Form Builder for Web Designer

First of all, I would like to say how IMPRESSED I am with Web Designer. I am just AMAZED at what it can do. To say I am blown away by it is an understatement.

I would like to congratulate Charles and all of his staff on the launch of this state-of-the-art software. I would also like to thank John (Covexer) and all the other great people here at TG for all their help, support and advice.

I've been doing a lot of testing and the only thing left on my list is to find a good Form Builder that I can incorporate into Web Designer.

I have checked out Coffeecup and JotForm that were recommended here, but want to continue investigating to see what else is out there.

Before I begin my search, is there anything specific that a Form Builder needs to have in order to be compatible with Web Designer?

Actually, I am looking around for the same thing (form maker)
I think web designer is great, however i couldnt put any forms like coffecup makes....If you can find any solution to that, i would be appreciated if you inform me...

thanks

Coffeecup should work, you might have to upload some code and paste some code - have not used it in awhile and just saw that they improved it.

If you want an awesome form builder I'll let you in on one of my (formerly) secret weapons - www.formspring.com --- awesome form builder --- I haven't used it with XWD yet but have with Serif WPX2 and several CMS platforms and it works great. Has conditional logic built in, even has security options and Paypal integration...there are a few others --- zoho.com has one now along with really nice versions of every sort of web based (saas) tool from CRM to invoicing - but of them all, Formspring has been my favorite (and no, I do not work for them). I'll give Coffeecup a shot just to see if it works and will do the same with Formspring and Zoho...

btw, another killer product that is very low cost --- www.editgrid.com --- spreadsheet and data tool --- but you can push live data through web pages and such.:cool:

megadoc,

Thanks for the info on your "secret weapons"; I promise not to tell anyone.

BQ

Coffeecup form builder is very good. We use it a lot. Can recommend.

Yep, I use use Coffeecup form builder too. Very easy and quick. Downside, it uses Flash. Upside, it's a one-off purchase.

Formspring looks good, but expensive.

I agree, Formspring looks good but is quite expensive. You probably get what you pay for, but I'm looking for a less costly application. I also like coffecups one-off purchase price so they are at the top of my list so far.

Coffeecup works OK.... http://www.bostoninternet.co.uk/index.htm

It's also easy to match the size of the form to that of the placeholder.

You get see the specs here: http://www.coffeecup.com/form-builder/

Woody,
Thank you for the link to the site designed with Web Designer that has the Coffeecup form. I like how it sizes to fit the placeholder. Looks very professional on the page. I've downloaded the trial version so I'll be testing it sooon.

Woody,

I'm testing Coffeecup form. How did you get the form to size to Web Designer's placeholder?

BQ

edit: I did change the width and height in 2 places in the html code that was created by Coffeecup, but that didn't help.

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.

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.

Thanks Woody.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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?

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).

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.

Why don't you try phpjabbers at http://phpjabbers.com/ It is worth every penny.

www.formspring.com just came out with some killer new features, more data tools, some web analytics built into the forms --- integration with www.freshbooks.com and others...

I had a promo code but it expired - if I get another one I'll post it...:cool:

Lionel, phpjabbers looks great...thanks!!! Hours of fun there...

Doc:p

Hi,
I have used Jotform to build my web form. However, it resulted turkish letter characters, such as ş, ç, ğ, not to be seen when sent. Recipient's form doesn't show this letter characters. Is there any thing that I can do in the HTML codes generated by the Jotform, or do I have to use any other web form building program which addresses this problem? If there are such programs what are their names.
Thanks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BQ

I agree, Formspring looks good but is quite expensive. You probably get what you pay for, but I'm looking for a less costly application. I also like coffecups one-off purchase price so they are at the top of my list so far.

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Can anyone teach/tell me the whole procedure to embed the HTML code of the CoffeeCup Web Form by using the placeholder thingy ?
Plz reply in detail.
I have tried several ways but unfortunately couldn't make it out :(

Waiting for a promp response.

Hey Guys - great discussion. I just bought the Coffee Cup form software and tried to insert the flash code into an html placeholder on my WD7 index page. The insert never completes. Any idea about what might be wrong? The dot web file is attached.

Aamir - Just because you use large text does not make your question any more important or guaranty that anybody will help you. :rolleyes:

What is the code generated by CoffeeCup form builder and where do they say the code goes (HEAD? BODY? Both?)

CoffeeCup has a support page and maybe you should ask them how to add it to Xara http://www.coffeecup.com/help/

I have been using coffeecup form builder with my WebDesigner sites. You can make great forms with it. You paste ONLY the html code in the placeholder. You have to upload the other 4 files to the parent directory of your web site, not put them in a placeholder.

Coffeecup forms are flash forms that do NOT show up on any browser that does not support flash. That includes most cell phone browsers, including the iPhone.
I add a text line on the form page with an email link to use if they can not see the form.
Coffeecup says that they are going to have an update that will not use flash, but I read that post on their forum 6 months ago.

To clarify, when I say the paste never completes here is what I mean:
- copy the html embed code from Coffee Cup Web Form Builder
- paste it into the html option in WD7 placeholder
- the "cyclone" mouse cursor symbol keeps spinning and the paste never completes
- cannot end the process - WD7 menus don't work, the ctl-del to open the Windows task manager does not respond

Just an endless do loop. Does anyone have suggestions on what may be happening to cause the problem?

I use another application to create a form that emails the results and stores to a database file (Net Objects Fusion). I then upload the finished form/page to the server. Go back to Xara WD or X7 and use the iframe widget and display the form in an iframe. It works flawlessly for me EVERY time in Explorer, Firefox and Chrome.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by avalon

I use another application to create a form that emails the results and stores to a database file (Net Objects Fusion). I then upload the finished form/page to the server. Go back to Xara WD or X7 and use the iframe widget and display the form in an iframe. It works flawlessly for me EVERY time in Explorer, Firefox and Chrome.

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Thanks - I'll give it a try.

I'm sure the folks at NetObjects will love to hear this, Avalon.

I have been thinking the very same thing as ghol. As a contrast...I have created some websites using competitor (albeit less sophisticated),Web Creator Pro 4 & 5 in the past and they have one thing I would like xara WD to have...a very nice drag and drop form builder integrated in the package. I have been a Xara Extreme/Pro user for four years and finishing my first WD site with Pro 7 now and having to deal with third party form builder...coffeecup, but only because I have to. I would have preferred to spend an additional $39 on Xara Pro 7 with a forms feature than subscribe to third party software, which will never be as simple to use or fault tolerant as an integrated software platform. When they decide on that feature I will be upgrading.

If you want to continue in the WYSIWIG mode, then I recommend Simfatic forms software. The form builder is very versatile (including calculated fields) and allows WYSWIG design. The software will generate the necessary processing scripts that you can install on your own server so you won't have to rely on any third-party services.