by Federico Capoano on 2009-04-02 [...]E' stato pubblicato un post inresessante su WhyJoomla.org intitolato "Jom Social vs Community Builder (round 1)" in cui viene fatto un veloce confronto sulle due estensioni e che invita a partecipare alla discussione sul forum ufficiale di Joomla.org.[...]

http://www.joomlashow.it/news-blog/joomla/jom-social-vs-community-builder/ Quote Gone too far with CB posted by Alig8r on 2009-04-02 JomSocial looks great but I've got so much invested with CB in terms of addons and plugins that integrate with Sobi2, Adsmanager, etc. I'm getting ready to start a userpoints program. It would be nice if there was a trial version of JomSocial. Quote I like the jom social posted by I am trying Jom social on 2009-04-14 I am a big fan of Cb. With that said I love jom social. its pretty pricey and I was worried that I was wasting my money on it. But after seeing it in action and playing with it for a little while I realized its worth every penny. A must have. def. Quote Waiting to Decide posted by Freddie Famble on 2009-04-14 I'm working on a revised website for my church. I want a social networking site for the members side. I'm new to Joomla and am reading a lot about both CB and Jom Social. I have demoed Jom Social but not CB. I'm following this blog very carefully to help me make up my mind.

FF Quote Jom Social all the way. posted by LG on 2009-04-16 The first community extension for Joomla I came across was CB. I just felt it was to bland and lacking, and wouldn't be a good fit for my project without a huge amount of work. Quote CB is good, but Jomsocial makes you more money posted by Ven Tasman on 2009-04-18 I really like CB. I have used it for some 3 years and integrated almost every plugin, module, hack or personal kitchen recipe. But in 9 days of jomsocial i published a community site (www.calendariofemenino.com), and in 2 days i had a community fully working. That is efficient.

I´ll switch everything to joomsocial soon. CB will remain only in my sites for the community of joomla users. Quote JomSocial--permissions control? posted by Annie Mac on 2009-04-20 I've been looking very carefully both at JomSocial as well as community builder. I was first introduced to JomSocial at the recent Denver Joomla Expo in Denver last December. I got a really good look at the program as well as have tested out the demo on the site quite extensively.

First off to agree with the other users, it looks like a more solid set up right out of the box. It has a true social look and feel to it. And it seems there doesn't need to be as much to be customized as far as hacks and plugins.

One thing I find that is severely lacking of jom social is permissions control. Since I'm particularly interested in using it as an application for an internal intranet site, it seems pointless to undermine company e-mail with internal 'messaging', not to mention lack of control/moderation. Quote posted by Mattew Barrie on 2009-04-21 How come jcommunity is not in the picture? :/ Quote Jomsocial is "Open Source" posted by Brent Friar on 2009-04-27 This is just a nitpick, but Jomsocial is open source, it's just not free. Open source means that you have access to the source code of the extension, which you get with Jomsocial. You are free to modify the source to your hearts desire.

I am looking forward to your review. I have used both and in my opinion there is a clear winner. Quote Community Builder annoyingly outdated posted by lars blackmore on 2009-04-27 I've been using CB for quite some time, but the more I try to move forward w/ my site the more I find CB to be a restraint. Case in point: organizing and validating extensions for the component seems to be of no concern to the developers -- something as simple as finding language plugins for CB is a major pain, and it seems to me as if the project is slowly but surely dissolving -- many initiatives have faded out, posts on the forums are left unanswered... Too bad, really, to see this happen to what was once the showcase open source extension package to Joomla. Quote JomSocial--only if you're a programmer/developer posted by alicia on 2009-04-27 only get JomSocial if you're a coder who is able to spend hours upon hours making modifications and fixing problems (like basic issues like search problems (you can only search names), issues with photo uploads not working (think is currently a jomsocial support topic with over 150 posts and thousands of views), and crazy text sizing problems. This is all while CB is obviously cheaper and has a better searching feature.

for $150 it might not be worth it (unfortunately, you can't see the support forum until after you purchase the product and in the pre-sales forums it looks like everything is peachy). i have been frustrated with JS since I bought it, posting questions in the forums all of the time. they bill it as if anyone can use it, but i think it's hard if you're not an experienced developer who can work with databases and do extensive analysis necessary to figure out how to fix your issues. it takes too much time. Quote posted by James on 2009-05-01 I am so lost...I dont whih one i should use Quote Round 1 posted by Saphirus on 2009-05-05 Well, round 1 and round only, CB knockout Social. Quote Joomla developer posted by Joomla developer on 2009-07-15 Well Joom social is really good but with Community builder we can have SOBI2. Sobi2 is really large component and with it so many things can be manged very easily.

Eg if you are running a book directory you can store some books manufacture with address, retails, distributors with country, city, address every thing

So community builder is really vast. Quote Hmmmm posted by Chris on 2009-11-05 The thing is with Joomla is that the modules and components that are available are what make Joomla so great. I dont know much about community builder - but Joomla is brilliant in my mind because of the additional items available.

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London Tours and Devon Cottages
Quote re: posted by Joomla Fan on 2009-12-22 Mattew Barrie wrote:How come jcommunity is not in the picture? :/

Because I own it! Quote Where is the review or round 2? posted by Kathleen on 2010-01-17 Just wondering if you got any further on this subject. I'd love to see a comparison between the two. Quote posted by Behzad on 2010-01-21 Good content that was really usefull Quote posted by Behzad on 2010-01-21 Good content that was usefull Quote JomSocial Kicks CB AsS posted by auni on 2010-01-28 If you think CB beets JS, you need to go to JS and check some of it out... Ha ha ha... Jomsocial is Off the freakin Chain... been with it for a few months... and it's amazing... I grant it, I'm not the most intelligent person on Earth, but I'm happy to promote JS like Crazy... Made my life easy, and i'm a Novice Developer... Never went to any schools or anything, but just good with computers... so JS is good for me... if this doesn't work, I don't care, I'm a little drun... and JS is Cool... Ha ha ha... CB... freakin joke! Quote www.joomlanews.ro posted by Andrei Rubin on 2010-02-22 I prefer JomSocial, because should have waited for ages for CB's updates with fixes Quote CB is hard to get around posted by Stephane on 2010-06-22 I've tested CB and it's hard to get around. Also in my case I need a paid membership system and the CB solution is pretty expensive. So all together Jomsocial wouldn't be more expensive in my case.
I think in term of look and feel Jomsocial is way above CB.
By the way when is round 2 coming???? Quote dush2-nov.ru posted by Bezroksana6 on 2010-07-23 ?????????? ???????, ????? ???????????
Quote re posted by SolidWorks?? on 2010-08-16 Merry all the valentines a happy Double-Seventh Day!God has blessed King ~~ dear, the valentine day will be seventh night of the seventh lunar month joyful!

Quote posted by Zack Morris on 2010-09-01 At my firm we typically develop outside of Joomla, but we've done a number of Joomla sites, and a CB and Jomsocial site.

I can definitely see where, depending on the expectations of the social network, CB is preferred. We're using it for a union and have a bunch of outside-of-the-box customization and modules, which is necessary. Works for them.

But for an out-of-the-box facebook-like social network, Jomsocial rocks my socks. We use it for a niche lifestyle community, and so far it far exceeds CB with little effort.

I really don't expect a ton of responsive support, this stuff is so cheap. I would set personal expectations to be prepared to have design, development, programming resources in either case if you're going to deviate from the default installation.

Otherwise there are plenty of real "commercial" social network developers that you can pay $25k for a hand-holded experience in deploying. Quote Download JomSocial for Free!! posted by www.cms-4free.tk on 2010-10-04 www.cms-4free.tk is the website from where you can download jomsocial and many more extensionsa for FREE!!! Quote Write comment Name: Email:   Website: Title: UBBCode:         -color-aquablackbluefuchsiagraygreenlimemaroonnavyolivepurpleredsilvertealwhiteyellow -size-tinysmallmediumlargehuge Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image. Powered by !JoomlaComment 4.0 beta2 Blog CategoriesAestheticsCool Joomla SitesHacksScalabilitySite Promotion & SEOThe Joomla CommunityExtensionsSocial NetworkingFurther InformationLatest comments 2010-10-05 04:47:20 ...
Anytime you don't have pandora online...2010-10-04 13:56:48 ...
link:www.cms-4free.tk is the website...2010-10-04 13:53:03 ...
link:www.cms-4free.tk is a cool webs...2010-09-30 03:24:34 ...
C’est cool ! Votre article est cool !...2010-09-23 09:03:04 ...
Hi friend. My partner and i seriously... Friends and collaboratorsAbout the author

why joomla? is mainly contributed to by Qasim Virjee - the Principal @ Design Guru

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Home Blog Social Networking Jom Social vs Community Builder (round 1)  This site uses Seedling's distribution of Joomla.
Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL License.

© 2009 Design Guru. Some rights reserved under license.

 

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