FlexForms

FlexForms is a form extension built by developers, for developers. It:

• is built for Joomla 3.x
• is based on F0F (you need to install it, it's not the included FOF within the Joomla! Core)
• uses JForm XML files for the form building and validation
• has a per-form layout override system to allow individual styles
• triggers the Joomla plugin system to allow special tasks when submitting a form
• it offers per-form language files for multilingual forms
• sends, as an option, email to administrators and form submitters
• attaches, as an option, uploaded files to these emails

Getting started

Install FlexForms

No rocket science required - just install it using the normal Joomla installer.

Define your forms

You are a developer. A genius! And as a genius, you don't need a fancy GUI in order to create a simple form.

Instead, you're using the good old Joomla! JForm XML syntax to define your form, and save it in

/media/com_flexforms/forms/FORMNAME.xml

So, for example to get a dead easy contact form, you create a file called "contact.xml" with the following XML tree:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<form>
    <fieldset>
        <field name="title" type="list" required="true" size="1" label="Title">
            <option value="">- Select -</option>
            <option value="Mr">Mr</option>
            <option value="Mrs">Mrs</option>
        </field>

        <field name="firstname" type="text" required="true" label="Firstname" />

        <field name="lastname" type="text" required="true" label="Lastname" />

        <field name="message" type="textarea" cols="50" rows="5" label="YOur Message" />
    </fieldset>
</form>

Configure your form

In the backend, navigate to "Components->FlexForms", hit "New" and configure your form:

• Title: the human readable form title that is, by default, also used as the heading
• Status: self explanatory, huh?
• Layout: select the layout that is used to display your form - see below for a more detailed explanation
• Form: select the XML file that contains your form definition
• Send mail to admin: select if an email with the submitted form should be sent to the administrator(s)
• Administrators: provide one or more email addresses that should receive the form; comma-separate multiple addresses
• Admin-mail subject: self explanatory
• Admin-mail text: define the mail body. You can use placeholders that follow the pattern {LOWERCASEFIELDNAME}
• Admin-mail attachments: attach uploaded files to the admin mail
• Send mail to user: select if an email should be sent to the user who has submitted the form
• User emailfield: enter the name of the field where the user has entered his email address
• User-mail subject, text, attachments: see above

Afterwards, hit save, create a menu item and you're ready to go!

Advanced stuff aka "the fun part"

Using layout overrides

This is where the fun part starts! With FlexForms, you have the possibilty to create per-form layout overrides! This gives you endless flexibility and was my original motivation to write FlexForms.

You have three choices:

1. use the default layout provided by the component.
2. use a form specific layout file that is saved in the same folder as the XML. To do this, create your layout (by creating a copy of the default component layout) and save it as FORMNAME.php in the /media/com_flexforms/forms directory. Afterwards, select "Media directory" as layout option in the form parameters.
3. use a custom, form-independent layout. To do this, create your layout and save it in the html/com_flexforms/form directory of your template. Afterwards, select it in the form parameters.

Using language files

You can create per-form language files to create multi-language forms. Save your language strings in an INI-file named com_flexforms.FORMNAME.ini in the /media/com_flexforms/language/{LANG}/ directory.

Using plugins

FlexForms triggers a ton of plugin events during execution. To make use of these triggers, create a new plugin, add it to the "flexforms" plugin group and use one of the following triggers:

• onBeforeFlexformsReturnForm
• onBeforeFlexformsValidate
• onAfterFlexformsValidate
• onBeforeFlexformsSendOwnerMail
• onBeforeFlexformsSendSenderMail
• onAfterFlexformsSubmit
• onBeforeFlexformsParseSenderEmailtext
• onAfterFlexformsParseSenderEmailtext
• onBeforeFlexformsParseOwnerEmailtext
• onAfterFlexformsParseOwnerEmailtext

FAQ

• Does FlexForms store submitted forms in the database? No, but you can write a plugin for this!
• Does FlexForms support multipage-forms No, but you can create a layout override for this!
• Does FlexForms support captchas Nope, but you can write a plugin for this!