Form Builder for Web Designer

**Charles Moir** · 08 March 2009, 06:06 PM

I've not looked into this in any great detail, but know of two more.
Jotform.com has a truly great online Ajax form designer.
Secondly Google Gadgets have quite a few forms that seem to work nicely. Search for Formlogix to see a few in the Google Gadget directory.

**w00dy** · 08 March 2009, 08:14 PM

Set you placeholder size in Xara first and then alter the form dimensions to match in Coffeecup. Paste the generated CC HTML into the Web Properties of the placeholder in Xara.

BQ · 08 March 2009, 09:33 PM

Thanks Woody.

**megadoc** · 09 March 2009, 01:32 PM

Jotform looks pretty good...it also has secure forms, as does Formspring --- as for the price, I include the forms - depending on the need as part of the quote --- and install analytics (Google or other), set up the forms and auto responders --- if conditional logic is required, Formspring can't be beat...and it's easier to just log into one place for the client data (especially if you have more than 10 clients using the forms), plus it's branded in my company name and the Iphone apps are starting to draw interest. Like many of you, I have cut way back on my spending and was running about $300 a month on SaaS services...that's down to about $30 a month now...CoffeeCup keeps putting out new stuff and it's always decent --- they have a new website access manager thats look pretty good, but it's not included in my software package and I think I'll buy XWD before anything else.

http://www.coffeecup.com/website-access-manager/

http://www.formspring.com/features.html

am checking out the Google Gadgets right now...

**Ross Macintosh** · 10 March 2009, 08:23 AM

Charles - I just had a look at Jotform - thanks for the link. While there I noticed they will licence it. It had me thinking that maybe Xara-WD Version 2 could offer those capabilities built-in or as an online tool. By doing so Xara-WD would offer more comprehensive functionality - even paypal integration.

**ghol** · 12 March 2009, 02:21 AM

I have coffecup form builder and have not tried out with XWD and well I still think Xara should Consider this features as in future updates.

I have a program called Web Page Maker (it's WYSIWYG HTML web kind authoring with no coding) does not require any coding for basic Email form creation and all you have to do is just drag and drop the form elements and insert your Email address and and the rest would take cared by software itself . And since Xara Web Designer is combination of flash and WYSIWYG HTML web kind authoring tool I am loving it.

So Xara I would lick my fingers if there would be just extension of form builder that nicely fit and co-operate within XWD environment.

**samrc** · 12 March 2009, 02:10 PM

I am GLAD XWD does not have forms included.
Web building software is not the place for forms.
Form code needs to evolve FASTER than the HTML of the web page. If you build forms within the software and don't keep up with every update, your form can be at risk. That puts your SITE at risk.

Case in point:
GlobalSCAPE offered a web building program called CuteSiteBuilder (formerly Trellix) for years and had FORMS creation and processing built into the software. Even with many limitations built into the CSB forms, eventually those forms became so SPAMMY and insecure. Technology moves forward and spammers look for new and inventive ways to get around security so they can use the web forms to send out spam. Some hosts will yank a site down to stop a spammer from using the form. Have seen it happen and it is not pretty!

Many of the CSB users dropped the built-in forms and switched to other sources to produce and process forms, many online services. The online form options tend to keep up with security more often and keep your site from being invaded. AND if the form IS insecure and you get invaded, these online form services use IFRAMES so your host server does not handle the load, the form server does. Helps to protect your site in yet another way!

Some of the services CSB users have used over the years with very good results.
I am confident they will all work with XWD:
THESE HAVE FREE OPTIONS:
- JOTFORM: http://www.jotform.com
- FORMSITE: http://www.formsite.com/pricing.html
- EMAILMEFORM: http://www.emailmeform.com (I really like this service because I can tweak the code successfully. This one can work inside an iframe so your thank you page will appear where the form is-great for tight space or for full page use. After tweaking the code a bit, I put a tiny iframe form in the bottom of the left border for some friends of mine.)

THESE HAVE PAID OPTIONS:
- JOTFORM: http://www.jotform.com
- EMAILMEFORM: http://www.emailmeform.com (I really like this service)
- FORMSITE: http://www.formsite.com/pricing.html
- OMNISTARFORMS: http://www.omnistarforms.com/overview.htm
- WEB-FORM-BUDDY: http://www.web-form-buddy.com/
- WHIZ-MAIL: http://www.whiz-mail.cc/pricing.php

INSTALLED PROGRAMS:
By far, the coffeecup form software was chosen as the most convenient and easy method for those people that used an installed piece of software. http://www.coffeecup.com/form-builder/

And of course a few people with more technical abilities turned to using installed SCRIPTS so they could process their own forms on their own server. The users of CSB are similar to the users of XWD: neither group really wants to deal with heavy coding so I won't list any of the scripts they implemented.

Eventually, GlobalSCAPE forms were totally discontinued, not supported by the company, form server dismantled and all CSB users had to switch away from the CSB forms. And eventually the CSB web building software was phased out too. There are a lot of CSB users that will be switching away ffrom that program over the next few years. We are debating the merits of several alternative programs on my own forum (I have a support site for the defunct product) and XWD is now one of our choices, ranking higher so far than many of the other WYSIWYG builders.

**dogbertbh** · 12 March 2009, 02:45 PM

I have Windows based hosting from GoDaddy for my sites - does anyone know if this means I can't use CoffeeCup because their Windows hosting doesn't support PHP?

**samrc** · 12 March 2009, 04:06 PM

The Windows servers plans they list on their site show support for ASP and PHP, even on the economy plan. The latest version of coffeecup supports ASP and PHP. On a Windows platform, I would try the ASP version of the form. And the coffeecup software does have a free trial so worth a try!

h**p://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/hosting/shared.asp?ci=9009#tabs
(click on compare windows plans).

**Spinny** · 25 March 2009, 04:01 PM

I believe the height and width info for the form you've created are defined/spelled out in the .xml file. It would probably be best to get that info and then resize the placeholder to match.

For what it's worth CoffeeCup just came out with a new version of the Form Builder. Upgrades are free to registered users.